Our New Family Room

Finally, at long last, I am unveiling our family room that I've been working on for the last week. I just put the finishing touches on it this morning. Warning - tons of pictures :)

This is from the bottom of the stairs showing the length of the family room. Pardon the mess!

Here's after:

The open door in the center is where the bottom of the stairs is. The door on the right is the laundry/storage room. Before:
The stairs are to the right here. After:Laundry Room door after:
Air Hockey table wall before:
After:
Close-up of the shelf. I had the heart and star already and added raffia to them to make them cuter:
Bar before (some of these aren't good quality pics):
Bar after:
Wall next to the bar before. Notice the ugly thermostat and broken doorbell:
Wall next to bar after. We changed out the thermostat with the old white one from upstairs, took the doorbell down and hung the clock strategically over the gaping hole from the doorbell:
View of 2nd half of family room before:
View of 2nd half after:
Fireplace before:
Fireplace after:
Window and half of couch before:
Window and couch after:
I made this curtain! My friend Stephanie from digiscrapital taught me how to make it. It was so super easy, and it only cost me $3 to make! It's not as cute as hers, but I still love it!
2nd half of couch before:
Couch after:
This originally looked like this and I took the ribbon off and replaced it with raffia. Much cuter :)
Little hallway off left side of the room. (Bathroom straight ahead, Mark's video game room on the right, heater access on the left) Haddie was modeling the before:
Hallway after:
Ugly light in hallway before. It reminded me of a hotel hallway light:
New light fixture. Ya like Mark's Men's Room sign for his game room? He's so proud of that.
We also replaced all the electrical outlets and light switches with white ones.
This room was so much work but I love it now! Before I didn't like to spend a lot of time in it because it felt like a dungeon. But now it feels like a cozy family room that I want to hang out in. I love my decor, and am proud that I handmade some of it. It isn't anything fancy, and our couch isn't pretty but it's home to us. I am extremely proud of it, especially since I did more than half of it myself. Mark helped some, but with work he wasn't home enough to do more. Haddie was really cooperative and watched movies while I painted. She and I had fun hanging out together downstairs. Anyway, so here she is - all ready for us to enjoy as a family!

Curtains

Okay I am finally posting pictures of my new curtains. It has been an incredibly busy week so I've not had a chance to post them. And as it is 2:30 AM, I really should be in bed anyway. But it's hanging over my head.
Here's a before of the kitchen curtains. The color is a little off - they're really more yellow-y than they look here. They're called traverse curtains; I looked it up haha! They have the pulley-type thing that you pull the string to open and close them. They're ancient, filthy, ripped and even a bit chewed up by the dog. So we were due for an upgrade.

Here's my new ones. Can I just tell you I love them? Please ignore the holes in the wall from the old rod - hubby is asking me now to add painting the kitchen to my to-do list. Oh look you can see out to my pretty backyard. I love my yard :)

I forgot to take before pictures of the living room curtains. This was the best I could find - from Haddie's birthday! Can I tell you how much fun it is having a birthday 12 days before Christmas? Ugh! This is the just the sheers, it had a 2nd rod that had the same kind of curtains as the old kitchen ones.

And here's the new ones! I had a hard time deciding on curtains because I love my big window and didn't want to distract from it too much. These were just what I was hoping to achieve. Again, please ignore the old rod holes!

Oh I love my clock! And if you click on this picture to enlarge it, you can see the gorgeous detail on the curtain rod. I fell in love with it!

They're nothing extravagant, but I love them. They cost me much more than I anticipated. (We're talking just over $150!!!! For the panels, rods, and hold backs) I could have made them cheaper, I know. But I doubted my sewing abilities and I was impatient. I suppose it's a good thing I love them :)