FLASHBACK: Morton Grove Basement/Family room 2008

Here I go again, bringing you another flashback of our home before. Well, as of this writing, I am busy preparing for Aidan's 7th birthday Party, and you know me, it will take me weeks to fix everything up, so I thought of doing another flashback on our 1st home again. This time, it's our old basement/family room. Just to remind you, here is what it looked like before in 2009...

Wood Panelling - "love" it! Aidan and Nio were so small then...

Sitting on our slip-covered hand-me-down sofa

The play Area

And here is what it looked like before we left in 2010....

See the playground set on the back?

My sister and nephew and my kids helped me paint this whole basement! I forgot the color already, but it's satin cream. I think it really brightened up this out-dated and usually dark space!

Comfy is the one word I can really describe this room to be

The sectional is from "Jennifer Convertibles". It's a sofa bed whenever we have guests over, we have this room and the guest room upstairs. The fireplace is electric, from Home Depot, this was a gift from my mom. Pillows are from Target, Marshalls and Pottery Barn. The caning light is from Home goods - super cute for $29.

Mini-office area

We had to place a mini office here aside from the one upstairs since we wanted to see what the kids would be looking at every time they used the computer ( your never too sure becuase they may accidentally wander into "bad" sites".  The desk was $15 from a thrift store - I love this desk, it has 2 file cabinets, heavy as hell, and has a contemporary modern appeal with its clean lines, it was really a steal for the price! The office chair was a garage sale find, used to be lime green and color, we just painted it brown.

Botanical Wall art

The Wall art were pictures from a book I bought at Barnes and Noble for $12. I still have hundreds left, and I can easily change these come christmas time. The background paper as well as the acrylic frames were from "Michael's". I bought this one by one everytime I had a 40% coupon so it really did not cost a lot of money, just a lot of patience, hehehe!

Another view

The ottoman was from Walmart ($99). The wall vase were from CB2. The "Teddy Bears" art was from a thrift store ($5), so cute!

Ready for watching and cuddling!

The gigantic lamp in the corner was from a thrift store, for $12. Its very heavy and used to be brass with a very ugly shade. I switched the shade ( which I got for $2) to this and spray-painted the body white! I was still able to repurpose the old shade though, which you'll see in a bit.

The woven ottoman was from "Marshalls" on clearance at $12. It holds a lot of the kids small toys. The white chest on the bottom right corner was a garage sale find. Again, more toys inside.

Kids Play area or Toy room all covered-up

Like most families with kids, I am sure parents DON'T want to see all the "Mess" all the time, so we came up with curtains to hide this. These curtains are from "Baclaran", and coming from there, you know, their crazy cheap!

What we're trying to hide

Tada. this is the "mess" We placed a small old tv so they can play their video games anytime. Books everywhere, and the "ugly" shade I told you about, there it is hanging in the corner! I just used a light kit you can buy at any home improvement store. Great Reading nook for the kids!

Cabinet hides more mess

I painted the cabinet door with green Chalkboard paint and placed a lot of the toys inside. The small console on the side, which also holds books and games was from Target on clearance for $12!  Lamp was from a garage sale for $2 and the shade was from the "Land of Nod" Outlet store for $5! You can see it better in the 7th picture.


My, how time really does fly, in just barely 3 years the children seems so grown and with 3 different houses, I feel that my tastes have matured and evolved so quickly. I love everybit of our home before and now, and I'm just glad for the memories and pictures of the life we once had and are living now. We are blessed!


Anyway, enough of my sentimental humdrum,  I hope this gave you some idea on how to deal with your family room too!

 HAPPY DECORATING!!!