Family Room Update (Week 4-ORC)
Welcome back, friends! As per usual with this challenge, the weeks fly by, and some of them with minimal progress. This past week would be one of them. We’ve been working around work schedules, as well as weather, and life, because I’ve learned that though this challenge is worth being a focus, family life comes before it, always.
I had hoped to share that the fireplace was done, but that’s not the case. We have it all figured out though, so it should be smooth sailing from here on out. Should I have just typed that? Have I jinxed our project? Eek! So what do I have to share with you? All the little things that I worked on myself, outside of building, and installing things. That means sourcing lights for the space, sourcing art, basically scanning the entire web looking for great deals on things I wanted to incorporate into this space. Ya know, using up all my spare time, giving me tech-headaches, and enjoying the heck out of the process, despite all of that!
We should start with the lighting. I have felt a certain way about this space. I want it to pull vintage at first glance, but with a modern touch to it, so I’ve mixed and matched fixtures to accomplish that goal. Here’s what I’ve come up with.
Perfection! At least to my eye for the space. I can’t wait to install them all so I can see each fixture work its magic. Like I said above, I worked for hours to find these three pieces. The first one being the floor lamp. I’ve photo manipulated the image, to incorporate and empire shade, and now that I have it here in our house, I can see that it was the right choice. My eyes light up each times I see it! No pun intended. The ceiling fixture had to be something that would complement the floor lamp, as well as surrounding lighting in our hallways, since this space is open to them. This one does the job, and is even more beautiful in person. Finally, for our game/art/study space, I wanted to incorporate a wall sconce of some sort. First I thought about something flush to the wall, and using a puck light to avoid having to plug it in. We aren’t about to attempt to hardwire this on our own! Looking for that, I navigated into the world of plug-in sconces, and the idea really piqued my interest. I searched all over, in my go-to sites for the perfect one, and of course the perfect price. When I came upon this one, it was a no-brainer.
As for the art, our tapestry is going to be the focal point of one wall, but I have other areas that I’d like to incorporate art into, such as the bookcase, and again, the study space. I don’t want art to overwhelm the space, but I have images in my head of what I hope it looks like once we’re done, and there is a fair amount of art in that look. For a long time I’ve searched Etsy for vintage art prints, to combine with my actual vintage art that I find while out sourcing, and the convenience of that has been phenomenal, but I wanted to see if I could source free art for this space as well, and I did! Have any of you ever heard the term, “Open Access Images”? I suggest looking it up if you’re ever in the market for vintage prints. The not so secret, secret is that many of the Etsy accounts that sell vintage art, source a good amount of images this way, for free, and then sell them to you! The benefit to you is that you don’t have to do the work when buying from those sellers, but if you have a bit of time, and love to look at art, this is worth doing yourself. I found so many images, some I’ve even paid for before, to download free of charge. Now all I have to do is have them printed. I like Walgreens Photo when I have a specific frame in hand that I’d like to use. Otherwise, having a framing company print and frame is the way to go.
So that was a wordy update! I’ve found that I have a lot to say this challenge, and hopefully it’s all worth your time to read. I try to be informational, as well as a good resource to you, and maybe I could cut it down a bit, or share it differently, but this is my natural voice, so I prefer to keep it. If you have any suggestions though, let me know! Also, if you’d like to see some of the art I’ve found, in collection form, for free on here as a post, let me know that too. I’d be glad to do it for a few posts and your convenience!
Check back in with us next week to see what we’ve accomplished!
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