Last week I was so thrilled to meet the stylish Lauren Corbyn in person. A fellow Oklahoman and talented interior designer, Lauren and I have been Twittering,emailing, and commenting on each other’s blogs for awhile now. I asked her a few weeks ago if she’d come over to help me gain a fresh perspective on our family room. As I told her, the family room is probably where we spend the majority of our time, and it’s the room I like the least. It takes the hardest hit – the TV is there, there’s Jude’s toys, and (I admit it) Jude snacks in this room. It has to be functional, but I really need it to be pretty.
The thing that Lauren said that made my lightbulb turn on was, “So from everything you’re saying, it sounds like you just want this room to be a little bit more fancy.”
Um, yes. Exactly! That’s exactly what I want! Why did it never strike me before? I think that’s the thing that bugs me – it feels junky. It’s like the room equivalent of only wearing your yoga pants everywhere. Just not polished enough.
Now, if you saw the room as it is today, you would say (much like I would admit) that it’s really not that bad. And to be frank, had we not had the hailstorm, I would not be on any bandwagon to change it up. But, since we are now in the position to do it, I’ll take the bait and make some changes. Lemonade from lemons. But some of the furniture is looking its age and has seen much better days.
So. What is it that I’m wanting to do?
1. Lighten. We previously had red draperies on the windows, which I chose initially to go with our green chairs that have red striped pillows on it. Just to read that, it sounds mega Christmas. It really wasn’t, but it sounds crazy.
The photo above is old, so it doesn’t quite look this way now. This is the couch that we have now moved to the front living room (read: it gets less use and we don’t have to freak out if Jude approaches it with peanut butter sticky fingers). But you can see the drapes. You can see the West Elm coffee table there. It looks so pitiful now – I’ve had it since college and it has been through the ringer the past few months with Jude. Admittedly it was never a really “quality” piece of furniture to begin with.
An easy solution to the drape problem was from Ballard Designs. These lovelies were on such a sale!
These are actually slightly different than the ones we purchased – ours have a green medallion pattern against the beige lineny background. I’m really impressed with the quality for the price. While no longer available, they were only $44 per panel. I couldn’t have bought the fabric for that price.
2. Brighten
Less dark furniture because there’s already so much dark in there now. The red drapes made it darker, which was changeable. The fireplace paneling is black and that won’t change. But I’m wanting to switch out the dark coffee table that has taken more abuse for something like this from Nate Berkus for HSN:
O k, this post is getting really long and I need to wrap it up. Here are the rugs we’re considering from Madeline Weinrib:
3. Fancify
This is the part where I don’t really have a plan. I want the new chairs to be a little more formal, but at the same time still “liveable” and comfy. We’re off to Dallas this weekend to furniture shop/window shop and see if we can’t find something in our price range.
All in all, I’m thrilled not only to be working with Lauren but also to get to be friends with her. If you’re in the OKC area and you need a design consult, she’s your girl!
