Jordan and I got married and moved into our home a little over three years ago. I was so excited to start designing our home and even more excited to purchase our first piece of furniture! The first thing we bought was our Henry sectional from West Elm. Pretty exciting stuff! 😉 Over the past few years we’ve enjoyed many evenings spent at home curled up on this sofa, but I’m definitely ready to see it go!

One thing I realized not too long after purchasing the sofa was that a sectional is not really suitable for our family room. First, It cuts the room in half and makes it feel smaller than it already is! Second, it completely blocks the view of our fireplace, which is definitely the focal point of the room. Third, it doesn’t allow me to center the sofa on the long wall, which means the room lacks symmetry and balance. And lastly, the seam of the sofa where the two pieces connect faces out towards the rest of the house, so that’s really all you see when you look into the family room! I know it’s not a huge deal, but it sort of drives me nuts! haha.

Moral of the story here is that I’ve learned quite a bit about design over the last three years! When I purchased our gray sofa I didn’t really have a plan or vision for the room… I just thought purchasing a new gray sectional from West Elm was what newlyweds did! One of the ways I make avoid making design mistakes is to start with a plan. I create design boards (on Microsoft Word actually. I think it’s so much easier than Photoshop and their background removal tool is great!) that showcase all of the products I plan on using. This helps me ensure all the patterns, colors, and styles work well together.

So, after three years of living with my mistake I’m so excited to finally design our family room in a way that will be both functional and chic! I’ve outlined the inspiration and design plan below, and also linked the products we’ll be using in the design. The sofa is from Article, chairs and coffee table are from Hayneedle, and I’m sourcing most of the decor items from McGee & Co.! I also want to give a shoutout to a few of my favorite pillow shops… because we all know throw pillows. are. life. Absolutely love Hackner Home, Petajafiber Works, Sew & Cloth, and Cloth & Main!

The Inspiration

Here are a few photos that inspired the design and layout of our new space!

The Updated Design

Here’s the updated design! As you can see I have swapped out my original rug selection for a neutral woven one from Annie Selke and will be layering this vintage rug that I just purchased this morning! I also changed the original chairs for two cognac leather ones from Joybird. Everything is slowly starting to arrive on the doorstep, including the sofa which is set to be delivered this Wednesday! Can’t wait to see it all come together and show you the finished product!

lamp / sofa / white rug / vintage rug (sourced on McGee & Co here) / vintage rug (sourced on Amazon here) / chair / curtains / coffee table / black side table 

The Design Original Design

I plan on putting one large sofa along the long wall of our living room, and two chairs directly across by the sliding doors. Once we have all the furniture in we may add another loveseat that would face the fireplace to add just a but more seating.

Can’t wait for all the furniture to arrive and show you the final reveal! Make sure to subscribe to my blog so you don’t miss a thing! Let me know what you think of the design and thanks so much for stopping by!