The photos above are taken standing in the dining room and looking into the room. At some point I'd like to get an accent/area rug and a coffee table to go inside the U of the sectional, but for now we get a lot of use out of the ottoman. Below is the gallery wall that is to the left (south) when you are standing facing west (towards the large windows).
Items on the gallery wall represent places we've lived and experiences we've had. When our friends gave us the brown sectional it took up most of the room (not complaining! We love it. We needed the seating and it is very comfortable and cozy) so it was important to me to inject some personality into the room and I thought a gallery wall would be a great way to make that happen.
The two western paintings have stories of their own too. We purchased the one on the left in Wall Drug, South Dakota on our transcontinental road trip a couple of years ago. The painter is Harvey Dunn (not sure if he's a relation or not). The cowboy roping the calf on the right is an original that my husband got for his birthday several years ago. Both paintings remind me of our pioneer and western heritage.
Here's the view looking into our back yard. We only have a couple of trees, but I love them. Sometimes on winter days when the sun is shining I just want to lay on the couch and bask in it like a lizard as it comes through these windows.
The back door leads out onto a deck. We get a lot of traffic through this door so carpet is not an ideal floor choice for this space. As I mentioned in the blog about the front entry, I love slate tile. I'm not sure how cost effective that would be in a space this size. Probably not very. If we went with tile or hardwood I would put a large area rug in the room for warmth.
The closet doors have been broken almost since we moved in. They are a pain to deal with so I've toyed with the idea of just taking them off altogether. It might be fun to convert this closet into a little craft nook or office area. We don't need the space for coats, but the shelves inside are great for housing board games and DVDs. If I leave the doors on they will need to be replaced with something better eventually. Another possibility is to convert this into the pantry that I don't have in the kitchen. I haven't decided what I want to do yet.
Above are a couple of pictures of the view from the couch looking towards the kitchen/dining room. I wouldn't say our house has an open floor plan, but it is pretty open nevertheless. When you are sitting in the middle of the couch you can see all the way to the entry at the front of the house so it does a pretty good job of helping us feel like we're all together when the family is all home (and downstairs).
I would love to move this bookcase and install some floating shelves in this little corner. That is one of the projects that I will probably end up doing first in this room because I think it will be fairly cost-effective. I don't mind the blue paint, but I will probably paint this room eventually too. No rush on any of the projects. It is a functional room as it is.
List of eventual improvements I'm considering for this space:
--Built in shelves on the wall where the tall bookcase is
--Replace carpeting; slate tile or hardwood with a large area rug for warmth?
--Paint
--Coffee table
--Replace closet doors
--Convert closet to a craft nook, small office area, or pantry
--More???
What changes would you make in this space?
This concludes the tour of the first level of our home. The three bedrooms and upstairs bathroom are next on the agenda.
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