Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Our Family Room with Storage Solutions

Hey there!

Have you ever wondered what to do with all of those household items around your home?
Well, in our home, we lack built-in storage so we have to get creative!
In our family room, for instance, we don't have closets or built-ins or shelves...but we needed some kind of storage solution because we have a ton of things that need a place to live, you know?
So, over the past year, my family and I have been thrift shop hunting around our area to find the perfect storage solutions for items in our family room.

In this post, you will see several examples of what we used to store things like books, movies, toys, left-over fabric, etc and I hope you get inspired to do the same in your home. :)

To start, I just took some pictures of our family room so you get a better idea of the space and its function.

The mirror over the fireplace was a neat find from The Home Depot Martha Stewart Collection.
I used a gift card to purchase it so it was a deal to me!
I will talk about the book cases and the floral patterned chair later on in this post...they have a neat story to tell.


 If you are like me, you enjoy taking tons of pictures of all sorts of things. I love to photograph family, scenery, and pretty much anything that strikes my fancy.
But I also need a place to put those pictures on display, so I purchased these frames from Wal-Mart for $3.00 a piece a while back. I painted them white and hung them around the television. It's amazing what a little paint can do.


 The television stand holds a ton of DVD's, cords, batteries, and other electronic things that we didn't want out on display for everyone to see...especially our little ones. We had to make sure those items were stored safely away so we purchased this T.V. stand from the thrift store and I painted the bottom white and kept the top in its original wood tone for visual appeal. I also gave the handles an update too with some spray paint.


Now these chairs are pretty special to me because they were thrift store purchases that I absolutely love!!
Each cost under $25 and all I had to do was give them a makeover.
They work great in our family room because they provide the function of extra seating, which is something we desperately needed in this space.
To read more about the floral thrift store chair makeover, just click here.


I bought 2 of these armchairs at another thrift store in our area and painted them in a navy color and Voila! more seating in our family room was accomplished.


Some of these pillows were DIY projects and others were bought on clearance at Target. They serve as comfortable backings to our FREE couch!! Yes, I said a FREE couch! :)
The pastor of our church was getting rid of his so we quickly took it home and recovered it.


I love our fireplace mantle!
It's a great place to display family mementos like these owls my mom bought and our thrift store vase I painted a year ago.


And here is the bookcase my husband and I creatively put together ourselves! We are pretty happy about the way it turned out.
The top part is made from Target shelves and the bottom part is actually a dresser that we transformed. It works great as a base unit to our shelves.
And don't worry, it is safely nailed and attached together.
To read more about this project transformation, click herehere, and here.
:)

But this piece does a great job holding storage as you can see. And I love that it sits cozily next to our fireplace which makes it a great spot to curl up an read a book- especially on those cold nights!

 
And I will leave you with a few more pictures to enjoy of our space.











How do you handle to storage needs in your family room?


Thanks for stopping by!

Linking to:

http://amy-newnostalgia.blogspot.com/
http://thededicatedhouse.blogspot.com/
http://somedaycrafts.blogspot.com/
http://www.theshabbycreekcottage.com/
http://www.firefliesandjellybeans.com/

http://emilyaclark.blogspot.com/

9 comments :

  1. looks nice! i love that you painted the inside of the bookshelf

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Carissa! Painting the inside of the bookshelf really adds more color to the room I think. :)

      ~Stephanie

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  2. Your newest follower here...I love your style - so eclectic, cozy and inviting! I love the selection of pillows.

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    1. Awesome! Thanks for following, Marium! I hope you stick around to read about more posts from me. :)

      ~Stephanie

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  3. Hi Stephanie,
    I found your blog through A Humble Creation's link party. I just love your family room! Your storage solutions are great and I'm so impressed that you painted your chairs! I have a chair that I considered painting, but I chickened out! Yours look great!
    -Megan

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    Replies
    1. Thank you, Megan!!
      Painting chairs is pretty fun...does take time but it is neat to see the end result. :)
      Let me know if you ever paint your chairs.

      ~Stephanie

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  4. Stephanie,
    You've really done a lovely job with your living room. It's so inspiring that you've created a welcoming and cozy room with so many thrift store finds and DIY projects. Just proves you don't have to spend a lot of money to have the home you want! Thanks for sharing at A New Creation!

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  5. Stephanie,
    Your family room post was one of the most viewed links at last week's party and is featured this week at A New Creation!
    Thanks!

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  6. You've found some great deals! And, you can't beat a free couch :) Thanks for linking up.

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I always love to hear from my readers! Thanks for taking the time to post an encouraging & uplifting comment.