Anyone interested in helping on another home renovation post? (And helping me get my mind off being an empty nester?)
We recently bought our retirement home in a beach/island community. We will be remodeling the inside to bring it from the 80’s/Golden Girls vibe to present day. Our focus is on kind of a costal-modern-farmhouse vibe. It’s a large open concept house with very tall 2-story ceilings in the common living spaces and lots of windows looking out onto the water. Carpet will be removed and replaced with hardwoods or LVT, all outdated trim removed, walls painted, mantels & fireplace treatments completely replaced, window grids removed, new lights & ceiling fans, kitchen completely remodeled - you get the picture.
I have two similar rooms next to each other and I’m not sure what to use them for. Currently, they both are sitting areas with TV’s & fireplaces. One is a more formal living room area, and the other room is around the corner (and somewhat open to the first room) and is used as a less formal sitting area (also with a fireplace and TV). The second room also connects to the kitchen & eating area. We’re not looking for a formal feel, so a formal living room seems like a waste of great space. We will keep both fireplaces (they back up to each other but are 2 separate fireplaces - both masonry). Both rooms share an entire wall of sliding glass doors out onto a terrace.
Right now, I’m thinking of using the bigger of the two rooms as the official family room and the slightly smaller room, off the kitchen, as more of a “morning room”, where family can gather while in the kitchen, eating meals, etc., with a smaller, cozier seating area than in the bigger room next door. The remodel on the kitchen will include a breakfast bar with stools that will extend into the morning room, but the room is still pretty big, so I’m looking for ideas on how to lay it out and fill it. I’m also thinking of doing different treatments for each fireplace - a coastal modern-farmhouse-y look in the big room and a stacked stone look in the morning room. TV’s in both rooms, which I know could be problematic if they’re both on at the same time, but I think that scenario would be rare.
Here’s some current pictures with staging furniture, which is definitely not reflective of our style.
First pic is the big room (currently a formal living room). You may see a wet bar - we are taking that out to make room for a pantry in the kitchen)
The next 3 pictures are different angles of the “morning room”. The last one shows the proximity to the kitchen (note that we are taking that entire kitchen wall down and getting rid of the “peek-a-boo” passthrough. The bottom half of the wall will become the breakfast bar with the entire kitchen being opened up to the morning room (and the water view!)
Any ideas or suggestions are welcome!
