Our New Family Room Fireplace, Shiplap In Our Bathroom, A Privacy Solution for Our Glass Front Doors, & More!

Family Room Renovations

Here’s where things started with our family room when we bought our home:

A few months back we knocked out several projects including hardwood floor refinishing, adding new hardware to the bookcase cabinets, and removing the four columns that separated the family room from the dining room and entry. Prior to refinishing our floors we also removed our hearth and tore out most of the surround so we could extend the hardwoods to the fireplace.

Then for months we waited (and waited and waited…) for our new fireplace insert to be shipped. That baby finally arrived and was installed last week (we bought {this insert}):

The new insert doesn’t require a hearth and has a “clean” face – once we’ve finished it off, all of the black that you see now will be covered by a marble/quartz surround except the 1 ¼″ black frame of the fireplace screen:

The mantel surrounding the stone will be very simple – something similar to {this cast stone mantel}:

The bookcases flanking the fireplace are going to get a makeover too! Currently the shelves are fixed in place and are super shallow (only 7″ deep) so most of my books and decorative accessories won’t fit on them. They’re also fixed in place so I can’t adjust shelf height to fit taller items:

Sources: Wallpaper  |  Blue planter

The shallow painted wood shelves are going to be replaced with {these gorgeous 1 ¾″ thick white oak shelves} with the “nature” stain option:

If they look familiar it’s because they were made by the same company that made {these floating shelves} in the bathroom in our old house (see {this floating wood shelves post} for more details on stain and size):

Shelf Sources:  Floating shelves  |  White woven storage bin (medium)  |  Kumquat tree – no longer available  |  Gray & white striped planter (holding snake plant) |  Colorful moth art print  |  White wood frame  |  Pair of decorative stacked boxes – no longer available  |  Glass canister (1 gallon size)  |  Bath bombs  |  Belly basket with tassel  |  Favorite bath towels  |  Large lidded basket for hamper (under shelves)

While they’re known for their floating shelves, they’ll also make regular shelves without the floating shelf holes in the back if you put a note in the “add your personalization” section when ordering from them online.

Instead of being fixed in place like our current shelves, our new oak shelves will rest on shelf pins that are height adjustable. There’s a bit of collateral damage that comes with this unfortunately – it means that the wallpaper on the back of the shelves will need to be replaced since it wasn’t possible to wallpaper behind the shelves with their current design.

The good news is that I’m super excited about what I’m going to install in its place! Remember how I had fallen in love with {this grasscloth wallpaper} and wanted to use it in our hall bathroom but decided the price tag was just too high? A friend of mine lucked into two rolls of it at the Serena & Lily Outlet in CA (where they were marked WAY down) and sent them my way!

We’re also swapping out our current ceiling fan for {this simple 3-blade ceiling fan} later this week when my electrician is scheduled to come knock out a bunch of projects. And did you notice that I took down the vertical blinds covering our sliders and added drapes? I used my tried and true Emery drapes with cotton lining (available {here}) in 100″ wide white panels. They are hung on {these budget-friendly drapery rods} with {these drapery rings}.

Other Family Room Sources: Tripold floor lamp  |  Blue/white area rug  |  Sectional  |  Floral paisley pillow  |  White tassel pillow  |  Coffee table (similar)  |  Coffee table tray (similar)

Hall Bathroom Renovations

When we moved in, our hall bathroom looked like this:

Before we refinished our hardwoods, we pulled the toilet and pedestal sink since we knew we’d be replacing them and didn’t want them to sand around their footprint. Since then, I removed the wallpaper, did a ton of patching and sanding (the wallpaper did NOT come off easily), and added shiplap to the bottom ⅓ of it (I hired out for the shiplap since my amateur miter saw can’t cut boards this wide). Here’s how things are currently looking:

Now I’m just waiting on the electrician to pull through the wiring for the sconce (several weeks back he removed the side sconces and left the wire in the wall where we can fish it out for {this new over-the-mirror light}):

