How we hide the TV electronics

Hello there! First of all, I know there is a weird redirect going on with my site and I'm trying to get it figured out. I'm still here! Go ahead and click through if you get the notice and hopefully I'll have it fixed shortly. 

You all have been so helpful the past couple of weeks! If you missed my review of our family room sectional earlier this week, check it out here. You all had some great ideas that may be helpful for you those of you with similar issues. I've already tried adding a pillow to our cushions and it made them way too thick, but I'm going to keep working on it. 

I have a whole post planned soon about the best way to hang your TV without seeing cables and cords everywhere (safely). But this post goes into more detail on how we hid our electronics in our family room. I didn't want to have the components out if we could help it and this was a perfect solution! 

When we took down a wall and extended our family room years ago we had to build our gas fireplace out into the room. Usually there's a little "dog house" bump out outside that your fireplace sits in, but ours had been a corner fireplace. Adding that bump out would have required permits and a lot more time. 

Since the fireplace was going to come out into the room anyway, I figured out a solution to reconfigure kitchen cabinets (like I do a lot in our house) and make them into built ins to hide the electronics:

I didn't do that part personally -- the guys we hired expanded them in the back so they would be deep enough to hold the electronics. We used upper cabinets because the lower ones were too deep for what we needed. I had them extend these to 18 inches deep instead of 12 inches like the original cabinet. 

I later cut the center part of the doors off and then installed metal sheeting so the components could breathe: 

I love that the sheeting lets air flow, but also still hides the items inside pretty well. The best part -- the remotes still work! 

Here's how it looks inside: 

THIS is important and I will go into this more at a later date -- do not run power cords through the wall. I learned years ago this is NOT the correct way to hang a TV. We had an electrician/AV professional install the proper outlets and plugs behind the TV. (Power and receptacles for all HDMI, etc.) 

I had the fake wall built above the fireplace so I could recess the TV back into it and have it sit flush with that wall when it's pushed back:

I love that you don't see the wires behind the TV or the mount when the TV is in it's regular position (it also pulls out, swivels and can go up or down). I highly recommend this little trick if you are considering hanging your TV -- especially with a mount that pulls out!

The other cabinet is pure storage which is awesome! Those fabric covered bins are from IKEA and I have all our extra remotes, phone accessories and random electronic stuff inside. I LOVE having this storage in the family room:

I love even more that there is empty space in there! :) 

This fireplace wall is the focal point of our family room for sure. I think it turned out so well. The fact that the electronics are hidden away makes it even better:

I still haven't hidden the subwoofer, but now it doesn't even bother me. Years ago I was going to  build some kind of cover for it, but now we hardly notice it.

These DIY tricks are what completely transformed this wall -- it's another spot in our home that looks good but also functions wonderfully as well.

Here are some more helpful projects from this wall if you are interested!

How I used $13 to panel the wall behind the TV:

I shared how to tile your fireplace surround here: 

And I just did this again this morning! I share how to clean the (inside) glass on your gas fireplace: 

It's actually quite easy! :) Ours gets yucky every year and this helps tremendously! 

Making changes in the family room

Hey all! I'm back to show you some updates I've made in the family room lately! I'm so so stinking happy with them. 

You may remember how we knocked down a wall years ago and nearly doubled the size of our family room. We doubled the length of the room but it is more narrow than it used to be because of that. We didn't buy any new furniture when we made over this space and instead made what we had work for the room. 

We had two arm chairs in the room -- one in this cozy corner: 

And one off to the other side, closer to the sofa: 

That corner by the windows used to be where I'd sit and work every day, but I haven't used that space in quite a long time since I finished our office/craft room in the loft. That corner was such a cozy spot but felt so detached from the room. When we had company of course it was empty because no one wanted to sit by themselves. ;) 

I knew since we finished the makeover years ago that I wanted to add two matching chairs at the end of this room, but it wasn't a priority. So occasionally I would search and see what I could find for a good price. I never found anything that was the price I wanted and the style I wanted at the exact same time. 

