The Family Room Revised

 The last time you saw our family room is looked like this. I don't know why I posted pictures of it in this condition, but I did. I know everyone's rooms look like this sometimes so I guess I don't care that I showed the whole world. 

 

The family room has probably gone through the most transformations than any room in the house. It seems that for 2 years it is in a constant state of trying to figure out the best way to have multiple functions for this one room. It has had so many variations I can't even think of them all. Well, now our downstairs looks like this:

 

 We gave away or sold almost every piece of furniture in this room just for the one purpose that Scott could set up a theater. He figured out some clever ways of selling this to buy that or upgrade this. I was skeptical but the way he sold me on it was that it would take up less space than a couch and tv (which ended up being true) so there would be more area to use as a play space, which is what I wanted. Before, every time we got some now toy or train table or kitchen or whatever,  he would say "where is that going to go?" Now that he has his theater, he let's me organize the toys however I want. It is much more of a shared space.

 We also inherited this adorable play kitchen (it pays to know awesome people that will give you things!) We just barely got a table for it and that has actually made a huge difference in how much Olive uses it.

 

Our toys situation was getting out of control. Not so much with Olive but when friends would come over they would want to get every single toy we own out and it was too overwhelming. So I adopted this method that one of my friends does. She rotates the toys that are out to play with and the other toys are, as we say "taking a rest". 

This is our toy shelf, and it is just about time to rotate some new toys in. 

 

This screen is Scott's pride and joy. He made it! I can't tell you the hours of work, planning, and more importantly, thinking about this theater that has gone into making it all happen. For a good 4 months he was basically obsessed with his theater. I will admit that it turned out awesome, especially if you love movies like we do. We use it a lot actually. I love when Olive asks if she can watch a movie "on the big screen". That is our Friday night tradition with her, movie and popcorn on the big screen.

 

 The biggest obstacle of the whole home theater situation was the seating. The couch that we had was too big and it was nearly impossible to find something that would fit in this odd sized space that we had. After hours of going to every furniture store we could think of we were almost out of options. Scott went out to a scratch and dent place to see if they had any weird pieces that might work. What he ended up finding were actual theater chairs that were alone and not part of a set, so nobody wanted them. He matched two chairs and an armrest and it turned out to be the exact size of our little space. It was a miracle. Plus we got the whole thing for less than the price of one regular theater chair, those things are expensive! It is pretty sweet, I have to admit! I will also say, that after seeing Scott's theater he inspired 2 other theater rooms. Sorry those men's wives!

 Here are the rest of the angles from the room:

Yeah, it has been awesome this winter to be able to play down there. I love that Olive can go down and play for hours. I can't wait until I can tell the kids "Go play downstairs".  I think I will feel like a real mom when that happens.