My Farmhouse Chic Living Room Reveal

Hi friends,  what's shakin'?

I finally figured out the most awkward room in my home... Hooray!!

This is it!  (I hope you recognize that this is the "after" picture, not the awkward before pic).

Do you have any awkward rooms in your home?

You know, the kind that are just laid out kind of... awkwardly.

Like, whoever designed the floor plan of your home just wasn't thinking when they designed that room. Whoever built my house did not have much of an idea about furniture placement and very important things like that.

I have an awkward living room which is really awesome because it's where we spend all of our time. But really, doesn't every house have a little bit of awkwardness (they're kinda like people, aren't they?!)  There are some other awkward things in my house but it might just be because I'm picky.  (but seriously, why did they put the heat/ac vents in the floor right where the bedside tables go in the master bedroom?!?  DUH!!)  First world problems, and I digress...

Anywho, my living room is a bit awkward.  To the "normal" person it would appear totally fine.  But to a crazy person the decorator in me, it was a hot mess.  It has been bugging me since we moved in almost 5 years ago. I have been tweaking it and just couldn't get it quite right.

Here it is at it's best "before" angle...

Doesn't look too shabby in that photo.  It's a nice size room, pretty big, but it has French doors on one end and a fireplace on the wrong wall.  No one else knows or thinks this most likely but me.  It just makes it harder to decorate.

The thing that bugged me the most about my family room were the empty walls.  Because of the size I didn't have furniture pushed up against the walls. This made for lots of nekked wall showing.  I tried to add a ginormous plant to cover some of the nekkedness that you can see in the back corner.  It wasn't working right and it bugged me.

The worst part of it was the weirdness going on in the other corner behind the couch.  I never took picture of it because I knew it didn't look right.  I put a ladder shelf there to try and fill the space.  It was awkward looking (there's that word again).  That poor ladder shelf just couldn't do it, and neither could the art next to it. Ugh, it was so awkward....

 I decided some board and batten would fill out some of this empty space nekkedness.  The white would also brighten it up which would be a good thing.  Mr. Chic and I did the board and batten ourselves (tutorial to come maybe, does the world need another one?) and it made such a difference. 

 My walls don't look nekked anymore!

 

I got rid of that big ole' dumb plant that was in the corner desperately trying not to be awkward.

 

My little black dresser used to hold my tv but now it fits perfectly in the ladder shelf corner.  I was able to move it because Mr. Chic made me this sweet tv stand.
 

I love it!

We flip-flopped our couch and loveseat which makes a huge difference in coziness of the room.  I thought it would make it feel smaller because now the back of the couch faces the entry to the room but it really didn't make a difference. 

I also angled my chair towards the tv and away from the couches which really opened up the space. 

After 4.75 years I am finally happy with this room!  The best part is that we made some big changes on a small budget.  I'll be sharing more about that soon.  

So, what's the most awkward room in your home?  Have you been able to work around it?