The holidays have come and gone and I must say, it was nice to disconnect while enjoying time with family and friends. It also gave us time to step back from the projects we’ve been completing and planning to get centered before we move forward with what’s on the agenda for the rest of winter.
Our family was gracious enough to gift us with gift cards to The Home Depot and Lowe’s, lifting some financial burden on our biggest projects. The first of which was completed the last weekend of December and turned into a fun race to the finish to surprise our children with while we celebrated New Year’s Eve, homebody style!
We decided that the paneling in our family room was too dark and drab. It made the room feel like a cave and was just all around un-inviting once the sun went down.
This photo was taken in September when we first closed on our home and began some projects before moving in. As you can see, the paneling clashes with the stone and the bamboo shades just weren’t working!
A few weeks ago we decided that the initial change in the room needed to be the shades. The color was too dark, they were broken and difficult to open and close, and were a safety hazard for our daughter that will be on the move soon enough. We chose to go with a cordless white faux wood shade and that alone was an improvement!
You can see that the windows are bringing in much more light with the new shades, but that ugly paneling still had to go!
After 2 days of painting, we managed to transform our family room from dark and uninviting to warm and bright with 2 coats of Behr’s Silver Bullet paint.
It’s supposed to be a very light grey but with the blue from the stones, it actually took on a light blue tone. As the days have gone on, the color has grown on me and is here to stay until we raise the ceiling and replace the paneling with drywall. It’s all about prioritizing and baby steps!
Our make-shift ‘office’ until we can figure out our mudroom/office set-up. The baseboard will be painted white when we replace the paneling with drywall.
Post painting and pre-NYE decoration. Look at how much brighter it is with the paint and new shades!!
We’re still completing prep work on the main area of the house before we start that transformation. We also picked up all the supplies needed to complete our rabbit hutch. Fingers crossed we’ll be working hard this weekend!
