New paint, new roof, refinished front door, rebuilt dormers, rebuilt porch railing, re-worked landscaping, and voila! Curb appeal! (Have I mentioned it's AMAZING what paint can do!?!) We actually had plans for a few more changes as well, such as widening the steps and adding cedar shutters (to match the garage doors and dormers), but since we've moved on to our new project, the new house, we decided we had to stop somewhere.
Tore down the beams, covered the out-dated paneling and chair rail with beadboard paneleing and larger chair rail and larger crown. Cut the end off of the un-centered fireplace - yes, you read that correctly. We used a concrete saw to cut about a foot off the left side of the fireplace, then we encased both sides of the fireplace with base trim, which unfortunately, isn't pictured. Contractor Daddy built us a new mantle for Christmas. New
Belive it or not, same cabinets, new everything else. Painted the cabinets, then glazed them with Ralph Lauren "smoke" glaze diluted half with water. We replaced the countertops, the hardware, and added trim (upside-down base under crown moulding and picture moulding below) to the sophets. We also replaced the flourescent light with recessed lights. New floors (not fun to lay slate, and while I love the look, it's nearly impossible to clean - I do NOT recommend using this is large areas. Mudroom? Great! Kitchen? Bad!
All of those little golden leaves are not only stensiled in paint, but plaster as well....seriously. I mean, seriously? Who does that? The Hubby used a putty knife to pop them off the walls (thank goodness!), then I mudded over them and sanded them back to a smooth finish. New light fixture, new floors, new paint, and actually a new purpose as well. This was originally intended for a dining room, but when we finished the new dining room you saw above, we converted this into an office - one of the BEST things we did here! Wish we had done it sooner! It has been so nice to have the office on the main level and open to the other living spaces instead of tucked away in an unused bedroom.
New floors, new trim, new paint, new sink and toilet. Again, (tho you can't see it) I painted the mirror and light fixture in matching black. Simple. Clean.
You can't see very well in the pic above, but this room was originally done in the "Venetian Plaster" effect. To get rid of this would have required replacing all of the drywall - just not a project or an expense I wanted to go thru, or more importantly, thought I could recover from the sale of the house. So, I picked a neutral brown (Porter Paint's Dover Beige) and painted over the plaster in a FLAT latex paint. If ever you have drywall flaws you are trying to cover, always, ALWAYS, always use a flat paint. It will help hide the flaws by absorbing light, rather than reflecting back to your eyes. Honestly, I use flat paint for
every wall because it, ironically, creates the illusion of depth, where the reflective qualities of eggshells and satins not only reveal flaws, but also give the walls a harsher finish. If you have ever been into a "Parade of Homes" house (or let's be honest, they're mansions!), and wondered why the paint colors look so good, it's because they're painted in FLAT!
Super simple weekend warrior project! This is a GREAT way to spruce up an ugly or outdated bathroom: Paint the vanity and mirror to match (I chose black b/c it's sleek and timeless, and you really should have something black in every room:o) Replace the fixtures (light and water) and hardware (pulls and hinges) if needed (I didn't). Flank with foliage to keep it fresh.
This room was covered with scraps of butcher paper - no, seriously, it was. And that chair rail you think you see was actually door trim. It took quite a bit of drywall (3 rounds of mudding and sanding, actually) mud to fix this room, but now you can't even tell someone once lost their mind in there!
This lovely bathroom is the result of our 3-week project turn 3-month project...ha! It was our first spin around the block with the bead board paneling, as well as chair railing. We have been so happy with how this bathroom turned out, that we're using it for our inspiration for all of the bathrooms in the new victorian house.
In hind sight we would have stained the cedar walls in a more traditional "cedar" color, but we felt we had to go dark with the deck floor because, if you look carefully at the elevated area around the trees, it is stained with an opaque stain, and of course we wanted to cover that. Then we felt we had to do the walls to match the floor, to keep it from getting too busy. All in all it turned out ok, but the outside of the walls we did in the cedar stain to match the dormers and garage doors on the front of the house, and it sure would be nice if it all could have been the same VERY HAPPY with the creamy highlights on the trim (matches house trim) - gives it a very clean, finished look.
We have LOVED our DIY firepit, and I am so sorry, but that was long before I ever even thought of starting a blog, but good news: we are moving! We will be sure to build another one, and you will be SHOCKED how easy it is! I will go ahead and tell you that we bought a super cheap fire pit to use as the base to hold the wood and ash, then layed a row of stone, a little mortar (but NOT enough to seep out between the rocks), and another layer of stone. It created a "dry stacked" look, but the mortar keeps its VERY stable - worked like a dream! You can absolutely do this!!
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