Until I came upon the Rotterdam chair from Wayfair a couple weeks ago:

It checked off all of my wants -- classic design, neutral color, simple look -- and the nailhead trim was just the icing on the cake. :) 

I rarely buy chairs online -- I'm not sure I ever have actually. I like to try them out first. But the reviews were great and the price was right so I went ahead and ordered. (Side note -- they were supposed to be two-day delivery but I ordered at 6 p.m. one night and by 8 a.m. the next morning they were on our porch!)

We had a small candlestick table I made there before, but I wanted something a little lighter feeling between the tables. (I moved the candlestick table to another room because I love it.) I found a small side table at HomeGoods on clearance but didn't love the kind of mottled gold look: 

It's hard to see here but it was a bit harsh -- I wanted to tone it down a bit so I sprayed it with gold spray paint. Perfect!!: 

So much better! 

I get asked a lot if it's OK to mix metals in decor. I say absolutely! It could get boring if you didn't: 

I had already moved the floral art down to the basement bathroom, so I hung three frames in this spot instead and LOVE them. This is all in between here so bear with me -- there are not photos inside just yet. :)

We love having the extra seating in here and you can see the TV from both spots. I was surprised how it opened up the room too. You'd think it would feel more closed off but it's the opposite. Having that corner open makes it feel so spacious: 

It's so nice to be able to get to the window shades to open and close them. It's the little things. :) And we have plenty of room behind the chairs to utilize the dresser. The backs on the chairs are low enough that it keeps everything open and airy. 

By the way, you can see how to care for the beautiful fiddle leaf fig here. I brought this one down from our bathroom to fill in some of the space and I love how open and simple this corner is now:

He seems to love that corner. Hopefully he'll love it as much as he did the bathroom! 

Now I just need to decide on a fabric for the pillows. I already had this one but I used the last of my fabric to make it: 

I can get more but would have to buy a yard which is way more than I'll need. We'll see -- thankfully I already have another matching insert for the other chair. 

I have some other minor changes in mind as well, including drapes. I love these but have had them for a very long time and am ready for a different look. They were the perfect height before I trimmed out the windows but now I'd love them to be longer so I can hang the rod a couple inches higher. I'll be tweaking some things as the budget allows but I'm so thrilled with the addition of these chairs! They completely change how the room looks!: 

Oh, and the chairs are great. Again, they are the Rotterdam from Wayfair and they come in a bunch of colors. The fabric is a little bit rough -- not the softest, but so far has been easy to clean. And the cushions are nice and thick and bouncy. You don't fall into them but I know they will soften up over time. The chairs are comfy and deep -- I like a chair I can sit in and pull my feet up and these are perfect. Even with all of that they have a nice small profile which I love. (And if you get these watch for stray nailheads in the packaging -- we had a few extra ones that fell out and I'm glad I found them before stepping on them!) 

And one of you smarties noticed that I switched out our rug when I reviewed our sectional sofa a few weeks back. Our previous rug in here was great but we got it for our old family room. It was so large it covered nearly all of the hardwoods in here. This slightly smaller rug (used to be in our library) lets the floors show and makes the room feel so much bigger! I love how it looks in here too. 

Moving some stuff around and adding these chairs makes this feel like a brand new room and we LOVE it! :) I'm so glad I waited till I found the right chairs! 

Do you ever buy furniture online? It always scares me but I'm pleasantly surprised with these. 

How to make your own hand lettered signs!

Hey hey! I've got a cauute DIY sign to share with you today! This has been in the works for weeks -- I had a scrap piece of wood cut down back in September and painted it...and then let it sit while I tackled other projects. This is how I do things around here. 

The other day I finally sat down at my computer to finish it up. I saw this phrase on a sign in a store months ago and knew I wanted to make my own. I think it's just perfect for our family room:

The sign is about 14 inches by a couple feet so I played around with the size of the words to fit the wood. I used two fonts -- the script is free one called Stonestick. Do you recognize the other font? Once I say it you'll be all oh yeahhhh...it's the Pottery Barn font and you can download that for free too. (Just do a search and they should come up.)

