Welcome to the house tour of beloved first home.
When we were first married, David and I lived in a home that he had purchased straight out of college. I had a... well... let's call it a love/hate relationship with that house. Or just a hate relationship, either way ; ) Needless to say, when we finally purchased this home about two years into our marriage, we were ecstatic.
She's a 1952 ranch located in north Georgia. With three bedrooms and two full bathrooms upstairs plus a finished room and bathroom in the basement, there was plenty of room for us to grow. David and I made it our personal mission to touch every corner of this house with love (and a paint brush!). After living in the home for three years, we sadly had to leave it behind due to a job relocation. But we are still so very proud of all of the work we did!
the "Formal" Living Room
BEFORE
AFTER, PHASE I
We repainted the walls slightly darker and brought in our neutral, light and airy style! Here is how we picked out our paint style. We used this room as our main living room for the first two years we lived in the home.
We repainted the walls slightly darker and brought in our neutral, light and airy style! Here is how we picked out our paint style. We used this room as our main living room for the first two years we lived in the home.
BEFORE
AFTER, PHASE I
Here is how we furnished and decorated our living room.
The fireplace mantle in the living room was constantly evolving.
BEFORE
AFTER, PHASE I
We later repainted these plantation shutters. I share an easy how-to tutorial below in Phase II of the living room!
I loved this sitting area spot with my favorite painted nesting tables and the addition of my Nana's vintage milk glass lamp!
AFTER, PHASE II
We all get the itch to redesign rooms, right?! After about two years in this space, I decided to make some small tweaks and freshen up the living room with some easy design changes.
While it doesn't sound like much, re-painting all of the trim and the fireplace in the room made the biggest difference with the makeover. It even makes the wall color look totally different!
Hands-down, my favorite addition to the room was my DIY rustic wall sign. If you haven't yet, you've got to check out the easy DIY tutorial in the link. It's such an easy, cheap (mine was free!) and fun project. I think this sign is my favorite piece of decor that I own!
Although I loved our old yellow rug, I added a new cool-toned rug to the room. What a difference.
An easy, breezy step to spruce up any space is by adding a few new throw pillows to the sofa or any chair, like I did here!
We (um, yeah, I'll give credit to the hubby on this one!) also repainted the plantation shutters to match the freshly painted trim and fireplace. You can find the tutorial for that here .
On the wall behind the sofa, I added an eclectic gallery wall. I detail my gallery wall hanging steps in the post!
I took an hour to update the dresser turned TV stand that I rescued awhile ago from Craigslist. I'm glad that it looks much more like a piece from Ballard Design rather than an Easter egg!
What's crazy is that a few months after completely making over this space, David and I decided to move our main living room space from the formal living room to what we affectionately call the "slate room." Baby HDawg was on his way and we needed more space in the living room for baby stuff! If you're interested, you can check out what became our "nekked living room" right here.
The "Slate Room"/Sunroom/Family Room
BEFORE
With the previous owners' furniture (and dog!).
The room as it sat (EMPTY!) for two years when we lived in the house. And another dog. We'll claim him : )
Clearly, the room- even with all of its bright windows and beautiful sunlight- was a little dreary and dark. The muddy brown/orange wall and ceiling paint color (which I do love in some spaces) was terrible in this room and the trim was a hideous yellow-beige color that didn't help the situation.
AFTER
Can you say holla for the power of paint? The best part of the makeover of this room was painting the space.
I made over those ReStore brass lamps with a quick can of spray paint. Check out the tutorial here.
We designated one side of the slate room as the living space and the other side as the play space for baby H. With a changing table, his swing, a shelf for his toys and books and a rug for him to play on, it was the perfect set up! We even decorated that side of the room with his gigantic mug shot ; )
Check out more pictures of the slate room reveal in my before/after room makeover post.
the Dining Room
BEFORE
AFTER
The first steps we took in this room was to change out the lighting and
purchased a dining room table- check out the details of that here.
My favorite part of this space is that we painted the dining room chair rail and trim a bright, crisp white (still need to paint the plantation blinds white!) and the walls a deep navy for some fun contrast.
We also changed out the light fixture for a cleaner, crisper Crate & Barrel light. It's actually not a pendant light, but you can read how we DIYed it to hang in the post.
I DIYed this silver sunburst mirror for some added contrast to the navy walls.
To inject a little whimsy into the space, I spruced up the built-in wine rack on the wall between the dining room and the kitchen and added a piece of DIY abstract painters tape art.
I have to admit... the dining room was one of my favorite rooms in this house!
the Kitchen
BEFORE
AFTER
Luckily, we didn't have to do much with the kitchen, as the previous owners had already remodeled with custom cabinets, granite countertops, and stainless steel appliances. But, we have painted the buhgeezes out of every surface in the kitchen- cabinets, trim, windows, walls, etc.
Luckily, we didn't have to do much with the kitchen, as the previous owners had already remodeled with custom cabinets, granite countertops, and stainless steel appliances. But, we have painted the buhgeezes out of every surface in the kitchen- cabinets, trim, windows, walls, etc.
the Breakfast Room
BEFORE
AFTER
Paint, paint, and more paint.
Ah, that gorgeous wall of windows gets me every time.
As much as I loved all of the beautiful neutral tones in the space, I added a pop of green with a DIY easy garden wall in my breakfast room.
I also added a little mudroom space in the corner of the breakfast room. You can see the front door in the background... this space acted as a dumping space and was perfect to hide our everyday clutter!
Master Bedroom
BEFORE
The master was used by the previous owners as a little boy's bedroom (complete with BB gun holes in the wall, lucky us!).
