Den Space Decorated!

My downstairs den space has been the one that has taken me the longest to get together.  I had “stuff” piled in the corner for at least a year and then earlier this year my dad and I completed the built in Billy bookcases that I had wanted to install in there, making a cozy corner space instead of nothing.  This is a long and large room, with plenty of room for a couple of separate seating areas and I definitely needed to put something in the corner. The bookcases look great and are very functional for storage too.  I’m finally happy with how this space has come together.  Since it has a drop ceiling, it’s not a fancy space, really just a big box with painted paneling and carpet, but I’m very grateful to have a large den space like this.

It only has 2 small windows, but I’m hoping to remedy that and get my handy men who built my front porch to come back out here and install 2 large windows on the other long wall in here (left side looking at the first pic). That will allow a lot more light in this space and I know I’ll enjoy it much more after that.  Those small windows do not let in much light and this space is very hard to photograph.  I have to leave the lights on to get any light in here, so bear with me.  I do pretty well with photos, but this space is challenging to say the least.  Also, this space is not a basement.  It’s the lower level of my house and is on a slab and not underground at all.  The ceiling was treated like a basement, but it is not a basement, nor is my laundry room.  This house has a quirky floor plan to say the least.

Another thing I had done recently was to get my LaZboy recliner recovered.  I was fortunate to work with Online Fabric Stores again and they sent me this beautiful robin’s egg blue fabric (which I picked out from their huge selection of fabrics).  This chair was a darker jeweltone fabric which I liked for many years, but I wanted to lighten up that chair and have it not stick out so much in this space.  The new fabric did the trick and I’m really happy with how it looks with my LaZBoy sofa that I got last year from the LaZBoy folks, from the LaZboy Design Dash, another huge blessing.  This room holds a lot of furniture and I’ve created a cozy sitting area for watching TV in this den room.

So, come along with me for the big tour of the room.  You’ve never seen it this straight before, because it’s never been this clean and organized before.  That feels really good too!   If you are new to my blog, I’ve been in my house for 2 years this month and believe me, this room has come a long, long ways.  I did a whole post about painting the ugly brown paneling that was in here and we also replaced those ceiling tiles too and both of those things made a huge difference in this room.  You can see in those before pics the size of this room before any furniture came in here and it really makes me appreciate the AFTER shots all that much more.  It sure was ugly!  The color on the walls is Sherwin Williams Comfort Gray.

Here’s a little reminder of where this room started.  The BEFORE!  Yep, ugly.

And here’s a progress shot of the other end of the room, while the paneling was being painted.  This is before the ceiling tiles were replaced too.  Seeing these pics again really make me happy with how far it’s come.  The laundry room door is there on the far left and the white painted door straight ahead goes down to the garage. And the corner to the right of the stairs and door is where the Ikea Billy bookcases are now.  I had vision for this room!

Are you ready for the final AFTERS?  Yep, me too!

Again, it’s really hard for me to photograph this room.  With overhead lights casting shadows and weird light, I have to try to compensate for the lack of light in here. But, I hope you enjoy the tour!  Once I do finally get those new windows installed, I’ll add new drapes in here. I still like the ones I have from the Company Store, but will need to add more on the new windows and I’ll probably add coral to the drapes too.

I really love how the LaZboy recliner now blends into the room much better.  It doesn’t jump out anymore and with the new addition of the coral chair, I’ve added some pillows with more of that color on this side of the room.   The end table is one I picked up at a Thriftstore and it is an Ethan Allen piece I painted with Annie Sloan chalk paint.

I got the floral pillows from Homegoods.  Here’s a good shot finally of the LaZboy sofa I was very fortunate to receive from the company last year after doing a design event with them. They were so great to give us a piece of furniture to enjoy in our own homes, so a big thank you to LaZboy for that.

It’s the Poet sofa in a nice neutral herringbone fabric and is slightly curved into the room.   Rug in here is from Rugs USA.  They do have great sales.

Another shot of the sofa details.

