The family room faces west and my work table is set up facing a large window overlooking my backyard. It's this room that I want to paint this year (it's been the same since 1996 or 1997 and I'm tired of it!).
Yesterday was a beautiful day for this time of year in SE Wisconsin and I worked in this room all day and night.
The carpeting was replaced the same year I "redid" this room -- 1996 or 1997. There used to be jewel-toned (dark) wallpaper and border on the bottom portion of the walls. In the "redo" I swapped out the paper for a much lighter tone, the carpeting went from light grey (still in the rest of the house and it's 21 years old) to a medium taupe tone that has held up well. I stenciled a border around the top of the walls that you can't see in these photographs.
The sofa table on which I have one of my laptops and the printer is tucked behind a queen-size sleeper sofa. The recliner on the left, above photo, was purchased in 2002 and I use it a lot! Never thought I'd be a recliner chick but I love it! The wing chair on the right was purchased in 1996 or 1997 from Sears Home Life, now defunct. I loved the chair and ottoman when I saw them, it's big and comfy and I happened to come across a fabric that exactly matched what is on the sleeper sofa (1993 purchase from Marshall Fields clearance furniture) so I had it upholstered to match. Yeah, it's matchy matchy.
I wish the room was larger, but it's not. My workspace is literally in a "sliver" of the room. I would like to add another foot to it, but that would entail getting rid of the sleeper sofa. Wish I could afford to do that -- but new furniture is not on the horizon. Ideally I would add a small sectional sofa where the two chairs are now and blop a smaller footprint chair where the sofa is now. I would get a wider "desk" to hold my stuff and move it out a foot or so from the wall. Ideally I would get rid of the ancient entertainment center and the 27" dinosaur television set that is only used now to watch videos and DVDs, LOL! Ideally the entire back wall would be built-in bookshelves, not any deeper than 11 inches but would stretch all the way to the ceiling and have infinitely adjustable shelves!
Well, I'll settle for a new paint job and new wall paper with - I hope - a real chair rail added around the room. Dreading it - all the damn work! Yech!
Jan,
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Sounds like you will be busy too! I want to repaint our Den this year. We did the Kitchen last year and that was a killer with painting the cabinets and everything.
I want to go with a deep taupe above the chair rail instead of the cream color I have there now and keep the blue below the Chair rail. I am also looking for a border to put up near the ceiling. Then I want to paint my china cabinet cream and the 2 end tables cream. After Easter, I will start this project. I also want to change the light fixtures that i have on each side of the old kitchen window on the Den side. I want simple sconces that I can put a small lamp shade on.
Sounds like we both will be busy.
Hugs,
Deb
Oh Deb, I am very much afraid I am biting off much more than I can chew in contemplating this project! Scared to death. I painted dark brown kitchen cabinets semi-gloss white in the very first house I bought, in 1986, and it was a BITCH to do. It took five coats and that was after primer/concealer (sounds like the make-up job I do on my fairy face five days a week, heh-heh). Maybe I should do the downstairs 3/4 bath instead. It doesn't really grate on my nerves yet but that sponge painting and the olive green - very outdated now. Sigh. That's a smaller room and maybe it would make more sense to take on a smaller project FIRST and see how I do. These day the get-up-and-go has got-up-and-went, as they say. Damn! But I really AM sick of the family room colors. Well past time to freshening things up in there. Ach - torn torn torn. If I could afford it I would hire painters to come in and do the magic, but with requiring the bottom third of the room to be papered and I want to add a chair-too - way beyond the stretch of my budget. I've been pricing out chair-rails and will probably go with an easy to saw "foam" one that I can order online, if the shipping charges aren't too expensive. Well, this and that, this and that. As you well know, I'm sure! LOL!
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