I just looked through my archives and realized that I never actually got around to putting up pictures of our family room since we’ve finished it. Whoops! So without further ado, here you have it: our finished family room project. We really couldn’t be happier with it!

So, to refresh, this is what the room looked like before. Scary, right?

I posted pictures after the Great Painting Overhaul of Oh-Nine, but we were still left with a giant room with a little island of furniture. The space really is enormous, and even with our two Ikea PS cabinets, a couch, coffee table, two chairs, and a piano, we still had half of the room completely empty!

Our solution was four bookcases with glass doors; an Expedit unit as a window seat; long, billowy curtains (at $15 a pair!), and a new-to-us 1960s slatted bench. The family room is now our favorite place in the house to hang out: bright, sunny, comfortable, and fun.

So here is what it looks like now after spackling, sanding, priming, painting, assembling, arranging, hanging, trimming and plugging in:

Before the tree went up:

Our resources for this project were:
1. Billy bookcases from Ikea with glass doors
2. Expedit unit from Ikea
3. Lenda curtains in white, also Ikea
4. ReSolutions window hardware for our giant, 126″ long window from Bed, Bath, & Beyond
5. Slatted bench from Craigslist
6. Red Itso storage bins from Target (although I’m not seeing the red on their website)
7. And an assortment of accessories borrowed from elsewhere in our house.