my parent's house... redecorated. {part 1}

Last week my parents flew both my sister and I into Houston so we could redecorate their house.  Ummm... yes, please.  I mean, who doesn't love shopping with someone else's credit card??  I love the challenge of trying to use what someone already has to change a space entirely... switching bed linens... trading furniture from room to room... rearranging decor... eliminating decor... you get the picture.  

But my parent's house was a little different.  I guess because I've seen it "as-is" for so long, it made it difficult to envision something entirely different.  And unlike my own home, they have a bunch of really nice furniture... so it's not like I can just start spray painting and distressing stuff.  

And speaking of stuff... they have A LOT of it. I don't think even they realized how much stuff they had until we piled it all in one space...

And oh.my.word... the faux foliage... holy.plants.

There is no way to describe the amount of greenery that was collected from around the home... most of it was just forgotten in some lonely, dusty corner of the house.  My parents agreed that it was high time to return the fake greenery to it's proper decade, 1993.  Thank goodness.

We did a little something to almost every room of the house, so instead of one massively long post, I decided to split this one up.  Today we'll focus on the family room... this is where my parents spend the majority of their time.  Here's what we were working with... (sorry in advance for all the iPhone photos)

BEFORE:

And here's what we ended up with...

AFTER:

Another "before" photo from a different view...

BEFORE:

And the "after"...

AFTER:

It wasn't really all that bad beforehand... just needed a little declutterizing (that's totally a word... look it up).  We changed the furniture arrangement to create a cozier space.  I love having those two over-sized chairs side-by-side.  My favorite parts of the room??  Definitely the new updated lampshades (Tuesday Morning)... and those adorable numbered pillows (Stein Mart).  I feel like both of those elements helped to modernize the room a little... bringing a little bit of whimsy into a mostly traditional space.

Here's a close up of one of the lamp shades...

Some of the major changes were the brand new rug (Tuesday Morning) and taking the large glass table (previously behind the sofa) out of the room entirely.  We cleaned out the bookshelves over the bar area and put (gasp!) books in them... occasionally showcasing one or two special items.

One more "after" shot, just for kicks...

So, there you have it.  Part 1 of the parent redecoration project.  More to come soon...