great room reveal

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Once upon a time, there was this house. And we fell in love.

It didn’t really make any sense to many people. But that was okay with us.

Because sometimes love is blind… and sometimes love allows you to see more potential than what anyone else can see.

We’re thrilled to share our great room reveal today… and all the changes that came with the entire thing.

The room is a hybrid of sorts, with old and new mixed together, along with salvaged, fresh, and found. And of course, handmade. It truly reflects us as a family while functioning on a level we definitely need for real life. We couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out, after all the blood sweat and tears.

We started by taking out all the walls, and while this was a risk, we didn’t stop there. The low stamped ceiling definitely had to go to reveal that gorgeous a-frame underneath.

We shiplapped the ceilings ourselves and were thrilled to use az faux beams as a beautiful contrast.

Can you imagine the space without them? It brought in so much character. We have friends over all the time, and when we tell them they’re faux, they don’t believe us. It’s a fun game to play. We always bust out a sample so people can see what they’re made of on the inside.

While the front door is our main entryway for now, that will change in the future. So we wanted a piece that could double as both a high functioning foyer area catch-all, and a space to serve when needed. It can be used as a kitchen island, simple shelving or even entryway piece as seen here.

We wanted something fun and colorful that reflected our family… the phrase Dixie Land Delight came to mind since we’re from Alabama, now living in Tennessee. Kind of likened to the overplay of ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ in our home state, I don’t think I’ll ever get accustomed to the ‘Good Ole Rocky Top’. This little phrase just seemed to fit.

We love how the space is now what we call the great room. With the kitchen, sitting area and dining space.

It’s still not quite finished, and a few of you may be wondering why there are blank spaces on that side of the room. If you’ve been following our money pit saga, then you know we have a long way to go with all things home. For starters, we have the basement to finish off. {#septic}. But See where the fried green tomatoes and additional cabinet sits to the left of the fridge? That will be where our walkthrough to the eventual addition will go. {We hope. #thanksseptic} We just may be waiting it out for sewage to come through. Who knows. And to the right of the cabinets on the other side, you may notice another missing space. There, we’ll be installing a desk soon which will continue the matching inset cabinets and marble countertops, as well. It’s just a little down the line. Stay tuned and stuff. ;}

For the love of green and oddly matted shag carpet, we were so glad to see it go. We wanted to give everything a softer palette so that we could easily change our color sheme in the future with minimal effort. We also love the way it unified the space.

Paint colors:

• PURE WHITE {HGSW4006}: trim, ceilings, and our main cabinets.
•  SAND DOLLAR {HGSW3117} on our kitchen island.
• NEBULOUS WHITE {HGSW4057}: On our walls
• DIVERSE BEIGE {HGSW3086}: A few of our doors for a nice deeper grey, and accent colors throughout the home.
• SWIMMING {HGSW1327}: (In case you were wondering) The blue you spy throughout the rest of the home, on the ceilings + some walls

To see more specific details on the kitchen, be sure to check out our posts {here and here}

We were thrilled to install these beautiful Pergo hardwoods throughout the home for a gorgeous, classic feel. Nothing makes us happier than padding along barefoot in the mornings in our pajamas with coffee. We adore hardwoods all the way through and are so glad this is a design choice we made early on. It helped immensely with the entire feel of the house.

I’ve wanted a round table for as long as I can remember. There’s just something about our family gathered around it that warms my heart, and with so many things in the space, it also offsets the rectangular feel of everything. So when we found this one, we knew it was just right. Between our big island, this table and our outside area, our little home has plenty of space for entertaining.

The chandelier was the perfect fit for overhead.

You’ll notice our chairs rehabbed from our old house, mixed in with some new to keep it fresh, since these were paired with a bench {which now resides outside} in our old home.

We loved adding simple panels throughout the home with this fabulous fabric from Online Fabric Store. They’re our staple go to source for all things fabric. This is a nice, thick linen, and adds enough privacy without being too sheer. They kiss the floor, and it’s the perfect touch of warmth for the space.

It added simple character to the walls without covering that beautiful trim we love so much and our new windows from Window World.

Of course, we added our egg painting for now… Confession: I’m kind of on the hunt for an upright vintage piano in this little area. I’m going to be that mom who forces her kids to take piano lessons. Okay fine. Instrument of their choice. I’ve always played by ear and I think it might be something I wouldn’t mind picking up a little every now and then, for a different outlet as well.

Wish me luck – any advice? I hear it’s like learning a different language but for some reason I’m kind of obsessed with the notion of taking it on. ;}

The rug is just perfect with its great colors and awesome tassels. It’s from Loloi – another one of our very favorite sources for rugs.

I waited a long time to place a rug under our dining area, and were thoughtful with our choice in something that could camouflage potential spills well. I feel like the kiddos are finally old enough {though the jury’s still out on the youngest} ;} It keeps the space light and colorful.

Everything has come such a long way. And if you’re wondering, we are still loving our countertops. Both marble + soapstone sourced right here at home in America via Polycor.

All our kitchen sources can be found here.

Once with this wall in the way, the only things you could see with your back to the rest of the house were these cabinets.

When we removed them all and opened up the space, it didn’t quite feel so small anymore.

We grabbed up a glass coffee table from West Elm since our old coffee table was much larger – we hope to use the larger one downstairs when it’s complete.

This one wasn’t quite so imposing on the limited floor space around the fireplace – the glass keeps everything feeling open. We love the way the brass pops on top of the blue rug from Joss and Main {Also Loloi brand}.

We brought in a lot of our own fabrics and pillows and love the way they play nicely in layers of color.

You know we love our color.

