The family room

When we bought this house, the downstairs family room looked like this:

It was still scary to paint it all such a dark color!  Luckily, it turned out great and was just what the brick needed to bring it into this century. 

Due to the lower ceiling, I had to mount the curtain rod on the ceiling rather than the paneling.  I love that ceiling rod holders are available for situations like this.  I replaced the boob light with the same inexpensive chandelier that hung in the entry of our house on Russet street. 

I removed the silly corner shelves and got simple pine 1x8s that I painted with the same flat paint as the brick.  I also got these Rubbermaid brackets from Home Depot because they were cheap and the bronze finish matched the paint almost exactly.  I was planning to do a top coat of poly on the shelves, but the open house happened and I just got lazy, so the new owners will have to do that.   

I love the new painted fireplace! 

It’s just high heat black spray, and it looks so much better.  I love how the brick, shelves, curtain rods, chandelier and windows all tie in the dark color together – and how it complements the orangey wood of the paneling.  And the brick wall by the piano even looks awesome!

Much more modern.  If we were staying here, I’d have come up with a cool gallery wall for this nook.

I also replaced all the almond outlets and switches for white.  All together I think I spent around $250 with paint, curtain rods, chandelier, shelf parts, and outlets.  So, that is the very inexpensive family room update.  Not bad, eh?