Before & after: cosy Christmas family room makeover
We’ve given our downstairs family room quite the makeover! It wasn’t part of our plans for the house this year but I bought a pine fire surround on eBay for styling purposes, painted it white and then decided I’d love it as a permanent fixture so it kind of escalated from there, oops!
This space was once a bit ‘functional’ so the project was totally worth it and we’re really chuffed with how cosy it is now. Here’s the scoop on how we revamped our family room, the before and after photos, plus how we transformed the space without losing storage!
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BEFORE
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PIN FOR LATER

Our cosy Christmas family room makeover details
The space before never really felt ‘comfortable’. It felt a bit cold, lacked personality and I didn’t like having the sofa against the back wall because the room is long and it looked sparse. Bringing the sofa forward, introducing a fireplace and having the biggest rug I could possibly get my hands on has made a huge difference don’t you think?!
After painting the fireplace we decided it looked a bit small for the space, so we bought a wine rack to use as a plinth underneath (we just didn’t put the slats in) which I’m now in love with because it provides an extra space for me to faff around with different accessories through the seasons! We’re tempted to put warm lighting in there too.
We’ve moved the tv to a bracket on the side wall as I’m not a huge fan of them being a focal point in a room, plus the snuggly
pink fireside chair kindly gifted by Wayfair UK is in the perfect position for either watching tv or chatting to people sat on the sofa. The side table next to it is from Home Bargains (I think it was £11.99 so an actual bargain) and the cute amber vase is from Poundland, yes Poundland!!!
The ceiling lights are due to be changed but I couldn’t wait to share the room with you so I’ll add them in later along with the sideboard which will replace the Christmas tree.
I’m personally obsessed with the
the bar cart which was an absolute steal at £30 from Primark! Nearer to Christmas I’ll add some bottles of our fave tipple but the ornaments look pretty for now, including the gold terrarium from Emmie’s
Enchanted Fairy Party which I’ve used to house a snowy forest. The gold circular design of the cart works really well with this warm
round gold coffee table and
mirror (kindly gifted from Wayfair) don’t you think?
You may be wondering why we’d choose to lose all that storage in our family room, because where are the toys going to go?! but
the truth is we haven’t actually lost storage because we rebuilt the cabinets around the door frame in our
Safari Chic Dotty Guest Room to keep our craft stuff plus we’ve lined the whole of the back wall in the family room (behind the sofa) with low cabinets for toys and created a fun little nook for the girls at the same time!
Sooooo, what do you think of how our family room turned out?! Let me know in the comments below.
You can see more of our room updates here:
Love what you see?
You can learn
how to make the snow globe shown on our coffee table
here.
It’s a great one for the kids!
I hope you’ve enjoyed our before & after: cosy Christmas family room makeover and may I wish you a Merry Christmas!
Until next time,
Kel x