And I was also fortunate to work with Online Fabric Store.  After getting a few samples, I narrowed it down and they sent me this beautiful robins egg blue (Fabricut Robins Egg) with beige diamonds to recover my chair.  A huge thank you to them for helping me with this project.  It was so great to finally get my chair back and in the room and to now be enjoying it all.  A local company, Bob’s Upholstery did the recovering for me and they did a great job.  A big thanks to Vicky for the discount on the upholstery part of the project.  They are right in Kennesaw near me and I would definitely recommend them.

I’ve had this brown leather sofa and ottoman for several years now and still enjoy them both in this room.

The rust diamond pillows are from Homegoods too and I already had the other pillows and throws.

Love this gray and coral pillow from Homegoods too.  My goal was to spread that coral color around the room and have touches of it all over and I think I achieved that goal.

The rustic console table came from Homegoods too and I still love this piece. Those old shutters are antique store finds from Birmingham and I still enjoy this gallery wall.

It’s a cozy seating area now.  One thing to think about when you are updating a space is figuring out what colors you want to bring around the room.  Once I decided on that coral color, it made it easy to go out and find pillows to add to the other main seating area.  Not many of us can update a whole room all at once and start from scratch and I’m the same way.  I have had a lot of the furniture and accessories for awhile and just by changing out some fabrics, I can get a whole new look.

Another look at the newly recovered LaZboy chair.  I took lots of pics from different angles so you can see how big this room is.  It’s a large rectangular space so I had to break it up.  That corner back there was perfect for the built in Billy bookcases that my dad and I did earlier this year.  That coral chair makes a nice punch of color in the room and was my inspiration for bringing in the new pillows from Homegoods.

I painted this antique store table with a vibrant coat of coral pink and it brings in a nice accent to the room, along with that coral chair that I got from Ballard Designs.  Bamboo chair is a yardsale find.

Accessories on the table.  Those are the pretty Italian candlesticks I got from the estate sale and the big & is from Birch Lane.  Lamp from Kirklands.

Once again, the built in Billy bookcases in the corner of the room.  I love the coral velvet Ballard Designs chair and this color totally brings this corner to life.  I debated on going neutral or bringing in color and I’m so glad I chose a color.  I love it!  It’s the Travis chair in Queens velvet coral.  Huge thanks to Ballard Designs again for sending me this chair and ottoman.  Rug is from Rugs USA and this pillow is from Homegoods too.  Print is a yardsale find from long ago.

Side table from Joss and Main and those white vases I’ve picked up thrifting over the years.

Another view on the console table and corner and you can see how these areas are close to each other.  This is quite a large room, as I mentioned.

It’s so nice to finally have this room finished.  I’m sure I’ll be tweaking it here and there, but I’ve had most of this stuff for a long time and still enjoy the accessories.  I shared how my dad and I built in these bookcases in Part 1 and Part 2, so if you want the details on that, check out those posts.  It’s been done all over blogland and was not a very hard project.

The bookcases have brought me so much enjoyment in this corner.  It’s pretty to look at now.  I did get several of these pieces from Birch Lane and I shared that earlier this year.

Some are new finds and some are thrifty finds.  I love mixing the two.

Family pics add a personal touch too.  Can you tell we love that baby of ours?

My paternal grandmother’s Singer sewing machine makes a nice side table in here.  This area is by the door that goes down to my garage.

Accessories and bird prints.

I still have my pretty French buffet from the late 1800’s that I got many years ago.  It’s such a cool piece, I don’t think I’ll ever get rid of it.

With a few accessories on top and a map print, it anchors the sofa wall.

One final shot of this area with the Wayfair basket added.

It’s so fun to finally share this finished den space with all of you.  It’s been a long time coming and it sure feels good. I’m still so enjoying this house of mine and so appreciate all of you still stopping by to see what we are up to.  I’m sure I’ll have a few more projects along the way, but for the most part the inside is finished.  But, we all know a home is never completely finished. It’s fun to change things out and move things around and I know I’ll be doing more of that now that the major projects are done.

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