Category Archives: Room by Room Recap

Room by Room Recap – Kitchen

Categories: Room by Room Recap

Compared to the rest of our house, the kitchen renovation was a breeze. We knew that we wouldn’t have enough in the budget to fully remodel the way that we wanted, so we decided to spend as little as possible in the kitchen and plan for a huge overhaul a few years down the road.

We did just about all of this kitchen ourselves, and on a budget.  Not including the fridge, we spent less than $1,000 giving this kitchen a little makeover. The dishwasher, sink, and oven were dated but functional, so we decided to stick with those for now. Some new floors, a coat of paint, and a lot of time and energy…it makes a big difference!

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What we’ve finished:

  1. Remove vinyl flooring
  2. Remove electric range
  3. Repair plaster where necessary
  4. Prep, prime, and paint all cabinetry
  5. Prep, prime, and paint walls, ceiling, and trim
  6. Install new hardware
  7. Install new floor
  8. Install gas range
  9. Install new ceiling fan light kit
  10. Install new refrigerator
  11. Install new sink faucet
  12. Install garbage disposal
  13. Cut off rounded penninsula to make room for fridge

What’s left:

A major renovation down the road! But that’s a different post. For now, it works. It’s not our favorite and it’s certainly not glamorous, but it’s functional. And right now that’s all that matters.

A few sources in case you’re wondering…we got the flooring (an engineered hardwood) on sale from Lumber Liquidators and cabinetry hardware from 99centknobs.com.  All hardware is…99 cents! This site is amazing. We replaced all of our kitchen hardware for less than $35!!

We ordered our fridge from Sears Outlet online and had the best experience.  We got about 60% off a brand new beautiful fridge because it had a dent in the side.  I swear we cannot find the dent! It was definitely one of our best scores!  The wall color is Morning Fog by Sherwin Williams, and the trim and cabinets are stark white. The gas range (which we are obsessed with!!) was a Craigslist steal — $80! The garbage disposal and sink faucet were from Lowe’s.

That’s it! Our budget kitchen renovation.  And don’t worry, I’ve already started planning our kitchen remodel…see my ideas here! (Hint: it will probably be white on white!)

Kitchen B&A1   Kitchen B&A2

The figures…this room is 11′ x 15′ with 11′ ceilings. There are 2 windows, 2 interior doors, 1 chimney (no fireplace), and 1 exterior door leading to the back porch.

Be sure to check out these other room recaps:

  1. Formal Living Room
  2. Den
  3. Den Bathroom
  4. Dining Room
  5. Gold Room
  6. Bear Room
  7. Butler’s Pantry
  8. Foyer & Stairs
  9. Master Closet
  10. Mud Room
  11. Home Office
  12. Office Bathroom
  13. Master Bathroom

 

Room by Room Recap – Master Bathroom

Categories: Room by Room Recap

UPDATE: Click here to see our latest updates, including vanity hardware, new lighting, and a new shower head! For sources, click here!

Last week I revealed the “after” shots of our master bathroom.  We have done a lot of work and made a lot of changes to our historic home, but this bathroom is by far the biggest change. At one time, part of the upstairs of the house was a separate apartment.  Our master bedroom was the living room, our office was the bedroom, and our new master bathroom was the kitchen.  In houses as old as ours, you virtually never get big bathrooms and big closets.  But since we knew this would be our forever home, and we really had no need for a kitchen upstairs, we decided to go all out and completely rethink the space. Here’s a drawing of our blank slate. blank

Continue reading →

Room by Room Recap – Office Bathroom

Categories: Room by Room Recap

Next up in the Room by Room Recap series is the guest bathroom connected to the home office.  This bathroom was pretty much a gut job.  It had a silly little sink that butted right up to the oversized tub, and there was even a door to the upstairs porch.  So we decided to rip everything out, including the wall to the water closet, and completely rearrange this bathroom.  We’re pretty happy with the results!

It’s hard to get a feel for the size and layout of this room because full-view pictures are pretty much impossible.  Here are the before and after floorplans to help you get a better idea.

guest-bath guest bath jpeg1

Ok, let’s dive in!

