The “Before” and “After” of our Circus Room Reno + Fireplace Makeover Progress!

We’ve had a lot of action on our home improvement projects in the last few weeks that I’m excited to share today! The renovations on our circus room are done now that we added the new wood floors, I’m getting close to finalizing the furniture design plan for that room, and we made big strides with our fireplace remodel. Ready to see? Let’s get to it starting with the Circus Room… (post includes affiliate links; full disclosure statement available {here})

Circus Room

Those of you who have been around the blog for a while know that I’ve had plans to remove the columns and load-bearing half wall separating our kitchen and “circus room” (named for its tent-like peaked ceiling) for quite some time now. Plus the circus room ceiling was in need of a bit of an upgrade. Last time I shared an update, the half-wall and columns had come down (a support beam was added to carry the load) and my shiplap ceiling design was close to completion:

Since then the room was painted, our chandelier was hung, and the old green carpet that was in the room was pulled up and replaced with white oak hardwoods (which is what we have throughout the rest of our first floor). It’s hard to express how much bigger the space now feels from the combination of removing the half-wall, adding the shiplap ceiling, and making the floors continuous with the wood floors in our kitchen! Photos don’t do it justice but I think you’ll still see a huge difference from the “before”:

to the current “after”:

And from another angle, here’s what it looked like before:

and here’s the same view now:

{This new tiered chandelier} ended up being the perfect light fixture for this space:

Once the half wall came down, for several weeks we were living with this recessed space in our floor where it used to be:

but we pulled up the old green carpet and laid new hardwoods that are continuous with those of the kitchen and cover that gap. They “toothed in” the new floors with the old (which involves removing some of the old boards where they join). Believe it or not, the flooring is exactly the same (white oak) in both spaces – it’s just that the old flooring was finished with an oil-based polyurethane that yellowed over time:

We’re going to live with this awkward transition from one room to the other until we renovate the kitchen next year when we’ll sand and refinish the hardwoods in both the kitchen and circus room to match those in the rest of our house. Once that’s done you’ll never notice this transition – the flooring will look uniform in both spaces. You can get details on the hardwood floor refinishing {here} that was done throughout the rest of our first floor (we’ll be using the same stains as this so it all matches).

Now it’s on to creating a design plan for furniture & accessories for this space! First up is finding a great rug. The room is more square than rectangular and unfortunately I soon realized that a standard sized rug won’t work well in here. The max rug length that this room can accommodate is 12’6″ so a 10 x 14 is too long. The next rug size down (9 x 12) is great for length but not wide enough. I thought maybe I could make a 9 x 12 work but once I pulled our living room rug and a few pieces of our living room sectional into the room to try it out, it confirmed that it would look ridiculous – as you can see from this quick iPhone shot, we definitely need something wider:

So I’m either going to have to find a 10 x 12 rug (the selection in this size is pretty limited) or go with a custom rug. Dash & Albert offers custom size rugs {here} so that was the first place I looked but I found that there’s a huge price jump from their standard sizes. For example our living room rug in the 9 x 12 size is $1284 but the same rug in a custom 10 x 12 size is $2505. Another option is to bind carpet to a custom size (which is what we did in the living room of our previous home).

I also revisited the option of one of {these oushak rugs} from Loom & Co. after realizing that they do custom sizing too. I have been OBSESSED with their rugs since I came across them but just couldn’t stomach spending that much on a rug. BUT I found out their custom sizes actually don’t cost any more than their standard sizes because each rug you order is hand loomed upon ordering. So they’re actually not a whole lot higher priced than other rugs once you get into custom sizes. And did I mention that I’m obsessed with them?! ????

I ordered yarn samples of three of my favorite rugs (from left to right below, Frida Cream, Amelia, & Everett):

and think I like the Everett rug best:

I haven’t pulled the trigger yet but wow, this rug would really make the space!

For furniture in the room, I’m using this pair of slipcovered swivel chairs that we had in the living room of our previous home:

We bought these chairs close to 15 years ago when we lived in Cincinnati and I still love them! I bought them from a local design shop but Serena & Lily started carrying them a few years ago {here} (they’re Lee Industries brand who makes all Serena & Lily upholstered furniture). While we’ll normally have them facing into the circus room, I love that we’ll also be able to swivel them around to talk to people in the kitchen.

Across from the two chairs will be a slipcovered sofa – I think I’m going with the Maiden Home Dune sofa that you can find {here}. It’s very similar to Serena & Lily’s Beach House sofa but for a fraction of the cost (you can see the price comparison in my designer looks for less post {here}). I also looked at {this Pottery Barn York Slipcovered Sofa} but the Maiden Home sofa is the better constructed sofa of the two for a similar price. Interestingly, I think that the Performance fabric that I’ve been looking at for both sofas is actually the same exact Crypton fabric:

I’m still looking at coffee tables and consoles but the Folsom coffee table that is available in a 58″ size {here} and an extra wide 60″ size {here} is currently at the top of my list. I like the idea of bringing a warm wood piece into the space. Here’s how all of my tentative picks look together:

Sources: Oushak rug  |  Tiered chandelier  | Slipcovered sofa  |  Woven storage basket  |  Faux tree  |  Wood coffee table  |  Wave bowl  |  Upholstered swivel chair

I’m pretty sure it’s going to be my favorite room in the house once it’s done!

Our fireplace project is coming along too! Remember that this is how things looked when we moved in:

And this is what our fireplace looks like now:

We successfully brought the mantel height down over 20″ from what it was before (you can see the outline of the old mantel on the wall to the left of the fireplace), got rid of the hearth (our new fireplace insert doesn’t require one) and created a more updated design. The install of our new Frame TV over the fireplace is scheduled for Nov 9th so I’ve got lots of sanding, caulking, and painting to do between now and then!

Also the old shallow painted bookcases shelves that were fixed in place have been removed:

and they’ll soon be replaced by {these new wood shelves} that will be adjustable. A casualty of this part of the project is the wallpaper on the back of the bookcases – the wallpaper stopped at the bottom of each shelf and restarted above it since the old shelves were fixed in place. The new shelves will be hung by adjustable brackets on the sides of the bookcase so the new wallpaper will be able to cover the entire back of the bookcase in one continuous piece. I’ll share that as it goes up on Instagram Stories!

That’s it with the house updates for now – I’ll share as these projects get finished. I’m hoping to wrap our fireplace & bookcase project in November so they’re ready for us to enjoy over the holidays ????

Have a great week everyone (and a fun Halloween)!