A Neutral, Modern Space Perfect for Hibernating All Winter
A year ago I was still sitting in our third-story apartment surrounded by boxes with my design software open and hoping that the closing date on our house would be soon. The living room and dining room of the new house were pretty easy to design. There was really only one way to set up the dining room and it was simple to decide on a living room layout once we picked out the chairs that would go in there. The closet-turned-laundry-room design took a lot of tweaking, even after we moved in but once we got familiar with the space and how we’d use it, it came together a month after living here. Each room in our house was drafted into my CAD software but some were easier to imagine than others.
The space that took the longest to figure out was the family room. The room has an interesting layout with french doors to the dining room, a doorway to the kitchen, an off-center beam where the exterior wall used to be where and a wall of built-ins. One thing we had decided at the start of the renovations was that the family room would be the only space with a television. Finding seating that worked to accommodate a TV and the lack of empty wall space was a challenge. Sectionals I found were either too big, too small or just plain too expensive. And I was having a hard time nailing down how to arrange the room so buying a left-side or right-side sectional felt too permanent if we ever wanted to rearrange. Finally in September I found a modular sectional from Article—The Gaba—that I ordered in separate pieces vs. a pre-configured set so that we could get it to fit perfectly in the space.
view from the kitchen!
Last December we had almost no idea how to design the family room, much less that we would be camped out here during the day the first few weeks of our daughter’s life (I’m absolutely writing this post from the sectional). The family room has been the perfect place to spend time with guests that have come to see Hyler and serve as a landing spot for taking care of the baby during the day.
Some things that have changed in the few weeks since Hyler was born are window treatments, storage and adding a shelf between the built-ins. I bought the curtains months ago but we were missing a curtain rod bracket and didn’t want to make the room dark. With Hyler napping in here during the day, having curtains was a necessity to filter the bright spots. We love having the curtains up and the light is beautifully diffused without losing daylight. Austin added a shelf under the window between the built-ins so we would have an area for storage baskets underneath and another surface in the room since there isn’t space for additional pieces of furniture.
I still want to add artwork and mess with the shelf styling and maybe still do something about the wall treatments some day down the road but the sectional alone has made this space beautiful and functional for our new way of life with a newborn.