I've shared a couple different lettering techniques for signs over the years -- this one is more of a stencil version and this one is perfect for chalkboard lettering. For this sign I did another technique similar to the chalkboard version. 

I cut out the words to space them out how I wanted (as you can see above) and then taped them to the wood. Then I traced the words with a pen: 

You want to press hard enough so that the pen leaves an imprint on the wood. It's not crazy hard -- you can pull up the paper to see how it's doing during the process. (Just make sure to lay it back exactly in the same spot!) I used a cheap ball point pen for this. 

Here's how the words looked after I traced: 

Do this on a sunny day or near a light so you can position the wood in a way that makes it easy to see the imprint. 

I used paint pens and followed the imprint to paint the letters onto the wood:

I've also used the Elmer's paint pens in the past -- here's the medium tip and here's the fine tip version. 

You can use a brush but you need to have a really steady hand! I'm not that talented. :) I prefer the paint pens because you can really control your writing: 

As you can see, it doesn't have to be perfect because you'll be filling it in. You can make adjustments as you go and that's another reason I like the pens -- it's way easier to make small fixes. 

I used the thin paint pen for the tracing and smaller areas and the larger one for the bigger letters:

Then I stained a piece of wood in one of my favorite stain colors (Provincial by Minwax) and framed the art with it. 

Oh my goodness. I love it!:

It will stay up all year but it looks perfect with the fall decor, right? 

So cozy!: 

I love the combo of the two fonts -- and I have to say, I like my version even better than the one I saw in the store! I'm really digging that Pottery Barn font. 

It leans against the large mirror I made years ago. This Everett hall table is still one of my favorite pieces in our house. I love the pretty finish on it and the hardware I added years ago:

We see the sign right when we walk in the house and and it makes me smile every time! And yes, those baskets hold dog toys and basketballs. Form and function at it's best! 

It's simple but sweet -- it is always SO good to be home!

Have you tried this lettering technique? I actually find it soothing -- I find the tracing and coloring in to be relaxing. :)

If you love the look of signs that are so popular right now this is such an easy DIY project -- it just takes time. I finished the tracing, letters and filling in under an hour while I watched TV. This cost me the price of the piece of wood for the frame and the paint pens -- after coupons it was less than $10!

Here's an image to pin for later if you'd like to try this yourself!:

My pretty new light fixture in the kitchen!

Hey there! I'm back today with some lighting updates around the house. I found a GREAT deal on a beautiful light a couple weeks ago while we were in Cincinnati. Our routine is usually to stop by IKEA, then head over to Kings Island for our son. This time I took a super quick trip into the Ballard Designs outlet store on the way to the amusement park. 

If you aren't familiar with this outlet, it's minutes away from IKEA in West Chester and it's a large store with Grandin Road and Frontgate as well. They usually have some fantastic deals but it had been years since I had been in. 

Luckily for our boy (who was totally over shopping at this point), I found a gorgeous light within two minutes of walking in. I get weird feelings about stores sometimes -- it's odd but it never fails me. I just knew I'd find a light I loved that day and so we went. I get that vibe about random stuff and it my intuition is almost always right. I wasn't even really looking for a new light, but something was drawing me to the store. I tell my husband it was meant to be when it happens. ;) 

The light was the Hadley pendant and it was big, but I knew had a number of places I could put it. I really want to change out our stairway light and our foyer light, and at first I thought I would put it in one of those spots. 

But we got home and I had a better idea…over the kitchen table. I knew it would look so good in there for a number of reasons, but was a little worried it would be too big. I measured the old light fixture (you can see it here) and turns out it was way wider than the new light and actually taller too. I was surprised because the new one seemed larger. I think because it's the same size uniformly, unlike a chandelier. 

Anyway, I got it up and was SO THRILLED:

Most of the lights in our home have stayed the same or maybe moved around here and there, but I don't change them out often. But the kitchen table light is one that I've probably changed out four times now over ten years. None of them have ever felt 100 percent right till now!

