Family Room Progress and My Built-in Bench!

Well helllloooooooo!

I have missed you SO much!! Hope you all had a wonderful summer! School is back in session here, so that means I will be blogging regularly again and not dropping off the face of the earth anymore! (Well, until next June I suppose;) I really have missed interacting with you guys often, and I am so grateful if you are reading this because it means you forgive me for being such a bad little blogger this summer. I know you guys understand that I’m a mom first, and that makes me love you even more. I always say, my readers are the best readers out there. For real. Lots of cyber hugs and kisses to you!

School being back in session also means we’ll be getting to work on the family room, which pretty much looks exactly as it did when the wall came down months ago! I mean, I refused to keep my kids from having fun at the pool because I had to paint and put up plank walls, know what I mean? ‘

There was one thing that happened in here this summer, and I have a feeling it’s going to become MY SPOT. We turned an empty corner into a cute little nook! And by we, I mean our good friend;) See, we are very lucky to know a VERY handy dear friend who just happened to build a banquette for their kitchen a few years back. And when I looked at this empty corner in our family room, it just screamed storage built in bench! to me. So I asked my friend if I could hire him to do it and he agreed. We went on vacation, and I get this photo texted to me:

He sent this, and only this. And this was on Day 1 of a ten day vacation. I was DY. ING.

We get home (nine days later), and walked into this!

So CUTE, right?!!! Both tops are on hinges, so lotsa storage underneath which is fantastic. My friend did an amazing job…maybe too amazing, I think I might have to put him to work with some more projects…;)

So you KNOW what I did when the kids hopped on the bus this week, right? That puppy got painted and padded and primped. Wanna see???

So let’s talk about that padding. I have two photos and only two photos to share, because I honestly didn’t think this was going to even work. But it did…at least for now. Curious to see how it fares after a while, but I made some custom pads using 3-inch multi-purpose foam pads from Home Depot, and a 6x9ft canvas dropcloth. I wanted to go solid on the cushion, because I wanted to play the color out in pillows, and window treatments. More on that later. Plus, canvas dropcloths are CHEAP, and I have three kids. ‘Nuff said.

I knew I was going to have to go custom, because it’s a unique size bench. So I grabbed two of these pads, and cut them to size:

This part was NOT fun. It’s thick and therefore hard to cut. I may or may not have busted out a bread knife and sawed a bit. Desperate times call for desperate measures, people.

Then, I laid the foam pads on the canvas and cut pieces big enough to wrap underneath several inches. And ironed them because they were wrinkly. P.S. I HATE IRONING. Like, A LOT.

When they were no longer wrinkly, I laid the foam pads back down on the canvas pieces and sprayed fast tack upholstery spray all over it and wrapped it like a present. I chose that because, well, I had it on hand and figured why the heck not? Worth a shot. If it doesn’t work, I’ll figure out something else. I’ll let you know how it holds up, but 24 hours later, we’re still in business. 😉

So here’s my plan for this space. I was going to do a small little coffee table, but I changed my mind. Going to go with a taller round table, so I can sit my laptop there and blog, kids can do their homework, I can read the paper and drink my coffee…basically it’ll be like a mini kitchen table but in the family room. Because you know what? I’ve always always ALWAYS wanted a little nook underneath bright windows to have my morning coffee, write my list for the day, read my devotionals and I got to thinking…there are no rules that say I can’t just do that in my family room. I mean, if Jojo can build a Barndemonium with a dining room downstairs and a kitchen upstairs, then I can do this, am I right?! And I’m SO EXCITED. I can’t wait for the first day that isn’t a MILLION DEGREES when I can sit under those windows and feel the breeze, and enjoy my happy place. And this room in the morning gets so much sunlight. It’s going to become my favorite place in the house. I can just feel it.

More on the plan: Getting a cozy shaggy rug I think. And painting the room Revere Pewter (I can hear the gasps from here! Yes, I’m painting over my beloved Sea Salt, but it’s all good, I promise. We’ll chat more about that soon too…)

Oh, and lighting! Haven’t figured out if I’m going to install some gooseneck wall lamps or floor lamps or what, but that’s on the list for this little nook too. Hoooo boy are we going to have a busy Fall!

Speaking of, I’ve got a house full of girls coming over later for a Mermaid Craft Party to celebrate my soon-to-be 10 year old, so I better wrap this up! Stay tuned for LOTS more family room fun, and have an awesome weekend, friends! XO