Almost exactly a year ago, we began an addition to our cute little farmhouse that we bought in 2015. When we bought the house, we downsized from 2600 square feet to 1700 square feet and at the time, it was perfect. Our oldest kid was 10, the baby at the time was 3. Fast forward 4 years later, the oldest is 14- both he and our oldest daughter are taller than me- and there have been 2 subsequent “babies” of the family added- our son Jeremiah that we adopted in 2018, and the true and final baby of our family Gwendolyn, who was born last year. We host lots of baby showers/parties/Bible studies and have overnight guests fairly often and 3 of the 4 kids that are school-aged are homeschooled. It was just time to add a little space.
truly abandoned and the yard completely overgrown!}
It turned out to be more than a little space. We added some bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a laundry room, and instead of making an attic, we raised the ceilings by a foot and the contractor did some fancy framing work to make a large family room/school room. We are finally *almost* finished. (Contractors did the actual building/exterior/sheetrock and we have done all the finish work- interior painting/flooring/trim work/light fixtures) I’m hoping to share some posts of the new spaces in the upcoming days now that life has slowed down a bit. (Many of the links are affiliate links)
This is the family room side of the upstairs room. Besides being outside a lot, this is where we hang out. The school/playroom side needs a little tweaking so I’ll share that in a future post. Paint color: Wanderlust by Behr. I loooove this color. There’s plenty of natural light up here (2 windows plus a French door) that it’s not dark. It’s just the perfect dark teal that isn’t too blue, too green or too bright. (Thanks Lindsay from Lindsay Wilkins Art for sharing this color on Instagram a year or so ago! It showed up a LOT in our addition)
The rug: from Home Depot. It’s a good aqua/tan/gray color that really is neutral! The ceiling fan is also from Home Depot.
Sectional- Ashley Home Furniture (use Rakuten to get 1.5% cash back when you shop Ashley online. That adds up to a lot for a large purchase like a couch! If you don’t use Rakuten, you can sign up here.) I also found a similar couch at Wayfair for a really good price.
The fireplace/entertainment center is from Wayfair. Looking back, I wish we had added a real fireplace in our addition but since we didn’t, we chose to get an electric one. We’ve pretty much always had either an electric or gas fireplace in our homes- we love the ambiance it adds.
Weighted throw blanket– LOVE this. You will sleep like you’ve never slept before!
To the right of the fireplace: vase: Hearth and Home/ dogwood stems: Hearth and Home (No longer available, you can find similar at Hobby Lobby)
gold basket for storing blankets: Project 62
This girl. She makes life so fun. Just the sweetest little addition to our family. And is this baby recliner not the cutest. I found it (much) cheaper at HomeGoods, but it is available on Wayfair here and Amazon here.
Floral chair: Sekarias at IKEA. Ampersand pillow- from HomeGoods (can’t find online)- similar options on Etsy. (Also, those doors leading outside will be the focus of another blog post coming soon. Our most recent project that we finished!)
This hexagon coffee table is probably my favorite piece in the room. This is vintage in the best sense- it belonged to my grandparents. I remember as a girl, my grandma kept a spiral notebook for each grandchild (there were a lot of us!) and crayons in this table, and anytime we came over we could grab our spiral and write/draw in it. When both of my grandparents passed away in 2013, this was the one item from the home I really wanted. I considered painting it a few years ago, but I’m so glad I didn’t. Here’s a modern version of a hexagon coffee table.
The lamp is from Hearth and Home by Joanna Gaines for Target (that’s a mouthful!) and is sadly no longer available. Not sure why they don’t keep things around longer! Here is similar lamp by Wayfair.
Sadly I couldn’t find this old world globe coffee table anywhere online. I picked up on a whim at Ross when I went in to buy my son some shoes haha. This one at Wayfair is a similar shape/look. (Check out that coffee table book about Maasai. Ben and I went on a date to a used bookstore during our vacation in Estes Park over Christmas and that is literally the first book I saw in there- for $2!)
We really love this room- we’ve already hosted my daughter’s birthday party up here (pre-Corona) and since Corona, the kids and I are up here for church while Ben is preaching in another room of the house. 😉 Stay tuned for more updates about our addition!
About Kelli Hays
