A bit of me Friday: Family Room

I LOVE to decorate and dream of a job where I can decorate for a living, specifically using photography as an element in every design! Doesn't that sounds phenomenal? For now - I'll keep dreaming and decorating my own home!

My hubby and I finally bought our first home last fall and we are slowly getting it put together! The first room I finished is our family room. The shape of this room is really long and skinny so I needed to come up with a unique idea for that long stretch of wall. After many different ideas, we decided on a suspended photo wall and went to town! The outcome... I love it, I love it, I love it!!!




We bought our two white couches at Ikea and built our family room around those. I figure I can change the room as often as I want with white couches to work with. The two chairs were bought next. After searching stores online, in Chicago, and in Des Moines, we found a great deal on a look we were going for at Slumberland. The TV cabinet was something I've had for a long time. It was originally a deep red but I painted it black and embellished it with silver hardware. The coffee table is from Ikea too. I printed a huge photo to fit under the glass and I change it from season to season. Sometimes I have little boxes of fake grass on the table, but right now I have this sweet bowl filled with split peas and topped with small disco ball ornaments. My younger brother built the shelf shaped like a branch and gave it to me for Christmas. Right now it is my favorite part of the room! Many of the accessories are from Ikea, with several of my own touches mixed in. I went with a black and white theme with just a few touches of color brought in from the colors in our kitchen.



All of the photos on our "hanging photo wall" are photos from my travels. There are images from Florida, New York, Italy, New Orleans, Prague, and Iowa. I love the combination of color palettes and that each photo tells such a personal story! We bought the tracking and hardware at Ikea and the chain at Lowes. I had the shop teacher at my school cut masonite for us and I painted them white. After drilling small holes in the boards, I glued the photos down and measured out the spacing. I love the white borders against the dark gray walls!



I hung obnoxiously glittery ornaments from the tracking and from our new ceiling fans for Christmas. I took my trees down a long time ago, but kept the ornaments up much longer than I probably should have because I loved them so much!




Next, I'm on the hunt for a new floor lamp for the room. I imagine one that hangs in an arch and is oversized. I dream of ditching the TV cabinet one day and putting in a fireplace at the end of the long room with a flat screen above it on the wall. I can't wait for school to be out so I have time to tackle another room!