Family Room Makeover

Four years ago, when our family moved into this home, I started working on making each room exactly the way I wanted it to be. I finished the dining room first, then the kitchen, followed by our son’s room, and my craft studio. Just recently, I put the finishing touches on the living room, master bedroom, and upstairs family room. But there was one area that kept getting neglected because I didn’t quite know where to start. The other half of our basement, the non craft area, was the lowest priority and it was in pretty rough shape. Just last week, we finished turning it from a mismatched collection of leftover things into a room we love. Take a look.

Family Room Makeover

I kept searching through old photos in the hopes of finding a better “before” picture to show you what this part of the basement originally looked like, but this was literally the only one I could find. That tells me we didn’t spend much time in the room, and that it never looked like anything I wanted to preserve on camera. You can see that the furniture was just a mismatched collection of things we didn’t want anywhere else. We got the love seat off a local Facebook sale group, and we bought the chair when we were first married back in the early 2000’s. Although you can’t tell from the picture, it had various stains as well as cat scratches, courtesy of Flynn. Our end table was just two wooden TV trays side by side.

Behind the couch, we had game storage on an old Goodwill bookcase as well as random toy storage in a bunch of mismatched fabric bins. There was also a lot of junk piled up randomly that for some reason I never took a picture of. Imagine that.

Here’s how we slowly but surely turned that space into a place where we love to spend time. It started with hubby’s desire for a faux fireplace after seeing how cute the one in my craft room is. He chose a beautiful one from Home Depot, and we placed it front and center, wall-mounting the TV above it. Rather than getting rid of the old TV stand, I painted it grey and we now use it to hold some of our games. We bought a cute teal cabinet to hold our electronics and video games, and the painted basket on top holds the remotes. I bought an inexpensive end table at Walmart and painted the unfinished wood top using teal chalk paint.

To replace the old chair, we found a pretty teal one at Pier 1 and accented it with a throw pillow from Target. I found some gorgeous wall art at HomeGoods; a woven piece and a framed quote. We couldn’t afford a new couch/love seat, so I ordered a $40 cover from Amazon. It worked like a charm and suddenly our old one looked brand new! Add pillows and a blanket from Walmart and voila!

In a perfect world, I’d have installed new flooring, but in reality, what was affordable was to get a great rug from Target.

Remember those mismatched bins? I replaced them with grey and white plastic bins from Target. And that game shelf? Still there, but my mom had the genius idea of buying some inexpensive curtains and a tension rod to hide the games from view! The plastic stacking drawers are the perfect place to store Wii remotes and other assorted things.

The other big thing we did to transform the room is something we weren’t able to do ourselves. The existing drop ceiling was in awful shape, and we hated the florescent lighting. We had a contractor come in to tear out the ceiling and replace it with sheet rock, then electricians added recessed LED lighting.

It made a world of difference in how the room looks, don’t you think!? It’s amazing what great lighting can do.

The finishing touches to the back area were a table I had painted awhile ago for our foyer that looks perfect behind the couch, and a few other repainted pieces. One of the old DVD racks was in bad shape, but one was still functional, so I used the same teal chalk paint I did on the end table to make it match the decor. The painted TV stand holds games right next to the DVD rack, and a matching rug finishes off the space.

I absolutely love how the room turned out, and we all enjoy spending time in the basement now! Can you believe the huge difference? Here’s a quick linked list to all of the items I mentioned in case you are interested in adding any of them to your own home.

What are your favorite parts of the makeover? I’d love to hear! I’d also love to see photos of your favorite rooms in your own home. Be sure to join the Amy Latta & Friends Facebook group where we can chat and share inspiration!

Don’t forget, if you like it, then you oughta put a Pin on it! Sharing is caring. xo