I absolutely LOVE IT: 

It works because it's so "light" feeling -- you can see through it completely so it doesn't feel like a heavy fixture. It's normally priced at $300, they had it on sale for about $230 and they had even more of a sale that day so I got it for $130. Score!! 

Our old chandelier had eight lights bulbs but it got so bright I changed most of the bulbs out to 40 or 25 watt -- so even with half the lights at 60 watts, this one lets off similar light at night. We still use our dimmer most times with it anyway: 

So of course you change one and something else feels off, right? I hate when that happens. I had a couple lights from Joss and Main in my cart online for a week or so, and I knew they would work so much better with than our current lights in a couple nearby spots. 

This one in our family room was one I've wanted to change out for awhile. It just felt really heavy to me and that spot is supposed to be more of a flush mount light anyway: 

I went ahead and got the Marceline flush mounts from Joss and Main and absolutely LOVED the lights, but they were such a pain in the butt to install. 

I have to preface my rant by saying I absolutely LOATHE installing light fixtures. Lighting is by far my least favorite DIY project -- there's always always always something annoying that happens when I install a light. All of the screws and junk have to be just right for everything to hang correctly and it drives me absolutely crazy. 

These had me cussing and sweating. I hated them with a burning passion. Flames…flames on the side of my face. (Name that movie!) If you purchase these know that they are beautiful and lovely but you need to purchase longer screws before you try to install them. Just a warning. But I loved them!: 

I don't want that family room light to be such a focal point so I'm so happy with the look of this one, and it's higher too. 

Another annoyance with these is that the glass is permanently smudged. I have tried absolutely everything to get them clean…and they are clean. But the glass is damaged in a way that when the light is on they look dirty: 

When the light is off you don't see it. I'm emailing Joss and Main to see if they'll send new glass because it's really not good. I'm still not over the anger from the installation yet so they are staying up. :) Too much drama to even consider taking them down right now, ha!

I replaced another light with one of these too -- five years ago I added a $5 light from the Habitat store to our small hallway by the stairs:

This was an area that could take a little more presence but I didn't want it to hang any lower than the old one. 

I just love it here!: 

I think the new kitchen light looks so great with these and I like that the two flush mounts match -- they add some consistency we were needing: 

This one was also a pain in the butt to install and also has the weird glass problems, but I still like the lights a lot. These are a GREAT option for "boob" light replacements. They don't hang down too far and look great. Just be prepared to be annoyed when you install them. :) 

I got all three lights for the price of what the Ballard light is originally priced at -- not a bad deal at all! Have you been eyeing either of these light fixtures? The kitchen light is my new favorite and I throw heart eyes at it every time I walk in. I just love it. 

Tell me I'm not alone in the installing lights thing -- is it the worst job ever or what? I'd rather drywall and that's saying a lot. 

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How to give a new house tons of character

Thirteen years ago at nearly this exact time of year we were starting the process of buying a house. We had been in an apartment for four years and I had lived either in dorms or apartments for seven years before that. The idea of owning a home had always been a dream of mine and I was so thrilled that we were going to make it happen. 

The funny thing is, we knew immediately we wanted to build a house. We just knew we wanted something brand new, even though I do love an old house. There was something so exciting about picking out each and every detail and personalizing it to how we wanted. And as much as I love old stuff, I loved that everything would be sparkly and new. 

We soon decided on a builder and ended up with Beazer Homes. We were so thrilled with the process from start to finish (and still are 12 years later!), so I was honored when the folks at Beazer asked me to partner with them to share how we've updated our Beazer home over the years. You know this one involves before and after photos so I was totally on board. ;) 

Our superintendent in charge of our build and our design studio contact were both so helpful during our build. When we couldn't decide on a kitchen cabinet finish they allowed us extra time and visits to figure everything out. When I couldn't decide on tile colors our rep pulled out our carpet and paint color and helped me find something that worked with both of them. During the build process our superintendent would make small tweaks along the way and was so accommodating the entire time. It was a little sad when we were done because we knew we wouldn't see all of those friendly faces again.  

