Oh, sunroom. You are kind of cool, but also a lot of trouble.

When people see our house for the first time, they almost always say something about how much they like the sunroom, and my response is almost always, “yeah, just don’t look too close.”

The sunroom is on the back of the house; both the kitchen and the den open onto it, and it appears to have been someone’s very ambitious DIY project back before we got the house. When we first saw the house, listed as a foreclosure, water was pouring through a poorly installed skylight in the sunroom ceiling. This may well be how we managed to get the house for a great price, and it turned out, it was not a particularly expensive fix. The windows have been a constant headache as well, with fogging panes and rotting wood. In the fall we finally, after many delays, got replacements for two of the worst windows, and I’ve been so happy with them that it’s made me want to revisit the sunroom and give it a full refresh.

I guess this picture is really showing off our patchy winter yard more than our new window, but you get the idea:

Okay, so a crash course in the history of the sunroom! When we moved in, it sat empty for a long time because we didn’t have any furniture for it, coming from a smaller house, and weren’t really sure what to do with it. Then a hand me down sofa came along, I painted some thrift store finds, etc. etc. and it became a nice family room type area:

When I was going back through the blog and looking for a picture of the sunroom from old times, I found that I said this about it back in 2014 (! I’ve been blogging about this house for FOREVER, ya’ll):

we use it constantly, basically as a family room. The computers make their way onto that table pretty frequently. Abe plays with toys in here. The kids do some schoolwork. We read bedtime stories. When people come over, they tend to congregate in here.

Aww! That sounds so nice and cozy!

Over time the sunroom gave over more and more space to Abe’s toys and became more of a playroom:

But Abe has never been super into toys and he’s gotten less and less so as he’s grown. He likes books, and games, and baseball, but not so much hanging out on that rug playing with legos or whatever. And he’s NINE now! So over time things kind of deteriorated in the sunroom. The toys were used less and less. The rugs and hand me down couch succumbed to age and pets. We dragged those rattan chairs outside to be used on the porch (which I ALSO need to blog about!)

And so the sunroom has become a sad, depressing shell of its former self, despite its fancy new windows.

So! Plans!

I’ve had some vague ideas for the past couple of months: plans to turn it back into a multi-use family room, with comfy seating and also room for games and school and stuff. Maybe there would be more color, I thought, and a little bit more of a modern vibe.

And then, somehow, yesterday I felt a burst of sunroom-updating energy and started looking at sofas. What I wanted was a white or off-white slipcovered sofa, so that the slipcover could be washed or eventually replaced if needed. I contemplated just taking a trip to Ikea for the relatively inexpensive Ektorp. But then I spent a morning on Facebook Marketplace and came across a perfectly nice and serviceable looking sofa for $80. Dave set off to get it immediately, and now it’s here and we saved like $500, so if the lack of a slipcover does it in….well, not as big of a deal:

It has some little spots and imperfections, but it’s sturdy and comfortable, and I think it looks like it might want some whimsical pillows and throws to fancy it up and cover up said imperfections. For $80, I am very pleased.

Here’s another angle! With dogs and kids!

You can see the one of the new windows behind it. It’s the big, NEW looking one:

So we’re on our way to having a sunroom people want to hang out in again! (because they won’t have to sit in the floor). Since I saved so much money on that sofa, I splurged a little on a big, fun rug, which I’ll show you when it gets here. I seem to say “fun” a lot when I talk about sunroom plans. Because we’re going to have SO MUCH FUN sitting on the new couch and stuff!

Aside from that, here’s what we need to get done:

*more seating to go with $80 couch. Maybe a pair of comfy armchairs?

*bring table up from the basement to use in here:

This table does get used some in the basement, but not really very often (mostly when the kids play D&D together); it will almost certainly see more regular use upstairs.

*new chairs for the table, because I don’t want black chairs in the sunroom. Maybe green or blue? or just white

*get rid of the “credenza”

This was a very early project–painting a thrifted dresser turquoise, and I don’t hate it in here, but the drawers are all wonky and don’t open and close well, and it doesn’t hold nearly as much stuff as it seems like it should for something so huge. Basically, I think something else would work better in this space, although I’m not sure what yet. Ikea Ivar hack, perhaps? We might buy something or we might make something to go in the same place and hold stuff like games and craft supplies.

*Find another home for the Fancy Lady:

I also have a wall of souvenir plates in here and a grouping of nautical themed paintings and prints, and I think those can probably all stay? But the fancy lady just seems too…fancy for the new FUN modern sunroom vibe. But I will make sure she finds a new home that shows her off like she deserves. Dave suggested the dining room, where we have another fancy lady, but I shut that down immediately.

“No! They might fight!” I explained. (also the colors don’t go)

This means I’ll also need something else to go over the oddly ornate mantel.

And that’s what I’ve got so far! Look for a future post on THE BATTLE OF THE FANCY LADIES!