How I Made Over Our Family Room with New Paint and Furniture.
So I was sick recently (weren’t we all) and spent quite a lot of time going between my bed and the family room. As I lay in my family room staring at various Netflix and Acorn shows, I thought about my family room decor. I was tired of it. I wasn’t bad–it was just the same it had been for 9 years. When my husband came home –I announced, “I’m changing everything in this room.”
He’s kind of in the if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it category so he paused and said, “Why, exactly? It looks good to me.”
“I’m just sick of it. It worked once, but now it has to go!”
Then he said, “You’ve had me longer than the room, are you gonna change me too?”
“Possibly,” I said, “if you don’t let me change the room.”
I began focusing on ways to update my husband’s look. After a few minutes of that he got nervous and decided changing the room was the most comfortable choice.
Here is a couple of pics of what I had.


Nothing really wrong with it. Okay a little busy, but…The sectional and ottoman were great. Italian Leather–well built. The recliner is comfy, but not my style and the floral chair I blame on my husband. Also the dark TV cabinet is leftover from a move about 10 years ago. Kind of dark don’t you think. Of course 10 years ago this was beautiful. Anyway…the adventure began. First like everyone I went on Pinterest, etc. to find ideas. I wanted something to brighten up this space and because it is a Great Room off of a kitchen that dear husband won’t let me remodel until next year, I needed it to not completely clash with the colors of it. Just looking for it to flow smoothly.
I settled on something in a pale gray. I wanted it almost a gray white but not going toward any other tone but gray. Easy right?! No! Oh my word! do you know how many grays there are? So first things first–I decided to start with the furniture fabric. Maybe you would do differently, but that’s what worked for me. Fortunately, I have a wonderful brand of furniture available at Jordan Bedding & Furniture Gallery that gives me 700 choices of fabrics including leather. Yes, it may seem overwhelming, but their site Besthf.com makes finding specific tones much easier. They even have a room planner! Through a process of elimination I found this color pallette.

I love the geometric fabric. It is called Graphite. My idea was to replace the massive sectional (that I loved for a time) with two comfy club chairs and a sofa. And because of the dimensions of the room and the fireplace, I needed a recliner (that looks classy) and a swivel chair so that someone can converse and turn to look at TV or fire. Oh how I love a swivel chair. The fabric I chose for the sofa is called Pewter and is an Opticlean fabric (click to learn more), which is fantastic for if you have kids, pets, or you are just messy sometimes. Opticlean makes spills or other accidents easy to clean and is so durable. The pillows on the sofa will match the swivel chair. I have learned through the years to not be afraid to mix patterns and floral. I think this works great. Now to the paint.


Gray is hard y’all! And I should be good at it cause my maiden name is Gray. All of these paint chips are varying grays. If you look at one alone it will look perfect, and then you put them side by side and you see the different tones. I want true gray. Well I made my husband paint several samples on the wall and thought I had found the perfect gray–Olympus White. Oh no! When the painter finished it looked baby blue. Baby blue is great if that’s what you want, but not this time! After a stressful evening of more paint sampling–I chose what I think is perfect color, Repose Gray. It’s a Sherwin Williams paint, and I wish I would get money for endorsing it, but I’m not. I’m just going to try to save you some grief and recommend that if you are looking for a true gray-it is a good bet.
Also by the way I also lightened my fireplace. Here it is before and after.


After much research, I decided to lime wash the rock and was able to find a great product called Romabio. (Once again, no payment for my mention–just a great product) By the way the big black Buck stove is still under negotiations. (But let me know if you would like to buy, I think it would look great in another home) Didn’t the lime wash turn out amazing. So much better than just paint. It reminds me some of the Austin limestone I’ve always loved. This made the room sooooo much brighter. Now for the results.




Do you remember how dark the before picture was? Look at how it is now! Just a note on light bulbs. Make sure your bulbs are not giving off yellow hue if you want to go with brighter colors. I changed all of our indoor can lights to a bright white led bulb. Another tip–do you have a big room and need a big area rug? Sometimes it’s hard to find just the right size so putting two identical ones together can do the trick. Look at Gigi enjoying the sofa. This is the Nicodemus sofa. I almost chose the Anabel Sofa, but the Nicodemus is a little bigger at 93″ so it fit the space great.
Here’s a closer look at the club chairs and the recliner.
Yes I really love my Gigi Dog. The Mayci Club chair in this graphite geometric cover and the matching ottoman are a perfect fit. And this leather Pauley Recliner has power so that you can have multiple recline positions. Worried about cords–notice I don’t have it close to a wall outlet because I have the available rechargeable battery pack. Also-doesn’t the high leg style make it look elegant?Fortunately, Best Home Furnishing also gives choices on the wood color on the legs. You will note that I went with a dark stain on all of the legs.
What do you think? Would love your feedback. Do you have a project you would like to start? With so many choices and beautiful sofas, chairs and recliners Best Home Furnishings featured by Jordan Bedding & Furniture will have the choices to fit your decor. Drop us a line or send a picture and I will send you ideas for any color combo. Let’s have some fun and make something over.