He’ll also (hopefully) be installing {this new overhead ceiling light}:

I say “hopefully” because the overhead light in there now is an off-center recessed eyeball light that shines on a blank side wall (maybe they had a piece of art there?). It could be that he won’t be able to move the light box to the center of the room – we will see…

As I shared before, I chose {this small navy vanity} for the space ({this navy vanity} is a very similar in-stock option).  And I ordered {this faucet} in brushed nickel:

If it looks familiar, that’s because I used it in the master bathroom remodel in our old house and loved it so it was an easy choice. I’m putting {this mirror} over the vanity:

and {this art print} over the toilet:

Our Bedroom Renovations

Throwing it back to when we moved in, this is what our bedroom looked like:

We replaced the carpeting in this room and the other two bedrooms several months back and are now moving on to working on the rest of the space. The drapes in this room were really faded and splotchy and they literally covered half of the window when fully open due to the way they were hung. Last weekend I took them down and patched the hardware holes in preparation for painting the room and putting up new drapes – you can see how much bigger the windows look without anything covering them:

Other room sources: Patterned pillow  |  Teak stools  (similar)  |  Swivel chair

In order to be able to pull the new drapes further back where they don’t cover much of the windows when open, I’ll be installing one continuous rod with corner connectors. I’m using {these corner connectors} that are hinged so that they can fit into any corner along with {these curtain rods & wall brackets}, {these simple endcap finials}, and {these rings}:

I also ordered {this chandelier} (also available {here}) several months ago when it was on sale and when it finally arrives (it’s another backordered item) it will replace the heinous ceiling fan above our bed:

Front Door Makeover

I’ve had a love-hate relationship with our glass front doors since moving in. I love the light that comes in through the glass but without anything covering it, our house is a fish bowl that you can look right into at night. The previous owners’ solution to this issue was to install wood blinds on the back of the doors:

Entryway Sources:  Capiz chandelier  |  Rug  |  Linen console (also see {this similar console} |  White table lamp  |  30″ x 40″ Framed art print  |  Decorative ivory box  |  Decorative snail  | Wave coral – HomeGoods  |  Shallow wood bowl  |  Glass beads  |  Cube ottomans

I ordered a bunch of different fabric options for my shades and am currently debating between these four favorites:

Another issue it will solve is with my door hardware. In order for the blinds to cover the front door and not hit the door handle, they installed the front door lever backwards which looks pretty funky:

With roller shades, the shade will go down behind the lever rather than getting hooked on it so it can be oriented correctly. New door hardware is on the to-do list (all of the levers throughout our house are as worn as this one!) but I’d have the same issue with any new knob or lever too so the Serena shades will be a great solution for all of my front door woes 🙂

Girls’ Bedroom Renovations

Figuring out the best solution for the recessed windows in the girls’ bedroom initially stumped me. The previous owners placed a drapery rod and drapes within the recessed window niche but that blocked half of the windows on both ends:

I took the drapes down right after moving in and it made this space so much brighter! It still wasn’t the end solution though because as you now know, I’m not a fan of the wood blinds. Plus this wall is just a boring sea of white:

Room Sources: Gray damask peel & stick wallpaper  |  Curved wood beds  |  Tassel pillow cover  |  Tassel duvet covers

My plan is to add Serena shades to this room too (I’m going with one of their blackout options) in place of the wood blinds. They will roll all of the way up when open so won’t be blocking light from coming into the room like the wood blinds do. And since this bedroom is on the front of our house, I’ll program them the same as our front door blinds so that they’re down when it’s dark outside.

Since the shades will be doing all of the light control, I can then add drapes framing the window on the outside of the niche that are purely decorative. Drapes do SO much to soften a room – they’ll make a huge difference in cozying up this space! I haven’t pulled the trigger yet, but I’m crushing on {these curtains} that have the prettiest pattern with all of my favorite colors:

There’s a lot of soon-to-be-action with our primary bathroom too (remember what this sucker looks like?! 😳):