Our New Home Before Tour, Progress, and Planning

Hey guys! I have something a little bit different to share today – no crochet patterns, printables, or fun craft projects, sorry. I don’t even have much in the way of pretty photos, but I do have lots of not so pretty photos to share! HA. I have mentioned a few times that we moved recently, and today I want to give you guys a mini-tour of the new place and talk a bit about the work we have done so far and our plans for the place. I always love to peek around people’s houses and see renovation plans, so hopefully you all will get a kick out of it too. If not, come back tomorrow for a crafty project. 😉

So, the new place. We closed on the house at the end of March and took the month of April to do some work before moving in. The house is pretty new and has lots of great space, but it’s pretty builder basic without much personality. Honestly, though that was one of the things we liked best about it – it’s a blank canvas! Wanna take a little peek around and then I will talk a bit more about what we have done so far and where we are going from here? Let’s go!

Okay – Here’s the before view from the front door looking up into the loft and down into the dining room.

And here’s looking from the dining room down towards the entryway.

So we have a two-story entryway, which isn’t always my favorite thing in the world because I feel like they are kind of hard to decorate and it can feel like wasted space to me. I don’t know – is that crazy? Do you guys love a two-story entryway? I’m on the hunt for an awesome chandelier that I hope will really make me love it.

The other thing I really wasn’t digging about the entryway is that rounded staircase. I thought it felt like it was trying to be fancy but wasn’t quite making it. Kind of faux fancy. Does that make sense? It also bugged me that the rounded stairs were taking up a lot of the entry space. I wanted this space to be a bit more functional. SO I decided the rounded stairs needed to go. More on that later, on with the tour!

Next up, we have a peek through the butler’s pantry (and pantry across from the cabinets) from the dining room into the kitchen. And then onto the kitchen itself.

One of the things we really loved about this house was the size of the kitchen. It’s a really good size and has TONS of cabinets and storage. The hubs is a great cook and loves to bake fancy breads and all kinds of good things, and he was stoked about that giant island. Basically, we like pretty much everything about the kitchen except for most of the finishes. There is obviously nothing wrong with this kitchen, the look is just not really what we want. We are going to try to work with a lot of what is there and still give it a whole new look. More on that below. 😉

Across from the kitchen is the family room. It’s kind of long and narrow, but plenty of space.

Finally, down the hall we have a little (very yellow) powder room and my office/studio/craft room, which was what convinced me this was the house for us.

I am currently working on a little overhaul of this powder room that I will be sharing soon! It’s going to involve lots of paint. 🙂 And here’s my office:

So this house is unique in that it has two master bedroom suites – one upstairs and one down. At first, when I saw the listing I thought, we don’t need that, and moved on. Later on, the listing came up again, and I started thinking that a master suite with a walk-in closet would actually make a kind of amazing office/studio. I am not kidding when I say that the walk-in closet is what really sold me on this house. Here’s a little video tour of the walk-in closet I shared on my insta stories:

I am still working on getting the craft closet all set up and organized, but you can bet your booty I will be posting more about that. It just makes me so happy.

Okay, so progress! Let’s talk about what we have done so far. We had this idea that we would install all new flooring, reconfigure the stairs, paint the whole house, and maybe even possibly do a partial kitchen remodel in the month we had before we moved in. HAHAHAHAHAhahahahahaHAHAHa We had obviously been watching way too much HGTV.

So, all of that didn’t happen. The flooring and stairs both got partially finished. And that was about it. This remodeling/renovating stuff is no joke, guys, and no TV crews showed up to do the work for us. We ripped out most of the carpet and tile in the house (except for the bedrooms and bathrooms) and replaced it with a light colored wood laminate. My husband and I did it ourselves, and that was a big job. Just removing the tile and grinding down the mortar to give us a flat surface to work with took nearly a week. BUT it was worth it because I am loving the new floors.

I wanted to go with a light colored floor because I really want the whole house to feel light and bright but also because I have had dark floors before and they are a bear to keep clean. I mean, I know these light floors are actually just as dirty, but the difference is I can’t see the dirt. Haha… Anyway, notice anything else different? The stairs! Bye-bye rounded steps, hello space! Enough for our piano, which didn’t have a good home before.

We hired a contractor to do this job for us, but basically, they cut through the stairs, built a new wall along the base, and then constructed a new railing to match. I am so happy with the way this turned out.

I kind of wish we could keep the two-toned look of the new railing, but unfortunately, I we will have to paint the entire railing to match. Which brings me to the other major change – paint! We painted the entire downstairs a bright white, and I love, love, love it. The downside is that now the doors all look kind of dingy, so it looks like there will be some door painting in my future. That’s okay, I have always kind of wanted black or gray interior doors, and this seems like a good time to give it a try. I did a little mockup with some gray front doors. Check ’em out:

I don’t know though, I’m kind of partial to that light gray . What do you guys think?

So that’s where we are in the entryway. Wanna see the kitchen? There’s not much to look at yet, but there definitely have been some changes. Okay, here it is:

Yikes. Hahaha… Soooo… Are we crazy? I think most people who walk in here seem to think we are crazy, and to be fair, it doesn’t look like much right now, but I am so excited for where this is going. We took out the dark backsplash and upper cabinets (which we moved to the garage for more storage there). The plan is to tile that entire back wall and install a cool hood and some thick floating shelves for pretty dishes, plants, art, etc.  I am a little nervous about having open shelving, but this kitchen still has so much storage even without the upper cabinets, I know we can make it work.

Overall, I think the room feels so much more open without the uppers, and I’m excited to brighten it up even more with some white tile, light countertops, and navy blue cabinets. That is the plan! Hopefully it comes together like I see it in my mind.

I have really tried to nail down a vision for the entire house to hopefully kind of keep things feeling unified and cohesive. This has involved a lot of time pinning and browsing online shops, but I feel like I have the vision nailed down. We are going for what I am calling a Colorful Modern Bohemian look – lots of white and natural wood tones with lots of plants, baskets, textiles and art layering on the texture and color. Here’s a little image I threw together with some of the pieces I already have or have my eye on (I’ve included some affiliate links too):

Navy Blue Velvet Loveseat  |  Cream Throw Pillow  |   Round Woooden Mirror

Vase  |  Mint Desk  |  Rug  |  Laminate Flooring

Alright, well that is it. Holy moly, that was a long post. I hope you have enjoyed this little tour! There’s so much work to be done, but I’m excited to share some spaces with you as they start to come together.

Are you working on any projects at your house? I’d love to hear what you are up to!

Happy Decorating and Happy Making!