A Familyroom Consultation

One of my readers, Margaret, asked me to help her with her family room, so she sent me lots of pics to look at and peruse.

She’s got lots of neutrals in this space and I love the wall color, beams and light color of the fireplace already, so she really has some great bones to work with in this room. The wall color will remain the current creamy white, but I added some blue and orangey-red to the inspiration board to show the accessory colors that will be dominant in here.

She asked for ideas on how to make it look better and more cozy and to get the built-ins looking better instead of too cluttered.

The painting is staying so that determined a lot of the direction we went for bringing in accessories for the room.

And I love the dark chocolate brown leather sofa and chairs that are already here.

She has a lot of great things, but the room needs to be brought more up to date with some fresh things added. The oak armoire will be moved out of the room as well as some dated accessories, like the ships wheel clock.

So, I came up with this Inspiration board with lots of things to add to the room that will cozy it up and bring it more up to date with some interesting lamps, rug and just rearranging some of her current accessories. She has a nice blue and white collection which needs to be highlighted in the built-in bookcases. And the artwork needs to be lowered and some of the smaller accessories removed for larger pieces. With some changes, this room will be a standout. I also sent her 4 pages of suggestions and ideas for how the room can be changed to add the inspiration pieces found on the board. Her room has great bones, it just needs some tweaking to bring it up to date with a much more cozy feel.

Margaret really loved my ideas and sent me this note:

“What we both really liked is how you had a color vision for us as to how to bring the large painting into the decor. Instead of having the painting be the only splash of color, you gave us great ideas on how to make these colors come alive in other areas of this room. Your advice was worth it's weight in gold!

I also wish you would mention the importance of the inspiration board in addition to the written evaluation of a client’s room. In my opinion, they go hand in hand and make things so clear. I also think it's important for a trained eye to list several things that jump out to them about a room. I can't tell you enough about how so many of us get to the point of "not being able to see" our rooms anymore. We know we need help, but we don't really know what's wrong or what isn't working.”

Margaret's Family Room by Rhoda12 on Polyvore.com

(Click pic to open for all details on each item)

If you'd like my help with a room, click here for more info! This is so much fun for me to reach out and help others who are stuck with a decorating dilemma.