Once again, I am finally getting around to posting some pictures of our house. Hopefully there's still some interest in seeing these pictures, even though many of you have likely visited in person!
I WISH WISH WISH you could have seen before pictures of this room. Alas, somehow I forgot them. Basically, this room was a homeschooling area for the previous family. They had lined the walls with shelves and countertops to create work areas for all four kiddos. They utilized the space very well with floor to ceiling shelving...but it wasn't what we needed for this room. We actually repurposed most of what they left in my scrapbooking room.
Instead, I wanted a formal sitting area to welcome guests. In some houses with this layout, I think people use this room as a formal dining area - but our other dining area is large enough to host big dinners, and I preferred to have the extra seating for the parties that I like to throw! This room worked well at Evalie's first birthday as the gift drop off and opening space. Plus, it allowed for ample extra seating for our houseful of party-ers :)
On to the photos!
An areal view from the stairs...gives you an idea of where the entry way and everything is.
Here's what you see of the room when you walk in the front door. In this entry way area, I have a little bench that also houses shoes (from Canadian Tire - thanks Lindsay for the idea!). We also found a fabulous black table with a drawer that I use for "stuff people left here." The big oak mirror was hand crafted by my dear hubby years ago for me. He told me he didn't mind if I painted it black to match, but I like how the touch of oak ties in with our floors.
This nook would normally house a china cabinet, but we had our finisher install custom shelving over our wallpaper. Oh, and this wallpaper is HELL to install. Just sayin'. Worst wallpaper EVER. Seriously, my husband SWORE he would never wallpaper again after this! Do NOT buy wallpaper if you don't know how long it's going to take to arrive. This stuff took NINE MONTHS to finally get to our house. It was the biggest headache EVER.
But, don't you think it looks nice? ;)
The coffee table is from ikea. The couch is from a random couch store (by the way, a little note about black couches...when the seller tells you you may have to use a lint roller every once in a while on it...that actually means that it will gather more dust than anything in the house and you'll be vaccuuming it more than the floors!!), and the chairs are from Homesense.
View from the other side of the room. This is my piano - a super special thing that my mom gave me when I moved out. Probably one of my most prized possessions ;)
A little detail from the shelf next to the front door (thank you Kristin for this awesome Family plaque!!!)
Transferring my scrapbooks upstairs into this room freed up lots of space in the basement. And, I have to say that I really enjoy having them in this front sitting area. I find this way people actually LOOK at my albums every once in a while! Even Evalie walks over to them and then uses sign language to say "book." Super fun to browse through them more often.
These sillouettes are SO SPECIAL to us. Our dear friend Jody made them from a side profile picture of each one of us. She also did one of Evalie, but it's not in this room ;) I use cool wrapping papers to vary the background, as I always like change! Earlier in the year, they were lined in plain pink (valentine's, Evalie's birthday), now it's yellow for summer!
Last but not least, this was a Christmas ornament given to us by our friends Josh and Jen. I knew as SOON as they gave it to us that I wanted to put it in a shadow box and hang it by the front door. That's what I did! Love it ;)
TFL!!!!
