Family Room Renovation

The room had everything going for it and nothing working. Real ceiling height, a wall of windows facing the yard, and a fireplace anchoring the long wall. But the focal wall was crowded: a carved mantel, a marble surround, a tall arched niche above it, and a dropped trim band that cut the wall into thirds and ate the upper volume. On the far side, a wet bar nobody used.

We took the fireplace wall down to studs and rebuilt it floor to ceiling in large-format stone-look tile, set in a vertical stack so the eye runs straight up. The television is flush-mounted into the wall so it reads as part of the composition instead of an afterthought. The mantel, the niche, and the trim band are gone. The wall is one clean plane now, and the room finally feels as tall as it actually is.

The window wall was the other big move. The old stacked grids of small-pane windows came out. In their place, full-height black-framed glass that pulls the yard straight into the room. Where the wet bar used to be, we built a long window seat with drawer storage underneath and a soft cushioned top, which gives the room a quiet edge and a place for the kids to land.

New wide-plank flooring, fresh paint, recessed lighting in place of the old fan, and custom-ordered furniture sized to the room.