Help! Family Room/Entertainment Room Facelift Needed

6 years ago

We just moved into a new (new to us, not newly built) house. We are about to embark on a makeover of the family room addition. The addition is off of the kitchen where the cabinets are cherry (kind of reddish/brown). The floor in the kitchen is currently wood (red oak - yellowish/natural in color) and we are planning to extend the wood floors into the family room as well. We will be getting the kitchen floor sanded and re-stained. The trim, baseboards in the doorway leading to the family room off the kitchen are oak as well but darker than the current floor color. We have oak everywhere and as much as I would like to change it out, that is not in the budget.

Here are the things I would love some advice/ideas about:

1) What color would you stain the new wood floor and re-stain the kitchen floors so they all flow together?

2) Paint color ideas for the family room - the kitchen is a sage green that was there when we bought the house

3) Furniture arrangement ideas for the family room (we are tearing out the ugly wood shelves/entertainment center that you see). We will be purchasing new furniture (thinking about a sectional). It is a big rectangular room with windows all along the wall to the backyard and a patio door to the screened porch on another wall. We are thinking about putting a little game table and a couple of chairs in the corner by the back windows/patio door (we just have dog kennel and random stuff put there right now because we are finishing the basement facelift).

4) Thoughts about storage for blankets, games, etc. and some type of drink station along the wall where there is currently the ugly wood bookcases/entertainment center.

5) There is a bunch of recessed lighting in the wood ceiling. The current ceiling fan will be replaced. A new fan is more of a priority than lighting due to the amount of light from the recessed lighting. Ideas for style of fan would be appreciated.

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Comments (5)

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Beth H. :
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
that is a lot, lot of wood! It's nice, but it's just a lot. would you consider painting the window/door trim and the baseboards in white? it really would look so nice, especially w/the pine ceiling and the oak floor.

here is a before/after

here's a wood ceiling and floor w/white window trim so you can see

another pic w/your pine ceiling next to white trim (ignore the coffered ceiling beams)

If you'd like to put in a few beams, do them white: (notice white trim again!)

I'd have the floors stained in a walnut shade. Oak is beautiful in that coloring and if it's red oak, it will hide the natural pink tone.

this tone.

If you need to put in shelving, consider something like this w/a black background. notice the white trim/baseboards.

actually, if you will be doing flooring, consider removing the existing smaller wood baseboards and replacing them w/the taller white ones, like in this pic above and the one showing the wood floor, above.

As for ceiling fan, since you don't need the light, pick something in a sleeker type of fan blade, less bulky than what you have.
for the storage issue, I don't know what the budget is, or do you have DIY skills? plenty of built-in type of cabinets you could do. Even doing an Ikea hack w/the Billy Book cases would be an option.

pine ceiling and walnut stained oak floors, white trim and baseboards. gives you an idea for your space. nice fan too

or, if you had thoughts on painting the ceiling
Robi S thanked Beth H. :
arcy_gw
6 years ago
More wood floors is not the direction I would be going. As said, there is already A LOT with the ceiling and all. Tomatoe tomato on the trim. I would leave as is, I think they should reference the ceiling. A bit of dressing up with some panels on the windows would soften things a bit. It appears your built ins already have a wet/dry bar with a 'fridge underneath? It is unfortunate that isn't towards the back of the room away from the TV. I would want more open shelving. Perhaps removing the doors and see how you can dress things up a bit across the top? I am guessing that large hole was for a previous TV, and the rest to hide the components..it seems deep, a gut job may be your best option and it would be timely if you are getting all new floors. It doesn't live up to your beautiful kitchen cabinetry. I would try and keep the new storage no deeper than the current counter where the fridge is. DH would die but I wonder what a faux fireplace on that wall with cabinetry all around would be like?
Robi S thanked arcy_gw
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Tina
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
I would go a bit darker with the floors, something like this:

I would also suggest you paint the wooden ceiling in the family room a beautiful white.

Out of a Feng shui perspective there is a lot from the wood element going on and to balance it all you need to bring in more from the metal element. Think bright colours like white and light grey, also work with materials like metal and stone.
Robi S thanked Tina
Robi S
Original Author
6 years ago
Thanks for the suggestions! Getting some interesting suggestions here! It is a lot of wood, agreed. We have multiple animals and a child so easy cleaning, less fur/dander to fill the house and easy upkeep is important, thus the idea of doing wood floors instead of carpet. We will definitely be bringing in more elements of metal and I love the idea of stone as well (will need to come with some ways to do this). We are totally removing the oak shelving/drink station and will replace it with something new. At some point would actually love to put a gas fireplace in this room but that is down the road.

I love the look of white trim. We aren't prepared at this point to replace all of the trim/baseboards throughout the house as it is all oak in every room. What do people think of white trim in one room but then oak in other areas of the house that are in the same sight lines as the room with white?
sonni1
6 years ago
What a beautiful space! I think when the floors are done and the cabinet out it will be stunning! I like Beth's ideas about the white trim and using metal open shelves. If you need the curtain - perhaps replacing it with a roller shade to match the smaller window to the left would make a huge impact. I would use the same color for the room as is in the kitchen.
Robi S thanked sonni1