Hello All!

My husband and I have been extremely busy these days and we've faced a few bumps along the road in our personal life such as losing my husband's father (my father in law) back in 2015; therefore I haven't gotten the time to write any blogs about my house projects. I'm truly sorry. It's really been a rough start into the new year. But nonetheless, as promised, here's a blog all about my family room part 2 of part 1. If you haven't yet, go read about my family room part 1 first, go here (Home Sweet Home: Family Room, Part 1)

In this part 2, I have updated a few new things in the family room, so sit back and enjoy what my husband and I have been up to these days with our family room.

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Here's what it use to look like... remember? Yuck!

And, here's what it looks like now. Sorry, I cut off the entertainment/TV part off because the lens I was using to take this photo was not wide enough to capture  it. That section is really a simple or typical entertainment center with a 55 inch screen TV on it. Nothing is on that side of the wall too, not yet at least. Anyway, the 8 picture frames hanging on the wall are from Ikea and I believe they were only $6.00/each. Sorry, I can't really remember some of the cost of these items, but I'll do my best. I know that these picture frames were very in-expensive. My sisters suggested to do black and white photos to match my black and white pillow covers so I did just that! And, it worked out so well, I love it. I got the black and white pillow covers from Ikea, $5/each and from H&M, $6/each. The gold and silver accent pillows are from HomeGoods, and they were $24/each. The white round coffee table's from Ikea, $50.00. The cherry wood end tables (2 of them) are from TJ Maxx, $80.00/each. The grey box's underneath them are from Target, and they're $10/each. The trellis rug is from Target and I think I got it on sale for $70.00, I remember it was on sale and I had use my cartwheel coupon on top of it too. It's a tiny rug, I didn't want a big rug because I didn't want to overpower the room with it. I wanted the sectional sofa and the picture frames on the wall to be the main focal point of the room. My husband replaced the old blinds with new white ones, from Home Depot, total cost for all 3 window blinds, only $120.00.  My husband saved some money by installing them himself. It took most of the day, but hey, at least it saved us $100.00 for the installation fee. We got the grey sectional sofa from Ashley's furniture, for about $1,300.00. It is one of those where you can customize it yourself. My husband and I customized this look and we love it. It sits 5-6 people on it. Since it's just me, my husband, and my son... we each get our little laying down area. We love it and it was definitely worth the money. And, the grey side chair, I found it at Goodwill and got it for only $50.00. One of the legs is a little loose but hey, can't beat $50.00 esp when it's in mint condition at a thrift store.

The decors I got are from HomeGoods and At Home, they all range from $5-$25.00. My husband and I are on the hunt for a new ceiling fan, so that's going to be replaced in the upcoming months. We haven't found the perfect one yet since we've been super busy with the other side projects around the house.

My son loves to touch the white latern I got from At Homes; he thinks it's one of his toys so he loves taking the candle stick out and loves putting his smaller toys in it. He calls it his "toys house". But he knows I get mad when he touches "mama stuff", so he doesn't do it all the time.

The Family stand I got it from Hobby Lobby for $20.00. It came in all black, which I didn't like. I really wanted it to be in gold or silver... so I bought a marbleized gold spray paint and spray painted it. It turned out great and I love it. It adds a finishing touch to my picture wall.

And here is my work space area! It's where I spend about 60% of my time because I'm constantly working on client's photos. It's one of my favorite area in this room and I can't believe how great and calm it makes me feel whenever I'm "working" in it.

I originally wanted the contractor to custom build this office area but it was going to cost $1,000.00+ for them to build. And since my husband said that we aren't going to stay int his house forever, probably only for a couple of more years, that we shouldn't invest in so much in a customized work space area since it may not be a seller's point. Which is true, if we do sell, the new potential owners might just take it all down and add their own personal touch to this little area. So, we settled with buying two desks and a bookshelf from Amazon. I think total cost for all 3 furniture pieces was only $300-350.00. I ordered the gold chairs from Amazon, they're call the Hercules and they're $70.00-$80/each. I got the cushions for them from Ikea, for $5/each. The White mirror on the left desk, a friend got it for me as a gift for photographing her bachelorette and wedding. It's so beautiful, I love it. She definitely knows my taste and style. The gold trellis magazine holders are from HomeGoods, $25/each. I took a few nails and just nailed it into the bookshelf. I love them, it's so easy to file my papers into. The rest of the decors are from HomeGoods, and I got them for about $5-30.00. The two gold led desk lamps are from Target, they're $40/each. Expensive, but so pretty and it's small therefore it doesn't overpower the desks.

Since my husband plays video games on the computer a lot (when I'm not on it editing photos)... I bought this sign specifically to remind him. It's cute and I love it here. The picture's of our wedding next to it helps to remind him too. 

Here's what I originally wanted the contractor to build (this picture is taken from Instagram, by an unknown source).

Below is a collage picture of what I envisioned to have on the other end of the family room and what is on the other end of it. The old dresser was given to us by my husbands sister as a gift when my husband and I first bought our house back in 2009. It's been in the basement for 5 years until now. I did this whole look myself with the extra help of my niece too. She helped sanded it for me. I did the priming and painting. The silver metallic paint is by Martha Stewart. I honestly would have gone with spray painting it because this paint by MS is NOT good. It's so running and I had to do multiple paint jobs on it just to get it the silver color I want. And, in person, it's the not greatest. But oh well, I did the best I could. The Martha Stewart paint cost about $30/gallon. The new handles are from Hobby Lobby and they were on sale for $5/each. The two gold mirrors are from HomeGoods. I love these two mirrors, I think it goes so well with the whole look of the room and it finishes the dresser's look so well.

The family room is also a play room for my son. He absolutely loves being in this room. He loves riding his Thomas the train and going down his toddlers slide. He loves being on the playground so I thought it would be nice to bring the playground indoor during them winter days.

As mentioned earlier in this blog post, we lost my husband's dad; it was a difficult time period for us all. So in memory of him, I bought this beautiful glass display off from Amazon for $45.00. It was quite expensive for a tiny decor piece but I bought it anyway because I wanted to showcase my late father-in-laws memory. And he loved being a Veteran, it was his pride and joy to have served, so I guess it was worth the buy. I just need to print his picture in his veteran uniform and display it next to his medal. I plan on doing that hopefully this week!

I bought this silver taxidermy deer head 2 years ago for $25-30.00. It's been sitting in my basement until just recently. My husband finally hung it up in our family room. It looks great and this is all that I'm doing on this side of the room. I don't want to hang or do too much on to these walls in the family room that it overpowers the whole room. I like the family room to be simple and clean cut; so this one added wall art worked out great to add the final touch to the whole entire room.

I hope you all enjoyed this post. I have more house projects in the making to share.. so always be on the look out for them!

Love,

Choua, Natural Bliss Photography