This is the left side of the room if you are standing in my kitchen looking into the back yard. I had many years to think about how I wanted this room to be, what was most important to me was that we had lots of windows and that it felt bright and cozy at the same time. I also always knew that I wanted it to be covered floor to ceiling with bead board. We kept the trim simple to match the rest of the kitchen. I painted the walls and the trim Glidden's "Swan White".
My goal is to find a giant piece of salvaged molding for above the three windows behind the couch.
To give you an idea of where you are seeing below is what it looked like in the summer during the rebuilding process after the wall was taken down separating the two rooms.
The picture below (that my son took) is of the wall during reno that the couch is now on.
I was really lucky to find the perfect pieces for this room, most of them costing less than$15. The coffee table and the wall unit pictured below both came from the same estate sale. Over the summer I was on my way to the mall to try on dresses for my sister-in-laws wedding when I spotted an estate sale. My son was with my mom and I actually had cash in my wallet so I figured I would stop real quick. I went into the house and I found a couple things but nothing too exciting. As I headed back to my car I spotted a garage off to the side of the property that I had somehow missed (my estate sale rule is to always hit the garage first cause that is usually where the old stuff is). I walked into the garage and it was a jack pot! I found two old tables, tons of farm goodies, totes, primitive tools, and the wall cupboard pictured below. I was grabbing stuff left and right and putting it in a giant pile, people were looking at me like "why would she want all that junk". It just goes to show you should always stop because this was a tiny 1970's house in a very residential area.
The cupboard wasn't even actually for sale but when I asked the woman who was running the estate sale if I could buy it she said "sure if we can get it off of the wall". You should have seen us trying to get this thing off of the wall, it was filthy and had a lifetimes worth of mouse poop on it and was screwed to the wall with at least 20 screws. It took a good half hour to pry it loose but we got it down! She said it would be five bucks and that everything in the garage was half off that day!
I knew just where it would go when I bought it but I had to wait patiently for the day we could actually hang it. It looks just how I pictured it could, the women at the estate sale were so excited that I was going to make it cute. It is made with all different salvaged pieces, the shelf with the scale on it is a little door cut in half and I love the wire shelf. I scrubbed it multiple times and painted it Glidden's "Antique Beige".
The coffee table was also five dollars. It was a regular size table and I just had Neal cut the legs down. I didn't do anything to it except scrub it and put a coat of polycrylic on the top to protect it from spills and wipe downs. I left the estate sale a sweaty dirty mess, it was 90 degrees that day and on top of it I had to squeeze everything I bought into my car. I was actually there so long that the women started to refer to me as "The Renovator":) Needless to say I didn't feel oh so fresh and clean as I was trying on those dresses.
The table in the corner under the cupboard is the one I picked up at the flea market for $15 dollars this past summer. I painted it Martha Stewart's "Sisal". The other end table is also new. I have always wanted to make a table with a sewing machine bottom and I was so excited when I actually found an antique sewing machine base at Savers (the greatest thrift store ever, you are so lucky if you have one) for $12! Someone had attached an ugly desk top to it, so I took that off and screwed an old piece of wood that I had found in the house when we first moved in to it.
And then as you get a look into the kitchen you can see that I have changed some things around in there. We brought the little cupboard down from the upstairs bedroom because I needed some more functional storage. I painted it Glidden's "Whispering Wheat" and added an antique knob that I picked up at the flea market.
I brought the desk in from the mudroom and put one of the tables I got from the estate sale in its place. I wanted something long and skinny for this space since you need to be able to walk through easily. Plus I love this table so much I wanted it in a place I would see it more.
It makes for the perfect little office space which is great because try as I might I always end up doing all of my Etsy work in the kitchen and my son always does his school work here.
I really love the way everything turned out in the family room but what I love most are the giant windows that allow us to see into the backyard from this part of the house now. It always drove me crazy that I couldn't really see into our backyard and our woods unless I was in the guest bedroom.
Seeing "my deer" come through in the morning while I drink my coffee brings me the greatest joy. Plus they let in so much light it makes such a difference in the kitchen.
We special ordered the windows from Anderson so that they would be the exact same size as all of the other large original windows in the house.
And to give you an idea of how far we have come in case you are a new follower I wanted to show you the stages of this area of our house. The picture below is what is now the kitchen but it was a small and dark bedroom when we first moved in.
And below is what you can now see when you stand in the same place (and yes I painted that cupboard, post about that to come).
