I have a tendency to wrap up projects and move quickly to what’s next on the to do list rather than taking a moment to celebrate a job well done. As we embark on a new year and another twelve months of projects around our house, I wanted to reflect on our first year and a half in this home and share the projects we’ve been able to tackle so far! I’ve documented all of these in past posts but I thought it would be fun (and maybe helpful?) to have them all in one place! Decorating and renovation can feel painfully slow and painfully expensive at times (particularly relative to creating other less involved types of blog content) but it’s amazing to look back on the past eighteen months and see just how far this house has come. We still intend to be here for years to come and have seemingly endless projects to keep us busy over the next several, but today we’re going to celebrate the projects we’ve been able to tackle thus far!
P.S. You can browse tons more posts about our house right here!
RIPPING OUT CARPET AND REFINISHING HARDWOOD FLOORS // This was the only project we undertook before we moved in last July and it made a world of difference. You can find details on our hardwood floors, the floor stain we chose, and the white paint color throughout our house in this post.
foyer and stairwell before we moved in
foyer and stairwell after we moved in, stripped the wallpaper, and painted the walls and trim
stairs prior to having carpet removed
stairs after having carpet removed, walls and risers painted, and steps stained
MOVING A WALL, REMOVING CARPET, AND PUTTING NEW HARDWOOD FLOORS AND RECESSED LIGHTING IN OUR BEDROOM // The second floor of our home had two bedrooms that are almost a mirror image of one another, both with small main bedrooms and then equally sized dressing rooms leading into the closet. This meant neither one could accommodate a king sized bed without moving the wall in one of them to increase the size of the bedroom and decrease the size of the sitting room into something that would ultimately become a built-in closet (scroll to the end of this post for that!). Our bedroom is still on the small side relative to many master suites in newer homes, but it fits everything we need it to and the configuration makes so much more sense now! I also haven’t taken an updated photo of our bedroom because so little decorating progress has been made in there, so the after photo here is from the week we moved into the room. You can catch a glimpse of our new bed in this post!
before moving the wall with the doorway back about three feet
after moving the wall and centering our bed under the window
REMOVING CARPET, REFINISHING FLOORS, ADDING BEADBOARD AND WALLPAPER IN THE NURSERY // We knew we wanted to use our smallest bedroom as a nursery for our babies and it came a long way in a short period of time! You can see all of the finished space in this post.
the nursery before
the nursery after
the nursery closet before
the nursery closet after
RENOVATING OUR KITCHEN // This was a massive undertaking this past winter and spring and we could not be happier with the way it turned out. The project massively improved how we live in this house as well as what you see from the front door and the open concept family room. We completely reconfigured the layout by rotating the kitchen by 90 degrees and putting all the cabinets and appliances on the wall where the powder room had previously been, adding a box window and breakfast nook where the kitchen sink had been, and building a new powder room in what had previously been a coat closet. You can see the kitchen reveal here and the powder room reveal here for more photos!
the view from the front door before… looking into the wall of the previous powder room
a zoomed in view from the front door after… the breakfast nook as seen through the kitchen cabinets and island
the left wall of the kitchen before, with powder room jutting into the middle of the room
the left wall of the kitchen after, open to the family room where this photo was taken from
the kitchen before
the same view of the kitchen after
the back wall of the kitchen before
the back wall of the kitchen after
the hallway to the back door / coat closet before
the hallway to the back door / new powder room and pantry after
the coat-closet-turned-powder-room before
the powder room after
BUILDING A MUDROOM/LAUNDRY ROOM BETWEEN OUR PLAYROOM AND THE GARAGE // This project was also part of our renovation project last winter and spring and made this house so much more livable for a family with young children. The new mudroom now connects the playroom (where we ripped out carpet, put in hardwood floors, and replaced a set of windows with a wide doorway) to the previously detached garage and loft.
the living room doorway looking into the playroom wall before
not a perfect comparison but the new playroom doorway looking into the mudroom wall / garage door
the living room looking into the playroom before
the living room after
the playroom after
the gravel patch that became the mudroom before
a similar vantage point of the mudroom after
BUILDING OUT THE LOFT ABOVE OUR GARAGE // We added this project to the renovation list so my parents could move in with us this past summer and while I’m waiting until they’re finished decorating it how they’d like to share more photos, it’s still fun to reflect on what this space looked like when we bought the house to how it looked towards the end of the renovation!
the loft before
the loft after (but before floor stain, paint, and furniture!)
MATCHING THE CEILING SLOPE THROUGHOUT THE FAMILY ROOM // Our kitchen is open to our family room and the original space had a pretty funky ceiling that was only sloped on two sides of the room. We ultimately needed to match that pitch on a third wall to conceal new plumbing and decided to carry it all the way around the room and it looks so much more intentional this way! It’s a little hard to see in photos but you can see a progress shot of it in this post!
the family room before
the family room after… built-ins were replaced with a double window recycled from the previous playroom and you can spot the revised ceiling in the top left corner
BUILDING OUT OUR CLOSET // We left this space totally unfinished for over a year (after moving the wall in our bedroom right when we moved in) until we came up with our best plan for how to design a narrow closet with a window. You can see lots more photos in this post — it’s a space that was well worth the wait!
the dressing-room-turned-closet before
the closet after
That was a fun walk down memory lane for me! These projects can seem unending while they’re happening so it’s rewarding to look back and see how far we’ve come. I shared all the projects we’re hoping to tackle this year in this post if you’re curious — I’d love to know what home projects you have on the horizon in the comments!
