Home Decorating 101 - MEDIA ROOM

Friday, October 5, 2010


Ready to watch a little Glenn Beck (no rude comments, please)?  Follow me into the Media Room, kick off your shoes and get comfortable.....

When we bought the house, the folks we bought it from designed this room to be a 50's room.....black & white checkered floor, jukebox, Coca Cola stuff everywhere.....real cool Texas shaped wet bar sink....and the coolest part was this real unique train track that ran around the perimeter near the ceiling.  Unfortunately, the train always stalled out on the tressel......

So we turned it into a Media Room.  We painted those bare white walls (Errrrrrrrrr.....I detest white walls) a deep burgundy, installed carpet to help with the sound, put in indirect lighting, hot glued burgundy velvet curtains and found a kicker deal on the recliners.  Actually, we lived with my father-in-law's old yellow plaid hide-a-bed sofa for a few years until we could afford the media recliners. Chuck was as happy as a tick on a dog when we turned this room into a Media Room cause that allowed him to go purchase the 60" TV of his dreams..........the boy was actually slobbering......it was scary.

Most of the other furniture we already had....we turned the train track into a bookshelf.....hung some of my favorite art (which consists of Hobby Lobby prints, Bombay Outlet oils and a $10 poster I carried on my back all through Europe (am I right, Carla??).  HELPFUL HINT:  If you're looking to frame a favorite print or mirror, do not; I repeat, DO NOT go to a frame shop and order one.  Instead, purchase a pre-made frame from Hobby Lobby (every few weeks they're 50% off) or go to Kirklands, head to the back of the store to the Green Tag section and you'll pick up a HUGE frame for under $20.....Even if you don't need a frame, but you find one that you like thats cheap, BUY IT NOW......you will always find a use for it later.  I have a whole attic full of stuff I don't need....yet.

We're not rich, folks.....I'm just cheap.  Did you know that you can negotiate financing with most furniture stores?  Most of them will either lower the price or give you 0% interest......you just have to ask.  I ALWAYS ask.....It's about this time Chuck walks away shaking his head.......I think it embarrasses him or something...I get the same look from him when someone compliments his shirt and I enthusiastically tell them it came from Goodwill.....ohhhhh, he hates that.   He's begged me not to tell people his Cadillac Valet T-shirt came from Goodwill..........so don't tell anyone, okay?

Back to the Media Room.....This room had no door and no way to put up a door; but since the house originally only had 2 bedrooms,  we needed to use this room for overflow sleeping when the family was down.  Sooooooo.....out came my faithful glue gun, more velvet material and made a double thick curtain at the doorway that can be pulled shut to provide privacy.

Well, that's about it......I'm showing a picture of Chuck's snack basket cause its a permanent fixture in this room.  The entire bottom drawer of the coffee table is for his TV room snacks......I'm starting to think the boy has a worm or something.......