Listen to Lena

Perfecting the Art of Conversuasion

Reno-cation: The Great Room

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Thanks to everyone who left such wonderful feedback on Ryder’s Reno-cated room. I feel a surge of happiness every time I hear him say, “I like my new room! It’s blue!”

Now the logical thing would be to show off the next bedroom in sequence, BUT, because I have two little boys, and because taking pictures is dependent on which area of the home is tidy at the moment, let’s skip to my main floor – where I’d like to introduce you to my new “Great Room”.
Here’s the scoop: when we first purchased our home, we spent hours going over the floor plan, considering how to set up our domain. The builder had laid out the main floor as depicted on the right (note: foyer, powder room and garage not pictured). So without going against the proposed plan, we proceeded to set up four (4) distinct areas: a family room at the back of the house and a combined living/ dining/ entertainment area in the front of the house.Just in case you’re wondering… all the furniture was purchased literally weeks before I found out I was pregnant with Ryder (who was a most welcome surprise)… so brace yourself – you’ll see a lot of light-coloured furniture that is so telling of a couple who hasn’t considered the joys of sticky fingers and grape juice.


Now having a home that is almost completely an open concept is both awesome and frustrating; awesome because the house looks large and modern – frustrating because all the furniture and décor has to complement each other and lend to a continuous “look”.
Well, this July it will be four years in our home, and we finally came to realize that we spend exactly 99.9% of our time holed up at the back of the house in the family room, and 0.1% of our days in the blended living/dining/entertainment area. Which is all the more tragic considering what a colossal waste of space it is!So I finally decided to do something about it. Instead of having three separate “rooms” upon entering our home, I relocated hubby’s bar to the basement, moved our dining furniture into the family room, and turned the front of the house into a Great Room – which is a much more intelligent use of space. Since the area is quite large, let’s do the “Before” pictures in comparison to the “After” shots one room at a time. You may click to enlarge photos.

BEFORE/AFTER
BEFORE – LIVING ROOM
AFTER – TV AREA
BEFORE – DINING ROOM
AFTER – GREAT ROOM
BEFORE – BAR AREA
AFTER – STILL THE GREAT ROOM!

Paint: 

PARA Paints Nature’s Bounty, #P5227-24

NOTES

We love our new Great Room! And, we’re finally enjoying the awesome space in our home! I didn’t include pictures of the family-room-turned-dining-room because I’ll be posting about that separately later this week.

Re: our paint colour choice, since all the rooms mesh together… plus all the way up the stairs and through the upper hallway (did I mention we have an open concept? sheesh) we couldn’t really afford to go too crazy. I chose a very safe mix between beige and taupe… but you’d be amazed at how different the colour looks in different lights! In natural light, it’s downright taupe; with our lighting at night (which has a strong golden hue) the paint tends to look almost a pale yellow (as in the photos above). Regardless, it’s the perfect colour to set off our dark furniture and hardwood, and blends seamlessly with our green kitchen (yes green – but trust me, it’s a nice green).

The sectional was purchase from The Brick several moons ago but in our new room, we feel it takes on a contemporary (but timeless) look.

I also wanted to point out this neat little gadget we picked up at Home Depot: since we live in a semi, it was virtually impossible to fish the wires through the concrete once we mounted our TV. So instead of leaving the wires hanging (yuck!) we found this nifty Flat Screen TV Cord Cover Kit to hide the unsightly cables. A bonus: it can be painted to blend with your wall!

More Reno-cation wrap up to come!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Ella Pretty Blog

    I love the white sofa in the first picture – is it leather? I'd love to find a similar sofa in a slightly darker colour.It's a great idea to devote the most space to where your family needs it the most. We've moved a lot after we became parents, so we always set up the largest areas as "kid zones" – it wasn't magazine-pretty – but it fit our lifestyle :-) Your house looks so stylisn in both the before and after photos!

  2. Lena!

    @Ella – it is leather and you can find it at The Bay! Bought it four years ago but they still stock it :)And thanks for the kudos! xo

  3. Tracy

    Wow, you guys were busy! I love the after pics, but I will tell you the before ones were absolutely fab too!!! I need to get a few renovations done soon….now to get my hubby on board!

  4. Tammi @ My Organized Chaos

    You have done great!!!I like all your glass too, how do you do it with the kids?We have a marble sofa table and it's still in storage, too afraid the kids would kill themselves on it. I need to get over my bundle of nerves! Anyway, love these posts Lena – you have an eye for it!:)

  7. Shauna MacKenzie

    Simply gorgeous! And a great use of the wide open space in your home! You must feel like you're in a new house with this change! Love the colour. We had to do the same in our previous home because it was open concept. But the colour changed on it's own throughout the house, depending on the furniture and lighting. I can't wait to see the rest of the house!

  8. Lena!

    @Tracy – thanks hun! It's been a crazy few weeks, but I'm so happy with the changes!@Tammi – why thank you! I'm not really a fan of the glass either, but my husband is adamant that we can't always decorate for toddlers. Though I do see his point, I'm a huge fan of all-rubber furniture :)@Rubes – the boys are always at the front of the house now! It's perfect!@trola – so do I!@Shauna – yes! You do understand. I'm sitting in the kitchen right now and its an true beige… whereas the front of the house almost looks kind of mocha due to the brown furniture throwing a shadow. But, it seems to work!

  9. dannyscotland

    Wow, that really looks great now! I mean, it looked good before, too, but I can totally tell what you mean about the wasted space. I like the wall color, too. Nice and neutral for a living room/space, where you may be changing furniture and decor over the years.

  10. Mom vs. the boys

    Love the new colour, it really warms up the space! you have some pretty fantastic light fixtures! We need do something about the tv cords hanging down our wall in our bedroom!

  11. Lena!

    @dannyscotland – thanks! That's one of the main reasons I went with such a neutral colour – I've been known to change my mind and re-design!@MVTB – I am in love with Structube lighting. http://www.structube.com/So affordable and so fabulous! Alas, only stores in ON and PQ :(