The English pine cabinet arrived on a Friday while I was out of town at the Springfield Antique Show and Flea Market. Mike texted me a picture of it in the space and the doubts started to creep in. I had measured the wall I wanted it on and knew it would fit. But seeing the photo he sent, I worried it was too big and the color was all wrong for the cozy family room we were trying to create. I told myself to wait until I saw it in person thinking it was just bad lighting.
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When I got home and saw it for the first time, I loved it. It is big, but in a good way. The bookcases are the anchor and are a great way to add layers and depth to a room through the styling. The pine cabinet is bringing the character and history. It feels like something that belongs to the house rather than something we bought for it. And it makes the whole room feel even cozier.
It sits on the wall nearest to the door that leads out to the backyard, which makes sense for how we actually use this room. Coats, hats, dog collars, leashes, shoes, towels. Everything that was landing on the sofa now as a place to go.
Where It Came From
Before the cabinet, stuff was just landing everywhere. Coats on the sofa. Shoes piled up by the back door. Dog things scattered across whatever surface was closest. I wanted a way to deal with it that didn’t make the room feel like a mudroom.
We found this piece on House on Horizon. It’s owned by a sweet couple in Michigan who travel to England several times a year to buy furniture and ship it back. I found them on Instagram. As I scrolled their website, this cabinet stopped me in my tracks.
At a quick glance, I thought the measurements could work. The depth is 16 inches. I didn’t want anything too deep for this wall and based on another temporary piece we have in there, this would be fine.
I was worried about the width of the piece, though. So, I quickly ran to the family room, tape measure in hand, and measured the wall. It would just fit. The space between the kitchen opening and the half bath pocket door is roughly 70″. The cabinet measures 64.5″ and it would allow a little breathing room on each side and accommodate the door swing of our dutch door.
The cabinet is one solid piece, top and bottom. The top section opens to a generous open space with no shelving except the floor of that section, which is actually perfect for what I had in mind. I’m planning to add hooks inside for hanging coats since a rod wouldn’t work at this depth. There are hooks on the inside of the right door already but they sit too low for jackets. They’ve turned out to be perfect though for baseball caps, and I’ve been hanging the dogs’ collars there too. I picked up some baskets at Target to hold leashes, towels, and mittens.
The bottom section is the same. Wide open storage with no shelving. I added more baskets here as well and found rubber mats on Amazon that are sold as pet bowl mats. Traditional shoe trays were all just slightly too wide for the inside of the cabinet but these fit perfectly and will protect the wood from wet boots, shoes, and umbrellas.
Rethinking the Layout For Our Cozy Family Room
To be honest, a cabinet wasn’t on my radar when I first started planning the design of our cozy family room. But as I paid more attention to how we used the space last winter, it dawned on me that we needed some sort of wardrobe for storage.
I’m glad I had that revelation before we got too much further in the design. Along with the sofa, it’s one of the two pieces that will really drive the layout of this room, and I wanted to have those pieces in place before I started making decisions around them.
The sofa we had planned to use in here isn’t going to work. We found it at a charity shop a couple of summers ago and had it reupholstered in a floral block print. It’s a beautiful piece but it’s a touch too small in both length and depth for this room. Mike wants something he can really sink into and this one isn’t it. I’m not entirely sure why he said yes when I asked him if it would work. I think he saw how excited I was to find a quality piece so cheap. I think we will use it in the living room or office upstairs and I’ll start the search for something bigger and deeper.
The cabinet also made me rethink the chairs. We had originally planned to have two swivel chairs in front of the TV but now I think slipper chairs might be better. They won’t be used that much and losing the arms and the barrel shape saves enough width to make the layout feel less crowded with the cabinet in the room.
What I’m realizing with the layout is that I can be a little looser with spacing than I might be in another room. The main walking path from the kitchen to the back door needs to stay clear but beyond that I don’t have to hold to strict furniture spacing rules. The slipper chairs can sit fairly close to the bookcases. We don’t access the middle cabinets they’ll partially block that often and we don’t need a walking path behind them. This layout should add to the cozy factor I’m going for in the family room.
The challenge will be finding the balance. Enough breathing room where the room needs to function, without losing the warmth and that slightly tucked-in feeling I’m after to create a cozy family room.
What’s Next For Our Cozy Family Room
The sofa is what I need to figure out first. It and the rug are the two pieces that will really drive the rest of the color palette in the room. Once I have those I should be able to land on a fabric for the roman shades pretty easily. I have something in my head already but I don’t want to commit to it and box myself in before I know what the rug looks like. Pulling colors from that will make the decision a lot easier.
After that I’ll look for an ottoman or coffee table and shop our own home first for lamps and side tables before I buy anything new. With the major pieces in place it will be easier to see what we already own that could work and what dimensions I actually need if something needs replacing.
As for the slipper chairs, I’m not in any hurry. For everyday use the sofa is really the only piece that matters. It’s just me and Mike most of the time. The chairs are more for when we have people over. I’d rather take my time and see if I can find the right pair secondhand to reupholster than rush it.
One Last Thing
This room has been a good reminder that slow design actually works. When you take your time, you get to live in the space and have time to notice patterns before you commit to anything.
The sofa was always top of mind for me and the swivel chairs made sense on paper, but it was only by paying attention to how we were actually using the room day to day that the design started to shift. I realized we needed a storage piece for the coats that kept landing on the sofa and the many dog leashes and toys scattered everywhere. A storage piece that could handle all of that quietly became more important than the chairs ever were.
So, if you are also working through a room design, I’d say start by figuring out the two or three pieces that are really going to drive your layout and your palette. But stay open. If something about the way you’re living in the space tells you the hierarchy needs to change, listen to it. You’ll be able to see what the room needs if you take your time.
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