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What we’ve finished:

  1. Close up the exterior door
  2. Remove wall and door to the water closet
  3. Repair plaster where necessary
  4. Remove existing sink, toilet, and tub
  5. Install pedestal sink and new toilet
  6. Install new light fixtures and vent
  7. Install tile floor
  8. Install tile shower
  9. Refinish and install new clawfoot tub, complete with shower hardware
  10. Install crown molding
  11. Prep, prime, and paint walls, trim, and ceiling
  12. Hang mirror and shelf
  13. Install blinds

What’s left:

Nothing! This room could use a few more decorative accents, but we’re counting it as finished for now! YAY!

For those of you wondering, we refinished the original tub and put it in our master bathroom, and we still have the corner sink.  We haven’t found a place for the sink yet, but it was just too cute to get rid of!

B&A1 B&A2 B&A3

The figures…this room is 5′ 6″ x 9′ 2″ with 10′ ceilings. There are 2 windows and 1 interior door.

Be sure to check out these other Room By Room Recaps:

  1. Formal Living Room
  2. Den
  3. Den Bathroom
  4. Dining Room
  5. Gold Room
  6. Bear Room
  7. Butler’s Pantry
  8. Foyer & Stairs
  9. Master Closet
  10. Mud Room
  11. Home Office

Room By Room Recap – Home Office

Categories: Room by Room Recap

First of all, happy 32nd anniversary to my parents!!  I’ll spare you the mushy stuff this year, but you can get the full dose here! I love y’all! :)

702 park - anniversary

Alright, back to our regular programming…

Next up in the Room By Room Recap series is the home office!  This room is connected to the master bedroom upstairs.  Although most of our house is pretty neutral, we decided to go with a bold color in this room: Filoli Dark Iris by Valspar.

office2 6.11.13 office Office fireplace Office IMG_3662 IMG_3663 IMG_3989 IMG_4168 Office color choices IMG_4686 IMG_4704 IMG_4715 IMG_4713 IMG_4714 IMG_4716 IMG_5468 IMG_5470 IMG_5819 IMG_5821 IMG_5824

What we’ve finished:

  1. Repair plaster walls and ceiling
  2. Prep, prime, and paint walls, trim, and ceiling
  3. Paint mantle and surrounding moldings
  4. Install ceiling fan/light
  5. Clean out the fireplace

What’s left:

  1. Sweep the chimney
  2. Install tile around the front of the fireplace
  3. Refinish the floors
  4. Decorate – new furniture, rugs, window treatments, etc.
  5. Install built in bookcases

I’ll be honest with you.  This room is a far cry from my vision.  But sometimes you just have to work with what you got for a while.  So that’s what we’re doing.  For now.

I’m in love with the navy in this room, but unfortunately it doesn’t 100% work for us.  All of our diplomas (we have 6 in total…it’s obnoxious) are framed in black, and Charles’ beloved leather love seat and ottoman is a dark blue.  (This love seat has been a huge point of tension in our relationship…girls, you get me right? College/bachelor furniture has got to go!)  So this room right now is basically black on blue on blue.  I mean, it’s ok, but not my dream office. Which reminds me…you can check out my dream office inspiration here.

Either way, the changes are still pretty drastic.

B&A1 B&A2 B&A3

The figures…this room is 15′ 5″ x 15′ 8″ with 10′ ceilings. There is 1 window, 4 interior doors, 1 closet, and 1 fireplace.

Be sure to check out these other Room By Room Recaps:

  1. Formal Living Room
  2. Den
  3. Den Bathroom
  4. Dining Room
  5. Gold Room
  6. Bear Room
  7. Butler’s Pantry
  8. Foyer & Stairs
  9. Master Closet
  10. Mud Room

Room By Room Recap – Mud Room

Categories: Reno, Room by Room Recap

Next up in the Room By Room Recap series is the mud room! This small room off the entrance from the porte cochere has become our drop zone, and we love that it has doors that we can completely close off and hide the mess, if necessary.

