The Untold Story
There is a project from 2022 I haven’t yet talked about online. While I do all sorts of projects large and small, I try to share most of them as they wrap up, but this one just couldn’t be put into words at the time. It was so massive and so meaningful, I really needed to let it sit with me for a while. And taking it directly to social media just didn’t capture the significance of this project for me, so it is literally the reason I went to my cherished web developer, Ann of Marketing Acuity, and asked her to add a blog page to my site. This story needs to be told in long-form here before I truncate it on social media. So, without further ado, I present to you one of my very favorite projects of all…
A makeover from every angle
This room got a full custom treatment from floor to ceiling, wall to wall. It has new carpet, new paint, new draperies and hardware, new furniture, new gear, new purpose, AND a new spin on a family heirloom.
In early 2022, I finished a pretty dramatic makeover of a tiny bathroom that looked so drastically different when it was finished that I didn’t even recognize the place in the BEFORE photos. After seeing that transformation, a colleague of that client asked me to take a look at a very large room in her home that she was struggling with because it was so open and angular that it was hard to figure out the best way to utilize the space. We did a virtual consultation and I could see that the room had a lot of space and many possible uses, but the best use would be ONLY and EVERYTHING her family needed.
As it turned out, her busy family has a lot of interests that are near and dear to my own heart. The more we talked about the ways they imagined the space being used, the more excited I got. They definitely needed a family room. Plus, it would be nice to have a music room for all the piano/guitar/ukulele playing. To have a study and craft area for kids would be helpful as well. It would also be great if there was enough space to entertain guests. Oh, and a designated place for a Christmas tree would be a bonus. But the area also opens up to the deck where they grill and entertain outdoors so it would be ideal if that end of the room could be an easy pass-through to the kitchen. And maybe a new sound system would make sense in here, too. Could the room do all of that? More importantly, could I make this room do all of that? The answer was an absolute YES! And I couldn’t wait to get started…
These are the BEFORE images of the room from my first walk-through.
There was no doubt the room held a lot of warmth and endless potential. With the natural light and vastness of the space, there was certainly space to do it all. I just had to figure out the best flow of traffic and how to effectively create zones that felt natural within such a large framework. And this idea of an audio system couldn’t be an afterthought. Like my family, this one bonds over the playing of and listening to music. It’s an element that spans generations of influence and culture. Not only did the sound system need to be able to accommodate playing dad’s old records and possibly incorporate CD and cassettes in time, but it also needed to be able to connect with everyone’s streaming devices so it would truly be a system the whole family could enjoy. Quality sound was important so speakers were a huge consideration. As I was compiling my recommendations for such a sound system and speakers that could be utilized on the patio as well as in this great room, the Missus sent me a photo of a friend’s audio system that was in a unique stereo console. She expressed how nice it would be to have something like that to put their system in. I IMMEDIATELY knew what to do and prayed I could make it happen with all sorts of variables at play. She’d shown me during our walk-through an old library card catalog unit their family had long held, but they weren’t sure what to do with it now. I asked her if she trusted me to repurpose this cabinet to house their stereo and she said, “Yes.” And this is where the story goes from happy to THRILLING.
If you have followed my work, you know I love to repurpose things and give all things old a new life. This card catalog cabinet lit a fire within me and I knew exactly how I wanted it to be utilized. It wasn’t going to be easy and it was certainly beyond my own DIY skills, but I had a plan … and I also happened to have the perfect person in mind to turn my idea into reality. Enter Possible Worlds Carpentry and Remodeling. I’d worked with Arthur enough to know he shares my passion for unique furniture and has incredible woodworking (and finishing) skills so he would be able to see my vision for this piece. If anyone could turn it into reality, I was certain he could do it. And he DID. I’ll share more on that shortly. It really deserves its own post, but I want to get started here with the whole room so you can appreciate the full scope of this makeover and why it can’t be summarized in a tidy social media post. While the media cabinet was being torn apart and reconfigured, I had a room to design…
The AFTER photos, showing different angles and the different zones wherein the room is utilized for all its purposes.
As you can see, this room literally has everything. It’s all they dared to imagine with all the things I curated over a few months of waiting for carpet and paint to make this space complete. I sourced items from my usual places: Sherwin Williams for paint (this is Evergreen Fog with white ceilings and trim), Shaw carpet in Lasting Moment, Wayfair for living room furniture and draperies, Facebook Marketplace for shelves/rug/desk, Goodwill and Walmart for assorted housewares, and shopped around for the Denon amplifier receiver/ Audio-Technica turntable/ ELAC speakers and hangers for stringed instruments. I was able to create a central seating area that comfortably holds up to 8 people, a music corner for playing instruments, a work station for kids to do school and art work, an audio nook with floor-standing speakers on cables long enough to go outside for entertaining on the deck. And, that heirloom card-catalog-turned-media-cabinet is the stuff that dreams are made of. I deliberately left a large opening in front of the street-facing paned window for their Christmas tree and there was even a little space left for a brand new kitty condo the homeowners added at the very end.
In all, this room is everything the homeowners hoped it could be and all I envisioned when we first walked through. To be trusted to see the potential of any space is an honor for me, but to be allowed to squeeze as much purpose out of a single room as I did here AND tie it all together aesthetically takes a whole lot of faith and good fortune when procuring unique budget-friendly items. We all won on this project. I finished this in September of 2022, and months later, I still smile every time I think of this sweet family in their incredible GREAT room. ❤️
