family room overview

I love seeing other bloggers' home tours! Although our house is definitely a work in progress, I thought I'd share some rooms that we're working on. This is our family room. It looks out to the backyard, and you can see our shed's window outside in the middle of the picture below. The wall color is Hubbell House Clayo from Valspar.This is what you see when you walk in. The floors have just been replaced and as a result, we don't have baseboards installed yet. I'm currently looking for an area rug. The wood is gorgeous but needs protecting from our animals. When you walk into the room, this is on the wall on your right. It's an original watercolor of peonies. It used to be in my parents' house, but my mom gave it to me. It's my favorite piece of art in the house. Peonies are my favorite flower!

This is our TV cabinet. I've had it since I lived in a condo solo. I now notice that the cabinet is not aligned with the frames above - the cabinet needs a little shove to the right. The prints above were from TJ Maxx and the husband got me the candle holder when we were dating. It has a reclaimed piece of wood with a bunch of votives. And you can spy my Wii Fit - which has not been touched in some time. Maybe if it promises not to go "oh!" when I step on, I'll get back into things. This is the right side of the room. It has two chenille chairs and a little table. I got the barn stars at TJ Maxx. I would like to take this time to thank the builder of this house who installed the thermostat in such an awkward place. No woman would ever put it there. Not to be sexist, but you know a man did it, come on now. This is one of my least favorite things about the house - the fireplace. It is brick but has been painted a fuchsia color. In some light, it reminds me of Barney the dinosaur. It's double sided into the kitchen, but that side is painted white. The bookcase was wood when we moved in but I painted it white. There are books and photo frames on the bookcase, along with a set of wood drawers that my dad restored. They were my grandfather's. This is a close up of the oil painting on the mantle. It's also from my parents' house. I have been debating reframing it but the painting is from the late 1800s and I think the frame is original. I doubt it's Antiques Roadshow material but hey, you never know! You can also see a duck decoy on the right. It's from my grandma's house. I remember it on her bookshelf next to her fireplace and it reminds me of her. Notice a trend? Ha!

So that's our family room. We still have things to do, like:

• prime and paint window trim
• install painted baseboards
• reorganize bookshelf
• add some accessories
• paint brass on fireplace glass with high temp paint
• paint or replace mantle on fireplace
• find a rug both the husband and I agree on - DONE

Whew, that makes me tired! I'll keep you all updated on our progress.