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frugalnotstingy

Please help me update our family room

frugalnotstingy
9 years ago

Hi! I have been thinking painting our family room but I am absolutely stumped. Suggestions would be greatly appreciated. This picture was taken from the breakfast nook & kitchen area - which has SW Dover white trims & anew gray on the wall. We are in the process of having the carpet replaced.

I am toying with the idea of covering the upper brick area. Does that sound like a good idea?

Kindly ignore the mess on on the mantle & the shelves. :-)


Comments (42)

  • teacats
    9 years ago

    A vote to match the new colors in the kitchen -- paint out the brick and the wood shelving in Dover White -- and do the walls in the matching gray.

  • hoovb zone 9 sunset 23
    9 years ago

    What about painting the inside back walls of the shelves Dover White but leaving the rest of the wood as is? That would brighten up the shelves quite a bit, no? They seem to be a dark spot in the bright cheerful room.

    It is a very nice room, all those windows on the right side are wonderful.

  • sis2two
    9 years ago

    I love teacats ideas. I would definitely paint over the brick.

  • tibbrix
    9 years ago

    If you want light and airy, I'd paint all of the woodwork a white.

    If you want a cozy, rustic room, I'd keep the brick and put up reclaimed barn wood on each side of the brick to finish that wall. On the other walls, I'd use this pic as inspiration, so maybe something like BM Putnam Ivory.

  • coll_123
    9 years ago

    I would also carry the color up onto the ceiling...I think with the wood beams, it accentuates the stark white. Looks like you have nice high ceilings, so I would definitely get some kind of tint up there.

  • frugalnotstingy
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    To the left is the front door. Should I carry the gray in the foyer too?

    My husband doesn't want to paint the wooden beams on the ceiling but he agreed to stain it a different color. What do you think of general finishes' antique walnut for the stain color? Although not entirely sure if white trim & paneling would work with stained beams.

  • Annie Deighnaugh
    9 years ago

    How do you use the room? Will there be a TV? It has great bones for turning it into a library with all the beams and paneling and bookcases.

  • anele_gw
    9 years ago

    I would not paint the brick. I would do as you are thinking, and drywall over the top portion.

    Any chance you could use hardwood flooring instead of replacing carpeting?

    Very pretty room!

  • Annie Deighnaugh
    9 years ago

    Here's one color scheme that could work, and I love hoovb's idea of painting the back of the shelving to brighten it.

    I was using the SW color visualizer so these are all SW colors: ceiling Outerbanks; wall Distance; and I "painted" the carpet so it would blend in better with the woodwork.

    I would also beef up the trim, if it could be stained to match, around the doorways and the crown...it would go a long way toward making the beaming and woodwork look more intentional.

  • Annie Deighnaugh
    9 years ago

    Add some fabrics to pull all the colors together.

    Calico corners Cashmere ruby

    Abigail Stripe

    Bizzell cloud

  • tibbrix
    9 years ago

    Warm, earth tones

  • tibbrix
    9 years ago

    Kilim beige walls; utterly beige ceiling

  • tibbrix
    9 years ago

    What are you putting down in place of the carpet that is there now?

  • sunfeather
    9 years ago

    Nice room! If you're not putting hardwoods, maybe a textured/flat carpet would look nice. Some fabric over top of the windows or roman shades maybe...

    For some reason I see the mantel removed and doors on the bookshelves with glass panes. I've seen some really cool things done with fireplaces on Property Brothers. They sometimes paint or cover with stone or tile or sheetrock. Here is a link - if you page through the photos to the 5h photo - there is a painted brick that looks nice.

    Here is a link that might be useful: fireplace redos

  • tibbrix
    9 years ago

    If wall-to-wall carpet, Id' put Berber down.

  • tibbrix
    9 years ago

    Bunglehouse blue; utterly beige ceiling; silver floor

  • ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
    9 years ago

    no answer on whether a TV goes in this room

    if so... leave the brick.. and put a TV above the fireplace ...

    painting brick is so permanent ... perhaps that decision.. is wrapped around how long you plan on staying here .....

    you peeps ought to know better than i do ... if they would be moving inside a few years.. is painted brick a plus or a negative to potential buyers???

    BTW.. are new window treatments in the mix????

    good luck

    ken

  • jlj48
    9 years ago

    NO to painting the brick. That is a move that you can never undo. The brick is very pretty. This room has a lot of character. I would take it one step at at time. Paint the walls, add hardwood floors and a nice rug with texture, declutter shelves and add lighting to both sides of the fireplace if possible then see where you are. If you are still unhappy, do as you considered and cover the top portion of the brick with nice wood paneling or sheet rock.

