{The Abode} Bi-Fold Barn Doors In The Family Room

 We did another little update in the house.

Our lower level family room also serves as a room for guests so we wanted to add some privacy.  We had hung a room darkening curtain on a tension rod but we wanted something a little more private and solid.

We talked to our contractor about adding a door and a barn door seemed like the only solution. The problem with that would be it would cover the light switch.

After doing some research, I found another option--bifold barn doors!  We were able to order the hardware from Amazon and the doors from Home Depot. The hardest thing was measuring (and re-measuring) and verifying with our contractor that it would work.  This is how they look open...

...and how the look closed!  

Here it is from the other side.  We are thrilled with this update.   We've been using the doors a lot lately to keep the room cozy when our fireplace is on.    Have you ever seen bifold doors? I'd love to add them to our closets one of these days!

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{The Abode} Family Room Storage Upgrade with Ikea Bestå

Here's another home upgrade that we did and it's made a huge difference.

To refresh our memories, this is how the room looked when we bought the house. We had been thinking we'd keep the "built-ins" until we decided what we wanted to put there.  They weren't actually built in and were in pretty sad shape. We also weren't planning to put the tv there so it didn't make a lot of sense for us to keep the set up once we realized their condition.

This very old Ikea Borghamn entertainment center has had many lives. We've had it for years and were using it for storage in the back room of our basement in the old house.   

But for a time it was also our entertainment center in the finished part of the basement. (Sorry for the dark photo from this 2013 post).

The deep drawers are on casters and have a lot of space.  I thought the they would work for storing all of my scrapbooks and they did! It was a good placeholder until we found what we wanted.

Enter Ikea Bestå!! We designed the system online and then went to Ikea to buy it. I'm glad we didn't pre-order because we upgraded the doors (to Selsviken high gloss) when we saw the options in person.  

Of course there were A LOT of boxes to transport home and into the house.  We (mostly Mr. Click) assembled the basic squares but figured we should hire a professional for the doors and linking the unit together.

We hired TaskRabbit and they were able to come out quickly to complete the job. I highly recommend! We opted for soft close/push open hinges and no knobs for a cleaner look.

We bought two interior shelves but need to go back for some more to really utilize the space.  My scrapbooks have a new home but we also have lots more storage!

We kept the upper left side open for some display area and we keep our record player and favorite photo there.  We love it!

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{The Abode} Disaster to Home Improvement

We woke up at 4 am to our refrigerator water line spraying out all over the kitchen.  We turned off the water but it had already leaked through to the basement and office below.   I called in a restoration company to help us deal with the water. They were quick and so helpful in getting the wet stuff out of the house and drying out the rooms.  We then had to start the process of redoing all of the affected rooms.

This was the office with the rugs pulled up and wet drywall cut out.

The basement family room.

The kitchen and adjoining family room had warped floor boards.

We were very lucky that our flooring company could replace the floors and had them in stock to match our recently replaced living and dining room floors.

It definitely got worse before it got better. The subfloors were still damp so the fans had to come back in for another week or so.

Meanwhile the basement was getting a "glow up".  We picked new vinyl flooring in Cocoa and had the walls painted in Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace

We ordered a new rug that I love.

Swoon!

The finished kitchen flooring!

Now onto the family room. That also had to be dried out longer than expected.

The finished flooring was worth the wait.

 

Even our old rug looks nice on the new floors.  I'm so glad the work is finished and we have our house back looking better than ever!!

Have you ever had a home disaster? 

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{DIY} Marble Contact Paper Console

This was an easy DIY update to our console table in the family room.

 All I needed was a roll of this gorgeous marble contact paper from Amazon.

 Here's the table before.

And here's the after look.

 The paper is a little tricky to put down but it can be repositioned until you get the look you want.

I think it's a really fun update that lightens up the table and the room.

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Home Decor Finds at Primark

I was scouting out Primark for a pair of trendy mint jeans without spending too much money -- which I did find for $10--but I also stumbled on some cute home decor items that came home with me.

This "Oh Crepe!" dish towel caught my eye with it's bright pink polka dots,crocheted lace trim and sassy saying. Check out my Springtime hygge with the fresh scented candle burning nearby.  (The other dish towel is from Anthropologie)

I also found some palm print pillow covers that give our family room a lightened up, spring-y feeling. The corners have navy blue tassels and the leaves are a soft blue.  I love to switch up my pillows with different pillow covers for the seasons.
Everything was very reasonably priced (wish I could remember the prices now but I think the dish towel was around $3.50 and the pillow covers were in the $6 range!).

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Winter Mantel

After Christmas I like to tone down the mantel and create a calm focal point for our family room.

 I can't quite give up the snowy and wintry decor but I want to keep it neutral.  I do this by using shades of white, cream and silver.  The white cut-out candle holder was a Christmas gift. I love how the candlelight shines through it.

The snowball bunting was from last year.  I think I found it at Target.  It's an upgrade from this one.

DIY Snowy Garland

Winter Mantel 2013

My favorite way to enjoy it is with a fire going in the fireplace and lots of candles glowing.  After the Christmas wreaths come down I like to decorate the front doors with some seasonal decor too. These Popsicle Stick Snowflakes are still holding up and making a bold visual statement on the house.

Popsicle Stick Snowflake

Just Another Flake

Do you do any winter specific decorating?

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{The Abode} Painting the Family Room Built-Ins White

I'm excited to share this update with you today.  It's been a long time coming and now I wonder why we waited so long to do it!

Here are our family room built in cabinets before. They've been that light honey oak since we moved in eleven years ago.  We're thinking about painting our kitchen cabinets white and decided to try our hand at the (slightly) less intimidating built ins.

The first step was clearing them out.  I moved some of the items to the bottom of the cabinets to get them out of the way.

 Did you know I had this wall paper behind the shelves? I don't think many people noticed it but I was ready for a change.

 We started our project with an oil-based primer.  We painted right over the wall paper.

I only had a few minutes to make up my mind about the behind the shelf wall color so I went with Hale Navy from Benjamin Moore.  I knew I loved their Newburyport Blue from our master bedroom and den so staying on the same color card felt safe while also a little bold since we were going darker.

While Mr. Click did the inside work, I painted the doors.  First they are getting the primer on each side (allowing dry time before flipping them over).

This Handy Paint Cup from Lowe's is genius.  It's got an ergonomic grip for holding it and there's a magnetic spot near the lip to hold your paintbrush up and out of the paint when you're not painting. I highly recommend buying the liners for the cups too because they make clean up a breeze!

 It's so exciting when you see it all starting to come together!

We used a product called Rustoleum Cabinet Transformations in Pure White.  The kit comes with everything you need(minus the primer) to paint a 100 square foot kitchen and you pick either the dark kit or the light kit. The store tints the color for you and there are a lot to choose from.

And ta-da..the finished room! 

I'm so glad we chose a bold color for the back of the shelves.  The navy really sets off all of our objects.

 It was fun to style the shelves.  There's that wooden tray I recently got while thrifting. I knew I'd use it somewhere!

 Most of the items are thrifted or from other rooms in the house.   I continue to edit them and enjoy seeing them evolve.

I decided to move all of the scrapbooks to the cabinets below for a neater look.  I also purged those lower cabinets so this turned into another organizing project! They were driving me crazy.

The mantel got a makeover too and I love how fresh and clean it looks now.  Still no change in the creep cherubs under the mantel. We're afraid to remove them.

I can't change where the tv goes in this room so I styled the two upper shelves around the cable box, speakers and other tv related black boxes.

One final "after" shot.  What do you think?

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