The master was used by the previous owners as a little boy's bedroom (complete with BB gun holes in the wall, lucky us!).
With some DIY art on the walls and some fresh paint, this room has become a nice little sanctuary for us!
BEFORE
AFTER
I love the pop of color that we got with our spray-painted royal blue nightstands.
These curtains were easy to DIY. I shared my no sew curtain tutorial here.
BEFORE
The closet got one of the most dramatic makeovers in this space.
AFTER
We had to do something about all of the doors in that tiny space, so we opted for curtains in lieu of closet doors. Check out the no sew curtain tutorial here.
We had to do something about all of the doors in that tiny space, so we opted for curtains in lieu of closet doors. Check out the no sew curtain tutorial here.
We also made over the entire inside of the closet, so that it is more efficient and organized.
Master Bathroom
Also known as my favorite renovation project in our house, hands down!
BEFORE
I don't really have much to say about this. Except maybe yellow. Lots of yellow tile. Yellow toilet. Yellow bathtub. Yellow yellow.
AFTER
Here's the run down on our big renovation project on this room. I'm still madly in love with the space! As we should be... we did a lot of work ourselves in this room! All by ourselves (and with the help of my brother-in-law!), David and I planned the new floor plan, demolished the old bathroom, added new sub-flooring and insulation, switched out the old tiny window and added a new large window, installed a pocket door to make a water closet and even installed a toilet. We had professionals help us with the plumbing, lay the tile and hang some of the drywall.
After having major issues with the Pottery Barn vanity that we originally planned to use in the space, I decided to DIY my own grey painted vanity. I think it worked out perfectly- I love this vanity way more than the expensive PB version!
BEFORE
Can you say pink?! Perfect for a little girl, but the Pepto Bismol color (including the ceiling) didn't work for us.
Can you say pink?! Perfect for a little girl, but the Pepto Bismol color (including the ceiling) didn't work for us.
AFTER
Check out the DIY wall art on our guest room wall.
the Nursery
BEFORE
AFTER
This is, hands down, my favorite room in this house. I'm not sure if it's the labor of love that went into the room preparing it for our very first baby or perhaps that it best reflects my current design style... either way, it's the room that warms my heart.
The black-out curtains were the toughest project in the room, but so, so worth it! I detailed a sewing tutorial for the black-out window curtain panels right here.
The kiddo rocking chair belonged to my grandmother. It is so special that she passed it down to HDawg! I freshened it up with a color block paint makeover.
The art above the rocking chair is a scrapbook paper collage of the Atlanta skyline that I created.
I DIYed the gingham footstool slipcover with a pretty easy to follow sewing tutorial. The quilt on the back of the chair is one of my favorite items in the room. We had the quilt custom made from an Etsy shop.
The black-out curtains were the toughest project in the room, but so, so worth it! I detailed a sewing tutorial for the black-out window curtain panels right here.
The kiddo rocking chair belonged to my grandmother. It is so special that she passed it down to HDawg! I freshened it up with a color block paint makeover.
The art above the rocking chair is a scrapbook paper collage of the Atlanta skyline that I created.
I DIYed the gingham footstool slipcover with a pretty easy to follow sewing tutorial. The quilt on the back of the chair is one of my favorite items in the room. We had the quilt custom made from an Etsy shop.
Guest Bathroom
BEFORE
AFTER- Well, we actually haven't touched this room yet either! The previous owner left the funky mirror and lighting and, while it's not exactly our style (check out the purple ceiling!) we love it, so we're rolling with it for now! Maybe after we finish the renovation of our master bathroom.... : )
Office
BEFORE
AFTER- We painted stripes galore!
Like the rainbow colored bookshelf?
Stairs to the Basement
BEFORE
AFTER- I added some DIY painted Ikea mirrors to brighten up the hallway!
Basement
BEFORE
BETWEEN- We had to pull up the carpet that was pretty icky, only to find 60 year old linoleum underneath.
AFTER- We just recently added carpet down in the basement to make it a useable room! We've got lots of plans still, including adding more furniture and fixing up the laundry room!
Porch
BEFORE
AFTER- We pressure washed and repainted the inside walls, replaced all of the old screening, and added a door to keep those pesky mosquitos out!
BEFORE
AFTER- Staying true to my Charleston roots, we painted the porch ceiling "haint blue!"
Check out the hunt for the porch furniture here.
Backyard
BEFORE
AFTER- We've also done a lot of work on the pool, including putting a new liner in. Lots of ideas and lots of potential back here, but our goal for now is just to get and keep everything cleaned up!
BEFORE
AFTER- One of the biggest projects we (okay, okay, maybe not "we"... more like David!) have tackled was to pull up all of the ivy along the back of the swimming pool. You can see, below, the awesome wall that David built in place of the ivy (and rotting railroad ties found underneath). Looks amazing!
Hope you enjoyed the tour!! Looking back, I'm so proud : ) David and I have worked so hard to make this house our home and I think we've done a great job, if I do say so myself.
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Your first house was absolutely beautiful. We are working on remodeling our first house as well. It's a huge undertaking, but we are enjoying every minute of it. Can't wait to see how your rental home looks.
ReplyDeleteWhat a gorgeous home! I just love it so much. Im a Georgia transplant turned Cali girl and I definitely miss Southern homes. Thanks so much for sharing.
ReplyDeletei LOVE your style! where is your kitchen table from? i'm looking for something with a farmhouse style that's small - natural wood and white - just like yours!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE your style! Where is your kitchen table from? The white/farmhouse small one in your breakfast area?
ReplyDelete