Coffee to Cocktails Room

I am a huge fan of using the square footage of your home for what works for YOU. Not for what it was “intended” to be. For us, that means that a separate formal living room is a big waste of space. With small kids, a house full of sports fans, and toys covering what feels like every square inch of floor space, our main area has always been our family room.

In houses past, we’ve used our dining and formal living room spaces for things from a home office, to a play room, to a “coffee” room that the entire family can enjoy. Not just reserving it for special occasions once or twice a year. In this house, when we walked in and saw the formal living room that was completely separated from the kitchen and family room area, we knew that was going to be the first thing to change!

Any sure enough, within the first few weeks of living here, we knocked down a wall, and created a much more casual approach to our “formal” space. I have loved the intimate look of four swivel chairs surrounding a round table and have pinned beautiful spaces like this for years, and knew this was the house to finally make that come to life!

Now renamed our “coffee and cocktail” space, we start our mornings here most days, watching the kids spin around and around until somehow we’re both dizzy, and end our busiest days here as well, chatting about life and goals, and a cheering with a big glass of wine.

This room has one of the biggest transformations since moving in less than a year ago, including opening up a wall (more on that soon!), new wood floors, removing decorative columns, refinishing an old family coffee table, paint and new french doors.

Here’s what the space looked like the day we got the keys, and how it looks now!