  • deegw
    9 years ago

    I like your room. It needs a little tweaking but it won't be hard to freshen it up. I like the photos with the slightly darker carpet because it grounds the room and works better with the dark trim.

  • amykath
    9 years ago

    I find there is just a lot of dark wood. If it were me, I would paint out the molding. I would leave the beams and paint the room and ceiling all of the same color. I think there is a lot of breaks and stops of the eye in the room bc of the various browns in the molding, trim, bookcases, dark fireplace etc.

    Here is what I was thinkingâ¦

  • lazy_gardens
    9 years ago

    What color will the new flooring be? It's hard to suggest anything concrete without knowing that. And do you have any artwork for the walls?

    The wood looks great, the brick is great, as long as you get the beige walls and floor out of the beige and brown family. Right now, the room is a sea of beige and brown ... very blah. It has a strong arts and crafts feel to it that would be wrecked if you painted the wood and brick.

    The idea to paint the walls and the back of the bookcases (or line them with fabric or wallpaper) is good. It will brighten up that end of the room. One of the soft greyed sea-glass blues would be lovely.

  • Gracie
    9 years ago

    I agree with deee that a darker floor will ground the room. We recently changed from a carpet similar to yours to a dark two-toned carpet. What a difference!

    I would remove the wall paneling. It detracts from the nicer wood that is in the room by making it feel like wood overload. I think it's too short to make the room feel cozy, and it cuts up the wall when you want the eye to travel uninterrupted to the high ceilings. Everything works to point upwards in that room, then there's the squatty paneling.

  • frugalnotstingy
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Thanks for all the ideas!!! This is the room where we watch tv while kids play. The kids have a playroom but they always end up bringing their toys wherever we are. Basically, this is where you'd find everyone if they are not sleeping or eating.

    My husband doesn't like hardwood on the family room so we're sticking with carpet. This is the new Berber carpet. Sorry for the small shot of the carpet - I cropped my daughter out of the picture.

    Also, we have a 55 or 58 inch screen flat tv that my husband doesn't want to mount up over the mantle so it will be sitting on the left corner, basically covering the bookshelves on that side. I still have not come up with a solution for that.

    We still have popcorn ceilings all over the house. I just got the budget to have it removed from the kitchen & breakfast area. Next in line would be the family room and foyer.

    This post was edited by frugalnotstingy on Mon, Sep 15, 14 at 13:15

  • caroline94535
    9 years ago

    I had a home with heavily popcorned ceilings in 1980. They even had large flecks of gold glitter mixed in with the popcorn! Awesome? Not!

    This was pre-computer age; I was in my early 20s and a home dec novice. I knew the dirty sparkly ceiling had to go.

    I simply pulled out the paint and painted over all the ceilings, popcorn, glitter, old smoke stains (former owner, not me) - everything.

    The ceilings were fresh and clean and lovely when I finished. They were still "popcorn," but clean and sealed and white. I did not know at the time it could have been scraped off. I would not have had the time to do that myself, and paying to have it done would have been out of the question, too.

    So, yes; you can paint popcorn ceilings.

  • coll_123
    9 years ago

    oh my, glitter and popcorn....!

    yes, it can be painted. The downside is that once you paint popcorn, you destroy the chance that it can ever be easily removed. With unpainted popcorn, you can spray it with water (in a garden sprayer) and scape it off...I guess the water sort of loosens it up. Once it's painted, that seals it and the water method doesn't work.

    Our entire house was popcorn (painted) and when we moved in I scraped and skimmed all of it to get my flat ceiling. Big, messy job but we have low ceilings and I just could not live with it. As difficult as it was, it was worth every bit of sweat, dust, and popcorn chunk in my eye. If I could have afforded to pay someone to do it, I would have. Or pay someone to put new drywall over it, which I didn't want to do because I didn't want to lose any height at all. Since your ceilings are so high, I don't think it would be as noticeable as mine was.

  • coll_123
    9 years ago

    also, I've rarely met a brick I didn't want to paint! That is just me, though...I like a more contemporary look, so natural brick doesn't work for me. I painted our brick fireplace, but yours is better looking than ours was. I think covering over the top half with something other than paint is a good idea if there is too much brick for you.

  • teacats
    9 years ago

    Still strongly voting for painting everything in white ..... PLUS consider hanging the TV on the longer wall to the left of the door opening in your main photo ..... THEN add a long low cabinet to hold more "stuff" ...... and hang a whole family gallery of black-and-white photos (mat alike in white and frame in black) around the TV .....

  • frugalnotstingy
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Teacats, the tv is wider than the wall. :-( I got really excited about that idea.

  • Olychick
    9 years ago

    do you use the fireplace? If not, I might place the tv in front of the firebox:

    or reconfiguring one side of the built-ins to accommodate the tv

    If you're going to put new carpet down, you might want to remove the popcorn ceiling in that room first and not risk getting the mess on the new carpet.

