A Newly Decorated Family Room

Lorraine had been dropping hints for some time about the need to give our family room a bit more love. I thought the setup was fine. It consisted of three main components - A gray couch we had purchased at Room & Board over 10 years ago that had really held up, especially with the spills (you name it) and thrills (jumping, climbing and tumbling) of little kids; a large oriental (is that still PC?) rug we bought at an auction around the same time as the couch; and a chaise lounge that was heavenly to sink into, but admittedly was too big for the space. We had even gone to Room & Board a couple of years ago and sat on at least 20 different sofas until we discovered our favorite. But I just wasn’t quite ready to splurge on a beautiful new couch, as I was certain they'd destroy it.

BEFORE redecorating.

A few years later…now feeling convinced I could “train” them to treat our new furnishings with love and care, I finally relented and we scheduled a virtual appointment with a Room & Board designer, a free service they provide (that I'm sure is built into the price tag of the items you purchase).

Now my goal when decorating our home is always to create a space that makes visitors feel comfortable and at ease...like they can come in, sink back, put their feet up and fit right in. At the same time, I want it to serve as a sanctuary for our family. A place we can cuddle under blankets and watch movies or stretch out and dive into our respective digital worlds. My wife wants simple luxury. Thankfully, we've come to realize that both our goals can be achieved, albeit with some concessions.

Our Room & Board designer was Carlos J., and within 30 minutes, we had selected the leather Metro Sectional in vento cadet (aka blue), the Liam Coffee Table, and the Tulum Rug in Slate. Using his design software and our room specs, he laid it all out so we could see how it would fit in the space. We liked it, gave him our credit card, scheduled our delivery date...and it was a done deal. Super easy and stress-free. It did help that we had spent hours doing couch-sitting research to land on our choice ahead of time.

AFTER redecorating.

After it was set up, we continued to add finishing touches like a table behind the couch, lots of pillows, a few plants (a must for me), and a few other decorative pieces. And when the kids started music lessons a few months later, the corner of the room became the perfect spot to house their instruments (a piano for Alex and a guitar for Jayden). We absolutely love this space and next to the kitchen, spend most of our time here. Our one rule is no food or drinks in the room. We'll see how long we can maintain that.