Even though we live in a suburban neighborhood, even years ago (before I started changing our home), I still felt like ours was unique. Beyond the fact that we had options that made our house different --  our office could have been a bedroom, our two-story living room could have had another bedroom above, we added a beautiful bay window in the kitchen for extra space and we could have opted for an additional bedroom instead of our open loft. All of the little choices we made created a home like no one else's. 

I've always said I had good bones to build on and that was SO true when it came to our stair makeover. I remember when we were building and I saw the wood stairs -- I was so close to asking them to just leave them without carpet (because I knew they would have). I chickened out though!

For years I thought about the pretty wood stairs under this carpet: 

And about six years ago I finally got the courage up to rip that carpet off the stairs. This was one of my best decisions ever! The pretty white risers and dark stained treads are so classic and make such a difference: 

I added trim below the handrail and painted that wall black later on but the star of this show is the contrast of all that wood. 

Another spot that had quality finishes to start was our kitchen. The cabinets were maple and solid wood:

The island didn't always look like contemporary art. ;) That was the marks from the glue I used to add trim over the years. 

The finish wore like any would over the years and eventually I wanted a new look for the kitchen. I LOVED the design of the cabinets (I think they are timeless) so they got a makeover (well, the whole room did!):

Those quality wood cabinets, a good paint job and some patience on my part allowed for a beautiful, factory finish when I was done. I also used our old kitchen island and built on to it to create a much larger and custom one.

There are little details in our home that I've always loved. One is a half wall in our foyer that gives a little bit of definition between the foyer and living room: 

I knew that was a great opportunity to add even more character so I built a bookcase along that half wall that finishes it off beautifully: 

This is why I laugh about building a new house -- I love old homes and all of their character, but we chose a shiny new one and I'm always trying to make it feel older. And I'd do it again that way! That's part of the reason I blog, because it is most definitely possible to add character where there wasn't much before.

It doesn't always have to be a big build or project that adds personality to your home. I made a tufted headboard for our bedroom years ago but still felt like that wall needed something: 

I grabbed some mdf from the hardware store and spent an evening adding it to the wall. I painted the trim and wall in a dark gray for a dramatic backdrop in our room for very little money: 

The three biggest projects we've done in the house are finishing our basement, the kitchen makeover and a big one that involved taking down a wall between our family room and the office: 

This was one of those "real life" photos that I snapped when we were contemplating this idea.

This is thing about building a house -- my biggest piece of advice? Do your research beforehand! Thank goodness you all have Pinterest, back in my day I tore pages out of magazines. ;) I loved the idea of a corner fireplace and the Beazer folks were all, let's do it! And then I lived with it and wasn't so thrilled with my decision. 

Perhaps it is my odd need for symmetry, but it drove me crazy. One day a reader said, "Why don't you take down that wall?" and the skies opened up and birds sang. 

That we did:  

I got my beloved symmetry but we also got a larger family room that is twice as bright. (I have to mention that we have a ton of windows on our house -- another bonus about the Beazer options.) AND a beautiful new fireplace with a marble surround and tons of built in storage. This is the coziest room in our house and I think this change has to be the best change we've made to date. 

We have never regretted going with Beazer to build our home. Our experience was top notch from the start in the model home to years later as I make this house more ours with every day. This is a well-built house with good bones and I just keep adding good stuff to it. :) 

Be sure to tune into Instagram this Wednesday (the 21st) as I take over the Beazer Homes account and share more before and after photos of our home that I didn't include here. (You can follow me on IG as well and I'll remind you there.) Looking back at our beloved home is one of my favorite things! 

Have you ever built a house or are you considering it? Did you enjoy it? Was it fun for you or super stressful? If you have questions about the process I'd love help however I can!

P.S. I've updated the "Our Home" tab at the top of the page with some new photos of the house and recent projects. Be sure to check it out if you are new around here! :) 

I have been compensated by Beazer Homes to share this post about our home but all thoughts and experience are my own. 

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