Saturday, February 2, 2013

small rooms, MANY people



When we bought this house we had one major concern: no big room.

There wasn't a single room that could hold upwards of 20 people.  For most, this may not matter, but we LOVE to have friends, family, and neighbors over to our home.

Birthday celebrations on the front porch, wine and cheese night with the ladies, or even the upcoming super bowl party (which teams are playing??).  No matter what the occasion, it is about community:



Technically, our house has 3 bedrooms.  Two upstairs--our master and a guest room--and a third on the main level.

When you enter our house you see:


Off to the right is our sitting room, approximately 9 ft. x 13 ft. :

(excited for new floor install, potential new couch, and a sweet rug)

But if you keep walking to the back of the house you run into our third bedroom converted into a tv/family room.  It is another small room, again: 9 ft. x 13 ft.  At first we had this setup:


Which was cozy for the two of us, but we couldn't watch tv or hangout with more than two people without someone having to sit on the floor, problem.

Enter, couch shopping.  We checked out IKEA and found this gem: Corner sofa-bed Manstad, but it wasn't extremely "cushy" and didn't seem to say "come sit on me."

A bit discouraged, we went for the extreme Crate and Barrel experience and fell in love with: Moda sectional, too fun, too much $.  But, an out-the-door, $4000.00 couch, simply was not in the BUDGET (I am beginning to hate that word).

So we checked out VanHill Furniture in Holland, Michigan, and found the PERFECT--for us, sectional couch:


We were able to choose our fabric color, CHARCOAL, and pillow pattern.  Then a fun Christmas present--new Samsung tv:


plus a new entertainment stand from World Market--1/3 the price of Pottery Barn, thanks Meredith VK for the tip-- and we had the BONES of the room put together.

The best part, we had 14 people circled up for our weekly Community Group through Grace Ann Arbor, and it was a SUCCESS!!

Now the goal is to add some corner lighting, wallpaper action on the tv wall, and family pictures.  Photographs of finished family room to come.

Do you have small rooms in your home? I would love to hear your suggestions for how to best utilize space!

1 comment:

  1. You know what? This is a very practical house for small families. A small house is okay as long as you know the right furniture to buy and where to place them. When my hubby and I were newly weds, we lived in a small apartment. We have a lot of stuff—too many for our place, in fact—but I didn't want to get rid of them. What I did is to buy a decorative room divider with a wood cabinet. Putting in a divider is one way of maximizing the space in your home and creating different areas. A small house need not be a storage room. As a matter of fact, having a smaller house guarantees that you only keep what you need. I look forward to your house updates. Good luck! :)

    Abdul Jackson

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