Last week we showed how our kitchen came together using mostly furniture and items we already owned. This week we’re sharing the upstairs space, which has quickly become a favorite room thanks to windows on all four sides. The abundant light and surrounding greenery make it feel open and welcoming.
We decided to keep this room as a large shared family space rather than dividing it into separate bedrooms. It works wonderfully as a combined family room and workspace. Having everyone sleep on the same floor has also been practical — the kids don’t need to trek up or down the stairs in the middle of the night, and the bright upstairs space gives us a comfortable area to spend time together during the day and into the evening.
That large double window with the transom above sits centered on the wall and naturally divides the room into two zones: a living area on the right defined by the big rug, and an office/art area on the left. For scale, the gray rug is 8 x 10′ and the sofa is a massive 93″ long, so this room really is generous in size.
We heard from many readers that larger communal spaces and smaller sleeping areas suit smaller homes, so we leaned into that idea. This upstairs room, combined with the shared space downstairs and the big deck off the room, gives the whole house a very open, social feel.
The left side of the room serves as a long work and art desk for the kids and a workspace for adults when we need our desktop monitor. Our laptop gets used elsewhere — at the kitchen table or out on the deck — but the big monitor lives here when we want a dedicated desk setup.
Almost everything in the room came with us when we moved. The only new purchases were the office chairs, a couple of storage baskets, and a new TV since we sold our wall-mounted TVs with our previous house. Aside from those few items, the room was furnished using existing pieces that thankfully worked well together.
It’s not perfect — we’ll make tweaks over time — but everything landed in place surprisingly smoothly given it was mostly whatever fit into the moving pod. We don’t feel pressured to replace anything immediately, which is a relief.
The lounge side of the room changed a lot since we first saw the space in February. A fresh coat of SW Pure White paint, refinished floors, and our furniture arrangement make it feel bright and settled now. Good light helps the photos, too.
You’ll likely recognize many of the pieces: the couch from our old living room, the rug from our son’s previous bedroom, the wall-mounted bookshelf from the beach house living room, and the bean bags from the kids’ old art room. We expected a lot of rearranging, but most pieces have stayed where we set them during the first days of unpacking.
We positioned the seating to face the TV because that was the only wall without windows large enough to mount it without blocking natural light. Yes, it’s not the most celebrated interior design move to let the TV dictate the layout, but it works for how we live and watch shows.
We did splurge on a Frame TV since it’s likely our only television here. We like how it sits flush to the wall and the magnetic bezel that makes it look framed. The art mode photos look nice in photos, but in real life we often leave it off and enjoy the black screen. Overall we’d grade it around a B+ — very good, but not perfect.
We added a bottom shelf to the white console under the TV by cutting a piece of plywood to rest on the lower supports. That simple tweak created useful storage, and we added felt baskets to corral board games we often play on the upstairs deck after dinner.
The white unit above the TV is a mini-split heating/cooling system. We debated replacing it with wall vents, but multiple HVAC pros advised that this room wouldn’t be comfortable without a wall-mounted unit. Function won over form, and it’s made the space comfortable even with all the windows.
Access to the deck influenced furniture placement as well. The sofa creates a clear corridor to the door leading outside. Ideally the rug would be slightly shorter so it doesn’t reach the door frame, but it’s not a problem for now.
I was hesitant to place the shallow wall bookshelf in a high-traffic spot, but it’s worked out well and uses a narrow sliver of wall that would otherwise be wasted.
We have a large pendant light on order to hang from the ceiling junction box centered over the window. We wanted to live in the space through a hot month before deciding on a fan versus a fixture, and the room has remained comfortable, so a pendant light won’t create a heat problem.
Now to the workspace side: if the living area is the “party,” this side is the “business.” Since our new house is much smaller, we combined the kids’ art and homework area with an adult desk. It’s been working well, even during distance learning and quarantine.
The kids’ desk is a scaled-down version of their previous art room setup. We used two drawer bases, iron legs, and one marble-look countertop to create a long, shared work surface. It isn’t a continuous counter across both desks, but it functions fine and we’ll consider a longer counter or butcher block in the future if needed.
The adult desk is an older piece we’ve had for more than a decade. We pared down physical files before the move, digitized what we needed, and made room by borrowing a few drawers from the kids’ desk. A small printer tucks under one of the drawer bases and quietly does its job.
I’m writing this from that desk right now and it’s a joy to work facing windows and greenery after years of staring at a blank wall. I also get to watch our dog sun himself on the deck, which is an unexpected daily perk.
There’s still open floor space on this side of the room — room for a second rug or future additions. For now we’re leaving it to evolve so we only buy what we truly need instead of filling space for the sake of it.
Some pieces, like the benches near the stairs, are there mainly to fill space for now. We kept them because we still own them and they might be useful elsewhere later, such as at the foot of a guest bed.
So that’s the current state of our upstairs living area — flexible, bright, and very much a work in progress. It’s gratifying to see so many familiar pieces fit into this new home and feel right at home.
Now I’m off to enjoy the view from the windows — or maybe take my laptop out onto the deck.
P.S. We’ve documented our Florida house renovation in a series of posts covering the exterior makeover, projects planned from afar, and recent floor refinishing.