The OTHER Wall in the New Family Room Setup…

If you follow my Instastories, you may have seen that I was SO ready and prepared to blog about the FINISHED “Other Wall” of the Family Room the other day. We rearranged on New Year’s Day, and I’ve been showing you glimpses of the new space, but this one wall – the wall with the tv – has been MIA, because it wasn’t done. It was thisclose, but not completely blog ready. You see, we’ve been living with three big picture frames waiting to be filled with photos of our family…for about month or so now. Not only do we stare at these three big framed photos of a little girl dressed up in a tutu every day, but she’s SIDEWAYS. Ha! I mean, she’s adorable, don’t get me wrong, but I’d like some family shots in there. Maybe in the right direction too? 😉 And it was the only thing keeping me from snapping some pics and showing you the final part to the new, rearranged family room.

So I finally got to it. I already had an 8×10 in black and white of my babies, so just had to pick two more and send them up the street to get printed out.

I did, then I got home and noticed they were WAY different tones than the old black and white photo from forever ago. Almost had a green tint to them. (Sorry, Insta followers, you know all this!)

But you know what I decided?

I’m gonna blog about the wall anyway! You all won’t care, right?!

Yes, that’s my traveling plant from this post. I have found YET ANOTHER perfect spot for it. Oh my.

Here’s the one and only shot of my actual family on this wall…

Gah! THEY WERE SO CUTE. Still are, but you know what I mean…;)

Ok, let’s refresh your memory. This wall, where the steps are, used to look like this:

And the tv was across from it:

We swapped the two. And I’ve showed you the sofa wall now (and my fun DIY Happy Place Signs!):

And presto chango! NOW the tv wall looks like this:

Let me tell you JUST HOW HARD THIS WALL WAS TO DECORATE.

I was stumped. The tv couldn’t move any more to the right or

1. We couldn’t have the chair there, and

2. It wouldn’t be positioned across from the sofa anymore. It felt nearly impossible to make this wall look remotely normal. Decorating around a tv is one thing – decorating around a tv that’s got a staircase behind it so you can’t get any symmetry going is a whole other ballgame.

So I decided, since we needed some family photos in here anyway, what if I got a bunch of frames and made a fun gallery wall! YES!

I ran to HomeGoods and bought out every white frame they had. I tried and tried and tried- every layout I could possibly imagine, and in the end, decided less was more. I returned all but three (much to my wallet’s delight!), and realized, sometimes less really is more.

Instead of trying to work around the tv, I pretended it wasn’t there and centered the frames within the little wall.

See the cute little sideways tutu girl? Don’t worry, I’ve ordered more photos from a different place – fingers crossed! 😉

Who spots Liz giving the thumbs up??

And who is crazy observant and discovered I chopped my big DIY ladder down!?

This one:

I know! Crazy, right? But I really needed something to fill that spot. All the white from the board and batten, tv dresser, and now white picture frames…it needed something. and I realized a shorter ladder with a cozy throw blanket would break up all the white, and add texture and color and warmth to this space. So I busted it up and chopped off a good bit, reattached the rungs, and there ya go!

Sometimes it’s ok to take a saw to one of your favorite DIYs, because it served its purpose in one form, and now it serves its purpose in a different form. It’s all good. Though it was a little painful;)

Anyway, gotta go ice a Valentine’s Day cake for my favorite people so better run! Hope you’re feeling loved today, and if you aren’t, know that I love you and am giving you a cyber hug right now! XO