Rearranging Furniture ~ just for the Kinect

Yep.. you read that correct - we rearranged the living/dining room - all because this gorgeous 12 year got the Kinect for her birthday and I needed more space to play the games.

Ok so maybe it might have also been an excuse for me to take an an opportunity to spruce up the room. It wasn't been touch in 3 years... that's FOREVER ago. I usually switch things around with every seasonal change. Three years ago we got the ginormous leather sectional and I never thought to flip the room around. I gotta say I should have done it sooner cause this new layout rocks!
I will be the 1st to admit I am at loss on what to do with these big walls. I really am. Every idea I have had an idea it just seem to get lost on the walls.
Here is the old layout of the room. I was already in the the process of moving things out of the way when I realized :maybe I should "take before pics and blog about it". Typical me :)

The room is a combination room with the back half having the family room. It has a ginormous leather section, a round leather ottoman/coffee table, a large screen TV, my Pottery Barn floor light (circa 1999) and a sofa table (an Ikea bookcase on its side). I didn't realize how much everything was hidden behind that sofa table until I looked at these pics. And yep I already know beige the room is.

The other half of the room (the one you walked up too) is considered the dining room. Here is view from the far wall looking into the dining/kitchen area. These were taken before the kitchen paint job. Notice the balloons hanging from the chandelier?

Just a sidenote: I also realized how much I SUCK at taking pictures with my smaller digital camera. I am always in awe at how talented the women out in blogland are with their amazing pictures. Not much of that going on here. I really need to get on that. 
And now for the new layout.

Notice all the newly found room for playing games and entertaining? I have a ton of space for my Zumba. The hubby even put wheels on the coffee table/ottoman. We can now roll it out of the way whenever we need the space. How cool is my husband? I made an off hand comment about how I wished the ottoman had wheels on it and he did it ASAP! I love that man.

View from the back wall looking into the kitchen. The plan for that room is a new dining set and a new lighting fixture. I already have a ton of inspiration pictures saved for that project but one room at a time.

I put away the orange floral pillows (in the above picture) since those are my warm weather pillows. I now have these beauties on the couch. $15 for 2 at Ross. I also placed the rug that was under the dining set, under the sectional. It's a temporary fix until we get a new rug. Notice the faux fur brown throw?  I love the look of these colors together but the brown rug made it to dark in this corner. 

There is still so much I want to do with these 2 rooms. First off - a new rug under the couch and I love love me some animal prints. Zebra and leopard are my absolutely favorite! So it would make sense to have the new rug be a brown zebra stripe rug. It's super stylish and pretty much timeless and it definitely scream "Me" all over it. My only fear is this rug might be too light for the space. There is, and trust me I know, a whole lot of beige in this room. 

So a solution might be to perhaps use the same pattern but in a darker shade? 

I actually do have a vision for the this room. I mean what kind of person would I be to go into this all willy nilly with these rooms? :-) It's based loosely on this inspirational picture from Decorpad. I just love how each color in this picture pops. Notice the browns, oranges and touches of turquoise? That's my vision.. to incorporate all of these colors into my space and have them POP. I figure right now I have a blank canvas with all the beiges, so on to the colors.   

So let me have it. What do you think about the new layout and the plans for the space?  I would love to hear your feedback! 

Really..

I would....

I'm linking this up on great link parties: All Thingz Related, Nifty Thrifty Tuesday, Make it Yours Day, Show and Tell, February Before and After Party, Me and My bucket, Frugal Friday, Finding Fabulous, Fab Friday, Everything but the kitchen Sink