Mentally, I am in full on holiday/vacation mode. I generally try to keep my momentum going until Christmas, and then take off the last week of December, but I’m having such a hard time this year. I just want to plant myself in my recliner under a cozy blanket, hot chocolate in hand, while watching ridiculous Christmas rom-coms and scrolling Instagram.
I’m not going to let myself completely check out just yet. I still have just over one full week to complete those four goals I had for the studio before the end of the year. I’m going to do my best to finish those. But over these last few days, I have spent more time than usual scrolling Instagram, Pinterest and Houzz for inspiration for our future family room, which I hope I’ll be able to decorate at some point next year.
If you’re new around here, we don’t currently have a family room. The room that I’m referring to is part of an addition that we hope to build onto our house next year. We’re currently working with the architect to get the plans drawn up for the contractor to submit to the city for approval and permits. Once our addition is built, our house floor plan will look like this. The areas in pink are the areas that will be added.
So the family room will be accessed via the back doors of the current music room. That room looks like this…
When those doors (which open like pocket doors) are opened, there will be bookcases on the left wall, a fireplace with lots of seating on the right, and the doors out to the back yard straight ahead.
I’ve been dreaming about what I want this room to look like. My two biggest priorities are (1) to saturate the room with color, and (2) to make the room cozy. So I started scrolling Houzz and Instagram to see what caught my eye, and what I could use as a jumping off point for our future family room. I’ve gathered a few of the pictures that I love the most.
This first one certainly fits the colorful requirement, but I don’t necessarily get a cozy vibe from it. That could possibly change with some sofas that look a little squishier and comfier, and with a darker teal instead of turquoise. But I do love the combo of the turquoise, green, pink, and orange. Swap the turquoise for teal, and those are my colors!
When it comes to cozy, this definitely meets that requirement. Just look at that gorgeous teal on the walls! I do think it’s too dark for our family room, and I personally prefer white ceilings. But there has to be a happy medium between this and the previous too-bright-for-me turquoise.
This one is a tiny bit lighter. Or maybe it’s just a shinier sheen that’s reflecting more light and letting more color come through. What a gorgeous color! If I had a room that was covered in this color and felt that cozy, I don’t know that I would ever want to leave.
This one is also too dark. I’m aware of that. 🙂 But again, there has to be a happy medium that will give me this cozy feeling with an equally gorgeous teal-ish color that won’t darken the room so much. And again, I’ll always opt for white ceilings, and my windows stay uncovered at all times to let as much light in as possible.
This is a great example of a darker teal color being offset with lots of color to brighten it up.
Here’s another dark teal room that feels lighter because of the brighter ceiling. But I’d still only have white ceilings. Look how gorgeous that matching teal sofa is with the walls, though! I love that look.
Here’s another dark teal room. It’s gorgeous, but I’d never do a dark ceiling. I think a white ceiling would go a long way towards brightening up the room, while the teal on the walls would still keep it cozy.
The full view of this next room actually shows that the room is white, but the bookcase is turquoise/teal. I much prefer this close up view just focusing on the bookcase. I’ve tried white on my walls before, and I just can’t do it.
But here’s an example of teal bookcases with teal being carried onto the walls as well. It’s so gorgeous!!
But now to my top two favorites. These are great examples of using loads of color without making the room too dark. Just look how beautiful this is.
And now for my #1 favorite inspiration picture. I LOVE the sofa color!!!
So these are just my starting points, but if I could make our family room look like some sort of perfect combo between those last two rooms, I’d be perfectly happy.
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.