Continuing on in the same house we looked at last week, today we will look at the family, ‘keeping’ and game rooms.  This house has a really great, livable floor plan with loads of usable space centering around the kitchen.  There is a massive ‘family’ room and an even larger game room and they all flow easily into one another.  That makes this a great house for day to day living, entertaining, kids parties and so on.

BEFORE:

I mentioned how large the family room is.  In this before photo, the room is so big you can not even see the TV near the fireplace.  This much size can make furniture placement awkward, though.  The two sitting chairs are really too far away from the TV for optimal viewing and there is a lot of wasted space near the fireplace.

The home has gorgeous doors and windows, as well as beams.  However, this furniture layout also made accessing the french doors to the pool a problem.

Between the family room (off the kitchen) and on the way to the game room was this little spot for a breakfast table.   The allowable space was too tiny for this larger family.  Our mom said they would never use a table there.  The kids would sit at the counter, or the table we put in the game room, or as a family in the ‘casual’ dining room.  So, the challenge was what to do with this space that was too large to leave empty and too small to do much with…

You step down from the area above into this large game room.  Don’t let the statue in the corner scare you.  I swear I jumped every time I saw it out of the corner of my eye.  Our homeowner wanted a more playful space for her kids, so we swapped the poker table for a bar height craft/homework table and added more youthful elements to the room.

AFTER:

As I mentioned the family room was so big, we ended up breaking it into two seating areas.  A lounge area for the family to pile in and watch movies together and a quiet sitting area at the back for adults to have a coffee or cuddle with the kids.

We really try to avoid having you walk into the room and see the back of a sofa, but in this case we had to compromise.  We needed to be able to access the doors to the pool (best reached by placing chairs on that side) and the family wanted a large sectional so they could all be together.  At the end of the day, it looks really lovely when you walk in and see the french doors and the view outside.

At the kitchen end of the room we put two ‘chair and a half’ pieces with a companion ottoman.  This is a great spot for an intimate conversation or to put your feet up and read a book.

For the little ‘passage way’ space between the family room and game room we installed a settee and envisioned this area as a type of ‘keeping room’ where visiting guests can sit and chat while the homeowner prepares dinner in the adjoining kitchen.

The game room received minor updates with new paint, lighting and window treatments, as well as furnishings.  The bar table and casual stools are perfect for the kids to gather.  Our new homeowners decided to keep a combination ping pong and pool table in this room as well.

There was a lot of wall space to fill-in in this room and our mom wanted a place for family photos.  She hired a photographer to take pictures of the family around some of the fun photo walls in Austin.  Our team then had them framed and hung to create a cohesive gallery. I think they are just precious.

Our homeowners are also huge dog people and wanted to incorporate these special family members in some noticeable way.   An artist made these canvases from the dogs’ photos and they add a great punch of color and really fill in one of the large walls.

A fun, happy, casual (“worry free”) space for the kids to enjoy as they grow and mom and dad to enjoy with them.

Next week we will finish up the tour with the bedrooms!