Family Room & Entry Way (Before & After)

I hope all of you are enjoying the new look of Snippets and I hope you enjoyed seeing the transformation of my kitchen, too!  Today, I am sharing the transformation of my living/family room and entry way.  Like I said on Monday, 'I live in a 40 year old house that has needed a lot of TLC.'  When we bought this house, it had paneling in every room and not only was it hideous...it was all different colors!
I know, can you say...UGLY!  That's exactly what it was...UGLY!  

But, I think we have done an amazing job transforming our house into a HOME!

BEFORE:

This was the only picture I could find of the living room and it just happened to have Tim (he is my oldest...who is now 21!) in it. Our living/family room had heavy drapes, dirty carpet, dingy white walls, and of course paneling (not pictured).  It was ridiculously UGLY!

 This was the entry way to our home...not very welcoming!  Do you see what I mean about the different colored paneling? It was everywhere. This is the closet we closed in to open on the other side for the pantry.

 Here is another angle of the living/family room and entry way. That cute kid back there is Tyler (who is now 19 almost 20). I know what you are thinking...what in the world did these people see in this house?  At times, we have thought that ourselves! But the results you are about to see will convince you, otherwise.

AFTER:

I told you...you would be AMAZED at the transformation!
Now, do you see why we bought this gem of a house?
 I have to say, I LOVE it!

Obviously, we painted, added wood flooring (the whole house has wood flooring, except the bathrooms & laundry room), put new baseboards, and I hung simple window coverings.

As you can see in the photo above, the big wall is a blue and this back wall to the family room is a taupe and the below picture shows the light blue color of the built in hutch. So I have 3 different colors in this room, but it works well. These were Martha Stewart paint colors (I couldn't find the names) from the same paint chip.  I think that is why they work so well together.

I couldn't find a before picture of this hutch, but let me tell you...it was HIDEOUS (just like the rest of the house).  It was a dark brown stain and the 2 top doors had yellow plastic in them.  

Obviously, I painted it, put glass in place of the ugly yellow plastic, and I changed the knobs on it. I am still trying to figure out what to do with the brown laminate. Sometimes, I think I want tile, but recently, I was thinking about pallet wood and using an aging effect on them. When I figure it out, I will definitely be sharing it with all of you!  

I think our entry way is a lot more welcoming, now that we have transformed it! Don't you?

Like I said in my previous post, we have put a lot of sweat equity, money, and TLC into our house and we have made it a beautiful HOME (at least I think so).  There are some things I would like to change, now that we are almost done (isn't that how it always goes?); but they are minor decorating features.

I am ready to add some new colors into each room, so I plan on adding new pillows, rugs, pictures, and other inexpensive decorative items! Don't worry, I will share them with you...it might take a while though, so please be patient!

Have a beautiful day!

~Julie