This room was pretty basic before, but had some plaster and water damage issues. We decided to go with the same Kitten White that’s in the foyer for the mud room.

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What we’ve finished:

  1. Repair plaster walls and ceiling
  2. Prep, prime, and paint walls and ceiling
  3. Sand and oil the floors
  4. Install built in unit

What’s left:

  1. Paint the outside of the door red to match the front
  2. Add a seat cushion to the built ins (thanks Mom!)
  3. Add hooks and baskets to the built ins

B&A

The figures…this room is 7′ 2″ x 13′ with 11′ ceilings.  There are 3 interior doors and 1 exterior door.

You can check out more inspiration for our mud room here!

Now let’s talk about this custom built in for a minute.  I’m so in love with it because it was built by none other than my dad! He also built the console table in the mud room.  This was his first big piece, so I’d say he’s pretty talented!

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He also signed the back of the unit, and I stuck a little note in the wall behind where we cut out the trim. I have this idea of people finding it 100 years from now.  Is that silly?!

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So there it is…our mud room. We are calling this one finished for the time being!

Be sure to check out these other Room By Room Recaps…

  1. Formal Living Room
  2. Den
  3. Den Bathroom
  4. Dining Room
  5. Gold Room
  6. Bear Room
  7. Butler’s Pantry
  8. Foyer & Stairs
  9. Master Closet

Room by Room Recap – Master Closet

Categories: Room by Room Recap

Two Room by Room Recaps in two days?!  I know you’re pumped!!

When we first saw this original master closet, we knew that just wouldn’t work.  Since we knew that we were going to be completely transforming the original kitchenette into the master bathroom, we decided to do a little rearranging.

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This area can be a little confusing if you haven’t seen it in person.  To get a better idea, I drew up these simple before and after plans in Floorplanner.

Before JPEG1 After JPEG1

With the exception of the substituting french doors for the pocket door, we pretty much stuck to this plan.

Here’s the original hall/walk through to the kitchenette (which became our master bathroom).  We knocked out all of the walls on the left here.

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Here’s the “pantry” to the kitchenette.  We closed up this door I’m standing in and knocked out the wall on the left.

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Ok, you with me?  Let’s get started with the transformation!

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Here’s the view at this point from our bedroom:

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And from the bathroom:

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Ok, back to the closet.

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Luckily, we were able to steal a few baseboards and door trim from other places in the house, so all Charles and I had to do was add a little joint compound and nail hole filler to make them cohesive.

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What we’ve finished:

  1. Knock out the 3 walls
  2. Close up 2 doors with lathing and plaster
  3. Pull up vinyl in part of the closet
  4. Repair plaster as necessary
  5. Repair floor where walls were removed
  6. Install new baseboards and trim where needed
  7. Install new wall and french doors
  8. Prep, prime, and paint walls, trim, and ceiling
  9. Install closet storage system

What’s left:

  1. Help the floor (see below)
  2. Install a built in closet system
  3. Install new light fixture
  4. Install door hardware

After pulling up the vinyl, we discovered a nasty tar substance had been used.  Due to a limited budget, we decided to oil these floors in a dark stain and leave them for now.  Eventually, I’d like to replace the floor, but a temporary solution will probably be a rug, carpet, or paint.

Our closet “system” is certainly very makeshift right now, but it works for us.  We were hesitant to get anything that would rely solely on the plaster walls for support, so we will probably stick with these units until we can add some built-ins.

You can check out my master closet inspiration here!

The figures…this room is 7′ x 13′ with 10′ ceilings.  There is 1 window and 1 set of french doors.

Be sure to check out these other Room by Room Recaps:

  1. Formal Living Room
  2. Den
  3. Den Bathroom
  4. Dining Room
  5. Gold Room
  6. Bear Room
  7. Butler’s Pantry
  8. Foyer & Stairs

Next Monday I’ll be sharing details about how we organized and decorated the closet. You won’t want to miss it! :)