This is my first pair of big girl lamps. I’ve always found them in thrift stores and have repurposed and loved them. They will still be used in our home. But when I spied these, I fell in love.

The side tables are available through us, as well.

Little clock available here. 

We loved adding some color to the doors to liven up the space, as well as what we were able to do with the fireplace.

We’d originally planned on salvaging it, but weren’t happy with the proportions, and when the drywall came out during demo, we realized it was ready to topple. It wasn’t quite so sturdy. So we furnished a new one, where we detailed the entire technique here. 

The chandy in this area is from Joss and Main – they’re one of our favorite sources for lights.

Here’s a bit of another sentimental addition. My grandfather was a builder. He built most of the homes in the small town where my mom was raised, and at night in his off hours, he was hard at work building their own home… the one I grew up visiting as a child. This was before they had such fancy things as power saws or nail guns. After going through our own rehab, it blows my mind the things he did as a builder. Everything he did was by hand and it still amazes me. He passed away before I was born and I never had the privilege of knowing him. But we were very close to my grandmother, and she stayed in that house for the rest of her life.

When Meme passed away, it was hard for all of us. So when we came to gather at the house for the first time again, it was a year after she’d passed. A family gathering in the very house my grandfather built by hand… the place we made pretend houses from leaves in the fall, and played hide and seek on the cool moss forest floor as children. We grew up sitting a the little green squeaky swing for what seemed like hours, and I still remember the sound of her screen door. And the the smell of her crisp floral sheets with bacon for breakfast in the mornings. It was one of my favorite places on the planet.

That family gathering one year later was the day that Jamin proposed to me. With my entire family present, in the doorway of the garage where I’d spent so many days… in that little house.

So when my mom uncovered some of my grandfather’s old floor plans from his builder days, I knew I wanted to at least get a scan of one with his handwriting on it. As a little reminder of where we are and what it’s taken to get us here. It’s funny how each person’s choices before us affect our own trajectory. Where would we be without the generations before us – the good and the bad… since we’re all human?

It’s kind of funny, looking back, that this is the direction we’ve taken now with our own business. And we have such an admiration for what he did. A sweet reminder of all things life and what makes us who we are. A little reminder of where we came from, and where we want to go. So we were thrilled to place it in a prominent area – over our fireplace – as a little reminder.

Bonus: It hides the recess for the TV, since I was a little torn – a happy compromise. ;}

This little frame holds one of my faves of the kiddos at the beach.

It’s from a full how to of our book, here.

The grey sofa and wingback chairs are from Joss and Main – Again, one of our favorite sources.

We loved bringing in some fresh accents to seat more people and it included a little grey to make things symmetrical and neutral so we can change our color schemes on a whim.

The chesterfield is a long time love of ours, from another store that is no longer in business. I was determined to fit in the space, even though I had my doubts. Since every area of this room fits together like a bit of a puzzle, it took a bit of finagling but was worth it. Everyone can sit comfortably on that one sofa and we love how comfy it is.

Our ampersand art is available here.

Brass lantern also available here through us.

It’s fun to bring in little accents like magnolia leaves from our own yard. We adore that magnolia tree, and planted one in our first home as a married couple. There are so many little nods here to the things that were set in motion that are special to us, before we even arrived.

And we had a debate for so long over wood burning vs. gas fireplace. In the end, gas won since it was cooler for the TV and the kicker – it would have taken some major reconfiguring of the roof to add a real working chimney. In the end, practicality {and hello – budget} won. But we find ourselves using it daily in the cold weather, and I’m just not sure Jamin would have wanted to play Paul Bunyan all winter long, so there’s that. I mean he’s manly and stuff but cutting wood is a job. Also, my hardwoods + rug are grateful for the absence of rogue embers.

We brought in another accent with the barnwood we salvaged for the mantel. I stumbled upon it at a local flea market and it was the perfect size. Admittedly, I had no idea where it was going at the time… I tend to do that {see: stained glass windows currently used in kitchen}. Happy accidents {and by accidents I mean wild off-handed purchases of rando finds} are kind of my thing.

We’re currently living in {almost 1700 sq ft} a smaller space, but you wouldn’t know it with the way things feel. It’s a great little gathering area for our family.

We just love it here.

This little house was a total redo from the studs up.

If you’ve been following along in this series {BLESS YOU} then you probably know it started with doing it right since the age was a factor in all the changes we made. We’re talking about decor today, but even the little changes with that, made a big difference in the final house. We were thrilled to put in a new HVAC and even insulation and new windows – it’s made a huge difference in the regulation of temps of the house.

We ended up changing our vent covers as well, and while we’ll be including more on that coming up, we had to show you the sweet difference it made since all our vents are on the floors. We even have the one you see above on our stairway, which much to my dismay couldn’t be moved because of the configuration of the roof. But we were thrilled to add an attractive cover since it’s the little things. It added a lot of character to the things we couldn’t necessarily change.

This little bench sits here for now, and it will eventually be a window seat. We are quite fond of the bench, though.

We finished those stairs ourselves since they needed to be brought up to code and were essentially made less steep.

It was fun matching up the stain and was actually one of the easier projects we took on.

We’ll have more on that entire process and area coming up, but we loved changing out the old hand rail to something simple and modern. It’s handmade by an amazing artisan and we love the look it brings to the room.

This one’s worth the click over just for Steel House Manufacturing’s awesome portfolio. It’s the little things.

And that’s a glance at all things great room.

Of course with all the details and sources in one post this one was a doozy. We may have left something out so please let us know if you have any questions and we’ll do our best to shoot you in the right direction.

Have an inspired day!