    This post was edited by olychick on Mon, Sep 15, 14 at 21:25

  • tibbrix
    9 years ago

    Question: Are those all doors, or are some windows?

  • teacats
    9 years ago

    Perhaps consider -- in the future -- closing up the opening to the dining room (the door at the left-hand side of the bookcases/fireplace) at the front of the house??

    By closing that door in the family room ((-- of course you would still have a opening/door from the foyer --)) -- you would gain a full wall for a TV entertainment center .....

  • frugalnotstingy
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Tibbrix, this is the shot opposite the wall of windows in my original pic. The light fixture on the foyer is going to be replaced.

    The playroom is the one to the right. The bottom part & the trims were already painted white when we bought the house. The height of the white part is the same in the family room.

    The stair spindles are being replaced with iron spindles right now. That is another dilemma. If I paint the bottom half white, what do I do with the posts on the stairs? It's just one thing after the other. :-(

  • madeyna
    9 years ago

    I would put a huge painting over the brick above the fireplace. Something big enough that there is just enough of the brick showing that it looks like its framing the painting. That way you will lesson the visual impact of the brick without painting it. I love the idea of taking the shelves out and storing them so you could fit the tv in there. You could need to move the furnature around for better viewing but it would lesson the chance of the kids accidently damaging the tv(at least thats what I would tell hubby to sell the idea)

  • tibbrix
    9 years ago

    That is a LOT of woodwork to paint or stain. I'd forget about that for now. Once you get started on that, you're going to start questioning everything, including the front door.

    The First thing I'd do is get that huge honkin' TV off the floor. Get an articulating arm TV mount, and put it either on the center of the wood mantel, so that you can have the TV in front of the fireplace for viewing if you don't have a fire, and raise it above the fireplace when you do have a fire - doesn't matter if it covers some of the bookcases . Put the cable box and DVD, etc., on those shelves. for this, you want a mount that will allow you to raise and lower the TV.

    OR, put the articulating arm on one of the panels between the two windows closest to the FP. When you want to watch TV, pull it away from the windows and at an angle. When you don't, you can just push it back against the windows. This way, also, you don't have any glare from the windows hampering TV viewing.

    Put the sofa so that it is facing the fireplace, centered in the room, with the left arm of the sofa oppose the small wall between the front hall and the playroom.

    I WOULD paint the bookshelves surrounding the FP, including inside. Maybe a nice Colonial green? Personally, I'd put doors on those bookshelves; they look cluttered to me, and that would drive me nuts. If you do put the TV there, though, keep in mind that you want access to the two bays nearest the FP which part of the TV would be covering.

    Also personally, for living areas, I prefer natural and earth tones. I'd paint the walls something like Revere Pewter (BM), and again, paint just the bookcases and mantel a rich green, maybe something like BM Palmer Green

  • frugalnotstingy
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    The tv is still wider than the bookshelves but only by an inch so I'm afraid taking the shelves out and putting the tv in there is a no go.

    If i can find an articulating arm that would work in the space, would it look silly to have the tv in front of the shelves? Almost like a door hiding the shelves.

    This post was edited by frugalnotstingy on Tue, Sep 16, 14 at 18:24

  • tibbrix
    9 years ago

    Sure. That's not big deal. But I'd do it on the other side. You don't want a TV facing windows.

  • frugalnotstingy
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I have a couch and a love seat. We put the couch by the windows and the love seat facing the fireplace with a sofa table behind it. How would I arrange the furniture if the tv is on the other side?

    I used to have a baby gate between the family room and the playroom (with the green wall). And to hide the gate from the family room, I have a folding 4 door divider there.
    I can leave the gate out but still thinking of putting the divider there. Any thoughts?

  • frugalnotstingy
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I saw this while seaching the web. I know people are knocking down walls to have an open floor plan but here I am thinking of closing it up.

    I don't like how bulky everything looks though. Any suggestions on how to tweak this or just scrap the idea altogether?

    This post was edited by frugalnotstingy on Tue, Sep 16, 14 at 23:48

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    BeverlyFLADeziner
    9 years ago

    Paint the brick white. Add charcoal grey patterned carpet with grey walls. It will be great

  • nosoccermom
    9 years ago

    What kind of furniture do you have, and what look are you going for?
    I personally really like aktillery's picture. And perhaps would look into whitewashing the brick after having painted the walls.

  • tibbrix
    9 years ago

    beverly, I think they've already put down the new carpeting, the Berber.

    Those samples you put up are beautiful.

  • frugalnotstingy
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    Beverly, the gray looks great! I was leaning towards a gray carpet but my husband vetoed it. Dang! That really looks great. :-(