You pay a mortgage and taxes on every square inch of your home.  So, wouldn’t it be a good idea to try and use all of them?  Instead, so many formal living rooms in homes are, at best, the “pretty” room.  You know the one; that awkward spot in the home where the family rarely spends time.  Either it’s too far removed from the kitchen and t.v.  Or sometimes, it’s so perfectly decorated, it might as well have museum ropes to maintain perfection.  Form definitely wins over function.

Last week, we put the finishing touches on a few rooms for an Aurora, IL family.  During our consult, we were pleasantly surprised to see the owners had actually started transforming their formal living and dining spaces into a more family-friendly, useable room.  In place of expected decor, they’d built a large reclaimed wood bar.  To that were added wall mounted t.v.s and an extra long, champion shuffleboard.  For a family that loves to entertain, the repurposed space now had the look and feel of a sports bar.

Since the family’s last name begins with a V, friends had already dubbed the fun, new space the “V-spot”.   Needless to say, we were more than happy to build on that idea.

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Luckily for our clients, a friend of the family with a good “shopping” eye was willing to help source the new furniture and other additions they needed.  After taking a few weeks to find & take delivery of the furniture and other goodies, we went back with a few additions of our own to style and bring everything together.

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In the bar area, we had the owners replace the white wood blinds with new matchstick roller shades to better compliment the man-cave appeal.  We also asked for an area rug under the bar table.  As a focal point behind the bar, we reused the owner’s polyptych of an airplane.   We also bought lettering from the local hobby story to officially label the space as the V-spot.

Along with adding finishing touches in the bar area, we were asked to help with ideas for the family room as well including furniture, additional window treatments, art and accessories.

For the family room, the owner purchased a new sofa, love seat and t.v. console.  To those we added a repurposed leather chair from the basement and bench from the office.  We also reused their existing coffee and other accent tables.  We added sheer white panels to soften the edges of the window blinds.  And we brought in new artwork and an area rug to mix with the newly purchased accessories.

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Good decorating respects both form and function.  An unused room is sad no matter how great it looks.  Just as the busiest room in your home should be well arranged and beautiful.  Why not look for any underused spaces in your own home.  With the right combination of form and function, you too can hit the V spot.

Happy Decorating from Decor Designs.  815-245-2433