Her Tasty Life

The family room is the heart of any home, right? It’s where everybody congregates, hangs, pops on some Netflix… chills. Well, ours most certainly was not the heart of our home. Months after moving in, our family room (the whole reason why we moved, to have more space), was still just that. A big, vast, empty space.

Ack. This was not what I had in mind when we found our new place (and still in the city!) with not one, but two living rooms. If you’re a city dweller than you know, this is massive. To have this family room was such a blessing and yet we were doing absolutely nothing with it.

While it was a great place for Blake to run around like a madman, it was definitely not a place for us to come together as a family and have a comfortable, chic space to spend our time. The room literally contained a twin-sized pull out couch, a play mat, and a lonely standing lamp as its only fixtures for months. Yep, this is how we spent our Netflix and Chill hours, huddled on a two seater with a baby walker to hold our drinks.

Functional? Hardly. Fashionable? In no world, ever.

The family room needed some major attention and I didn’t even know where to begin. It was all so overwhelming and every time I tried to gear up to start the project, I’d turn my attention to something else. Oh hello, denial. It just seemed like a lot to handle. I needed a family room intervention and The RoomPlace was there to save the day. Cue hallelujah chorus here.

We have purpose. We have ideas. We have a team!! Whooo… I couldn’t have been more excited. The family room was finally going to get underway and we had help. Working with The RoomPlace to outfit our family room was just beyooond.

I mean, can we just take a second and revisit the family room in its ‘before’ phase:

Even I have to laugh. It’s pitiful. I’m kind of shocked Blake is even willing to hang here. Gotta love babies and their blissful oblivion, but this is an unacceptable state of affairs.

Ok, guilt pangs aside, now let’s take a little peek at it in all of its ‘after’ glory:

WAIT. Is that the same room?!

I mean, it’s not, right? There’s no way. Even I could not believe my eyes as the room started to take shape and become something fabulous. The RoomPlace was such an amazing starting point for the vision that this room would become. I selected a few pieces – like the couch, rug, glass side tables and tv console – and their ‘complete your look’ online service helped me along with filling out the room.

It was even more than I thought it could be… as the items slowly filled the space one by one, I became overwhelmed with the feeling of family and love. THIS is where we were going to spend our days and nights. Not huddled on a twin-sized pull out couch, but in this cozy bastion of comfort and style.

We went with a slightly more bohemian look than I typically go for that was tied together beautifully with this incredible Surya Harput rug from The RoomPlace — breaking away from my usual white-on-gray-on-white look wasn’t an easy choice, but I’m so glad I made it! It gave us an amazing color palette to pull from when accessorizing the room. But of course I stayed in a neutral lane with the big pieces like the couch and ottoman. What can I say, I’m a creature of habit and I know what I like!

Figuring out a way to incorporate a play space for Blake while keeping the room looking styled and chic was my biggest challenge. I wanted this to be a place for the whole family, but also really wanted to maintain an ‘adult’ vibe and not have the room to be overwhelmed with toys and primary colors. I was pretty much at a loss for how to execute that and called back in my friend and designer, Matt Morgan, (who designed our gallery wall) from Matthew Morgan Designs to help style the room and Blake’s area.

He killed it, naturally. Matt’s philosophy that a kid’s space doesn’t need to look like a kid’s space hit a total home run. He found some creative (and fab) gold storage baskets for the bigger toys while highlighting some of Blake’s cuter pieces and books on floating shelves in his play nook. Matt focused on creating a color palette of Blake’s pieces that complemented the room instead of clashing with it. Adding this art piece and this baby armchair were my favorite touches! Something so grown up in little man’s space seemed both whimsical and mature… brilliant choice!

Matt then turned his focus to the room to polish everything off by adding some additional wall decor, tons of decorative pillows and about a million to-die-for accessories. These are the touches that truly bring a room to life and give it that extra pizzaz that make you step in and say, “ohhhhh wow.”

I’m just thrilled to have this cozy, family-friendly space to finally come home to. The RoomPlace pieces work so well for us and created a real family room for us to enjoy for years to come. All we’re missing now is maybe just another kid or two 😉

A million thank you’s to Matt Morgan for the room styling and always knowing the key to my heart (tons and tons and tons of pillows).

Happy to answer any questions on all of the pieces and accessories you see here, so drop a note below in the comments if you want to know where anything is from! Now what room should we do next?!