Have you ever wished you could just hire someone to design the room of your dreams? Do you feel overwhelmed when designing a space? Do you have a vision of a dream space but can’t find quality family friendly pieces?

I have said yes to each of those questions over and over when trying to design our family room! Our kitchen is connected to our family room. When we remodeled it earlier this year, I knew that phase 2 would have to be updating it to flow with the updated look of the kitchen.

The kitchen design came together very easily. I knew exactly what I wanted. The family room makeover, had me a little stumped. We’ve had oversized leather sofas for almost 10 years. The room feels dark and dated when compared to the bright, fresh kitchen. The leather is a life saver with children, but our children are getting older and our design taste has changed. I spent hours upon hours, looking for sofas that fit the look I was going for and were durable enough with our 5 kiddos. Our chandelier was also an issue. The current one was the wrong scale and didn’t fit the style of the kitchen.

One day while perusing Instagram, I came upon a photo of a beautiful family room designed by A Well Dressed Home. The caption said that the fabrics were all kid and pet friendly! Not only were they family friendly, they were the style I had been searching for! I couldn’t get the photo out of my head.

Photo: A Well Dressed Home

After visiting their website and seeing their motto is, “Attainable, Livable, Luxury” {my personal mission statement}, I decided I had to reach out to this design firm! I chatted with Emily, head designer at A Well Dressed Home, for quite awhile. Not only was she sweet and down to earth, she filled me in on the experience her firm offers clients and she listened to my design dilemmas.

We came up with a plan. A wonderful plan! We would collaborate on redesigning my family room. Emily and her design team would design our family room and I would go through the whole design experience –  they call “The Experience” and share it with all of you!

A Well Dressed Home has a philosophy that really rang true to me. When I spoke to Emily she shared some key points with me about

The Process

• They are “attainable” ! They design on a realistic budget (realistic being the key word). The pieces selected are high quality and durable.
• They design for families with kids and pets.
• Their process is VERY structured (they call this our recipe for success). This helps to make the project stay on point with the client’s style and budget.
• All the designs and costs are approved by the client before purchase.
• They do 1 FULL install (some designers install in phases, so it takes several installs to complete 1 room), which is not nearly as impactful for a client. They call this their “HGTV moment.” I’m already pulling out the tissue for my moment!
• The MOST important thing I want people to understand about working with A Well Dressed Home, is that they are able to design for a project anywhere in the US right from their Dallas studio! Their in-home design service, or “The Experience” is the same design fee for clients in Dallas as it is for clients anywhere else in the US. The only additional cost would be cost of travel for an install, but it is a small price to pay to ensure you get the look you want.
• The savings you receive by using their to the trade discount more than covers the cost of their design services! Basically you get to use higher quality pieces for your home and work with a designer for free!

Visit their website here to read more details about the process and see more of their work.

1. The first step was to send the design team my inspiration for the room. My kitchen was the inspiration for the style of the room. The goal was to make the family room feel like an extension of the kitchen. I had already purchased new armchairs and a side table for the room that the team happily worked into the project. We also used the photo from their Instagram feed as more inspiration. 2. After a few weeks, the design team sent over a floor plan and mood boards. This was such an exciting day! Emily set up a FaceTime call and we went over the design together. Having someone else pull the room together for me was such an amazing experience! The team picked out the perfect light for the space and a rug that is custom made for the room!

There were only a few items we tweaked. We added a desk area after discussing a “dead” space. Emily was so easy going and organized! After each step she sent an email with a recap of our meeting and a punch list of what was happening next. I always knew what was going on and what was coming.

Here is the space plan for the room. This helps you visualize the layout of the furniture and the space it uses in the room…

A funny story… my husband thought that the floor plan was the actual design board! He was so polite, but I could tell he just wasn’t feeling the room. He said, “It just feels kind of retro for your taste!” When I finally realized he had only seen the space plan and not the mood board, I almost wet my pants laughing! What a cutie!

Here is the design board…

Emily and her team incorporated the sofa from the photo I found on their feed. They also selected pieces that fit with my taste and style. I am SO excited to see the room come together!

3. Next samples arrived for the drapery and furniture. Family friendly fabrics were key in this design. My kids and I had fun dumping Go-gurts and Soy Sauce on the fabrics to make sure they passed the test! These fabrics are indestructible!!! They all passed the 5 Garrett kid spill test!

Not shown in the mood board is our family photo wall collage. The team kept this favorite spot of mine but put a fresh spin on it using these gorgeous Frame Bridge frames.  I’ll be sharing more on that process later.

Our drapes are being swapped out with lighter more airy drapes from Q Design Centre. I am so excited to have custom drapes! I have made most of the drapes in our home. I am no master seamstress so these are a real luxury! Below is a photo of some of the drapery Q Design made for the gorgeous home of Monika Hibbs.

Photo Monika Hibbs

The gorgeous light from Lighting Design has already been hung and is awaiting the install next week!!! Lighting Design is my go to place for lighting. We used them for all of our kitchen and bathroom redesigns as well.

Once all the pieces were confirmed by my husband and I, the order was placed and the install date was selected. The waiting game was about 12 weeks!

Emily is flying out next week to install the room! We will be sharing the reveal on Instagram and I will do a full reveal post soon!

If you are finding yourself thinking “I wish I could just hire someone to design the room of my dreams! I feel overwhelmed when designing a space! I have a vision of a dream space but can’t find quality family friendly pieces!,” then take a peek at A Well Dressed Home! Their “Experience” was a dream. They took the questions and stress out of all of my design dilemmas! Can you girls help me with my dining room next?!!!!

Meet the dream team…

Next week is the big day! Are you as excited for the room reveal as I am?!!!