Front Room – January 2016

In my last blog, I mentioned a desire to redo the front room of the house.  Since we moved into the new house in February 2014, the front room has never been a priority.  At the beginning, I was still in my MBA program, so I did not have the time to unpack anything but the necessities.  We ended up using the finished basement as the nexus of family relaxation, so most of the former living room furniture, electronics, and toys were put down there.  When I finished school, I chose to focus on organizing the kitchen first.  I also knew that we needed to replace the furnace and air conditioner sooner rather than later, and that this would be a fairly pricey upgrade.  All these factors combined to a front room that has been mostly ignored for two years.

We did the furnace and air conditioner replacement a few months ago, and it has been completely paid off.  I am done with school, work has eased a bit, and I have completed many of the smaller house projects I wanted to do.  So now I have the time and money to turn my attention elsewhere.  Also, I have suddenly become antsy to have a place to call my own.  Lately, I feel like I have no suitable options for my free time.  I do most of my relaxing in the bedroom, but more and more often my husband goes to bed earlier than I am ready to sleep which cuts into my ability to use the space.  The basement is fine for family togetherness, but it tends to be messy and noisy and just not suited to use as my own.  The front room has already been designated my personal zone, so I am at liberty to decorate and utilize as I see fit.  It is time to focus on it.

As part of my blog for 2016, I have decided to do a monthly feature where I track the progress on the front room.  I have posted pictures below of the room as of January 1, 2016, so everyone can see the starting point.  I also included some initial thoughts about what I want to do.  I am starting with only a vague idea in some areas though, so the plan may change a bit as I go along.  Hopefully, the obligation to post will help to keep me motivated and moving forward on its transformation.

This is the first half of the front room.  As you can see, it is filled with boxes and random stuff.  I am unsure of what is in the majority of these boxes or where it all should go.  The first step is to sort through it, figure out what stays in this room, what needs to be moved elsewhere, and what just needs to be removed from the house completely.  This side of the room will turn into the living/entertaining part of the room.  I think I need some chairs, some tables, and some storage for craft project type stuff.  I have no initial thoughts on colors, patterns, or overall decorating schemes.

The second half of the front room is currently functioning as an office area.  You can see it also has a lot boxes and piles of stuff in it.  I am almost positive the majority of the boxes on this side are actually office-related items, but a lot of it needs to be sorted and purged.  This will remain an office area, but it needs to be completely redone.  I have put more thought into this half since I do actively use the desk area and have ideas on what I want from it.  I want to replace the desk with something smaller and relocate it to the middle of the area.  Then along the walls, I want to add some bookshelves and filing cabinets to help organize everything.  I have several diplomas and awards which I hope to display on the open wall area.  I have not really decided on color schemes or general decorating theme, but I know I want it to be lighter and brighter than what is currently here.

This is a small area, but it definitely is not being utilized correctly.  I want to clear out the accumulated junk and get those things moved to where they really belong.  The blank area next to the stairs where there is currently a vacuum, I am hoping to add some kind of storage unit to organize the shoes and coats that are frequently used.

Finally, we have a front closet that is crammed full of junk.  Appropriately, we do have all the coats hung here that are not currently in use.  There might be a couple old ones that can be donated or trashed, but most will remain.  However, the shelf and the floor are a mix of things that were shoved in the closet when we moved.  None of it has really been touched since then, and I am not sure what I might find.  This area just needs to be cleaned as I do not intend to really do anything other than use it as a closet.

This finishes my first look at the front room.  My first goal is to clean it up some, so let us hope that my pictures for February 2016 show some improvement.

See you next week!