Coastal Design Inspiration
We just got back from Destin, FL, and it’s always just so incredibly inspiring to travel for us. Even when it’s just a trip to West TX, or a couple of days at the beach, it’s so refreshing, rejuvenating, and really helps me keep being creative! I’ve shared details about this project before, but didn’t even get to the living room space, or my favorite space: the office/music room, and it just took a few days at the beach to get me revved up to be able to share those details with you here!
I once read that our souls respond to the ocean in a unique way because there are still parts of the deep left untouched by man. I still get tingles at the thought of that idea! I also get chills at a good street taco, Mahler’s 5th symphony, I could go on and on. But we’re back at our coastal project today! We talked about our formal spaces here and you can catch up and read about that process on the blog. Today we’re talking about our family spaces—the family room and the music room, specifically. These rooms are where the owners and their family relax after work, settle in for a dinner together, or cozy up on the sectional for a movie.
In the family room, function is my main priority. We went with a sectional for maximum seating! We have yet to find a sofa as functional for large families who love to cuddle up for a movie than the infamous sectional. We then added a cozy rug, and the real wood log stools for either drinks/popcorn or to be used as additional perches when the teenage friend-group comes over! The sisal rug brings in our coastal seagrass but is also virtually indestructible—a win-win!
When comparing the formal rooms to the family rooms, you can see the fabrics we chose here are more playful and casual, but do still look like they’re in the same house. You’ll also notice some major differences in how the two spaces are styled! In the family room we gave them new bookshelves for cheer photos, trophies, pictures with the president (literally, not even joking)…the stuff of life, where the formal, is just that: formal! At Lambert Home, we really don’t think family photos are appropriate for entry or public spaces in the home. No offense to the FedEx man, but he doesn’t need to see the baby in her swimsuit or the family at the lake house. That’s only for guests who are invited farther into the home!
The music room is what we decided to turn the front office into. Most Southlake homes have a front office, but not all of us need or want an office at home. My family is also a musical family, so it was exciting to be able to design “the dream” music room for family jam sessions.
When we first entered the space it had floor-to-ceiling wood paneling—so beautiful, but SO dark. While I was entirely obsessed with the look of the wood paneling, something about it seemed too sterile. Too hard. To counteract this feeling, but still respect the beauty of the paneling, we wallpapered inside each panel to add texture, lighten it up, and even save the wood for future owners! The wallpaper could be removed much easier than paint and you’d have your masculine, wood office again! Also the textured wallpaper not only adds to the aesthetic, but also adds to the acoustics of the room!
In terms of seating, I decided on a sofa grouping and a fireplace grouping in this room that we joined by layering rugs—a sisal rug (like in the family room) and a hide rug. The hide adds a little rock & roll vibe to the space, but is also very durable and helps us extend the seating group the width of the room. I imagine multiple family members using the room at once: someone relaxing and reading on the sofa, someone practicing guitar by the fire, two more family members sitting in the leather side chairs and talking about their days. Like I mentioned in the family room—the side tables in here can also double as seating or drink rests. We know how a solo practice session can turn into four guitars, a mandolin, two vocalists, and an audience quickly and wanted this room to be able to handle it all!
This room turned out to be one of my favorite spaces I’ve ever created. These clients offered so much freedom in creativity, and when I said things like “let’s wallpaper the paneling” they didn’t balk at all! I absolutely love the juxtaposition of the “soft” elements like the textured wallpaper, neutral sofa, and hints of turquoise with the “harder” elements like cow hide, leather, wood, iron, etc. And hey, at the end of the day, you just can’t beat the cool factor of those electric guitars hanging on the wall!
