Thrifted Blue and White Family Room

I’ve posted a lot of Before and Afters, but this… THIS one might just take the cake. The power of paint, folks! For those of you who are new readers (hi!), we moved into our current house in April. It’s a historic home from the 1850s and we love it! That said, there are lots and LOTS of projects for us. Most of them are cosmetic, but there are also the fair share of larger ones that we’ll get to eventually! Sorry… back to the paint. THIS was how the room looked before.

It makes my eyeballs bleed. I’m sure it was a lovely trendy color sometime circa 1980, but it wasn’t working for us. It made the space feel dark and dreary. And it was IMPOSSIBLE to take a photograph in this room. Finally last month we got around to painting it. And by “we” I mean, our painters. I’ll share all the tips and tricks I learned from them, but this room was WAY tricky (windows, trim, balusters, cabinets, crown moulding all needing oil paint to cover) so we called in the big guns. Best decision ever. Enough already… here’s how it looks now!

I’ll share the full source list on Thursday (although lots of stuff is thrifted!), so today is just a chance to OGLE! Our painters used Benjamin Moore’s White Dove on everything. Semi gloss on the trim and eggshell on the walls.

The family room connects to the kitchen and the mudroom. Those are the stairs you can see from the mudroom revamp I shared last week.

There’s a fireplace in the middle of the room that keeps the space from being a TRUE open concept, but between you and me… I’m fine with my dirty kitchen having a little privacy from the rest of the room, if you know what I mean.

I mentioned on Instagram, but the sectional was a Craigslist find and when we got it home, it felt a little shallow. We decided to dump the back pillows and substitute them for smaller (and WAY more fun) throw pillows. Works SO much better.

There’s a little bar pass through into the kitchen and I have some flea market chairs along with this old dark room photo timer. I use it to time the kids for any number of things (time outs, getting the room clean, running upstairs to get shoes and socks, etc.)

The ONLY thing in this room that I still need to address is this one chair. I’ve had this chair for an eternity. And I vowed that I would recover it myself, so there it sits. Now that it’s not in the garage it’s mocking me from the corner. I’ve ordered fabric swatches and I’m feeling brave. (To be determined what’s in store for that ottoman…)

Again, I say… can you BELIEVE how much brighter and fresher and cleaner and happier and awesome-r this room looks! Paint, yo. For. The. Win.

Last time. Another before…

After…

Come back on Thursday and I’ll share a source list for the pillows and any other things in here that you might be digging! And it you liked this post, I’d love you to PIN IT –>