House Tour: Before

Welcome to my "Before" house tour! Over the next few weeks I am going to get my butt in gear and finish some of the projects around the house that I have been meaning to get to. I've done a little bit to the living room, a lot to the dining room, and virtually nothing to my kitchen and bedrooms. There won't be any major renovations, just a lot of DIY decor and paint projects, which I will share with you.

So here is the dining room, about 85% done. I still need to fix up the pendant light, and I have a decor project in mind for that blank wall in the corner. I would love to have a buffet in here someday, probably under the mirror, but we're a budget right now. If you want to see the before picture, see Plans for the Dining Room.

I haven't done anything with the kitchen yet. The picture below is actually from the Realtor website from before we bought the house, and I can tell you that nothing has changed! Okay, one thing changed - we didn't get to keep the fridge, so we have an all-black one now. I have major plans for the entryway; I also plan to do something with the back splash, and I want to put in some new lighting some day. Actual renovations, like the sink and probably the stove (it's 35+ years old!) will come later.

I have plans for the living room that I just didn't get around to. I painted the back of the shelves gray (they were white), and started priming the shelves themselves, and just stopped. It's time to finish! I will be tackling this room first.

I am still debating whether or not to paint the mantle and paneling. I think painting it white would modernize it a bit, but my husband likes it because it is original and has that mid-century modern feel to it. What would you do?

This half of the living room needs help! We want to turn it into a library and reading nook area - put a reading chair on the red ikat rug in the corner, take out the kids toys ;-), put in some bookshelves, and I have two photographs from Ara133Photography to hang on that bare tan wall.

This is our room. I actually don't want to do too much with it. At first I was going to paint the walls gray, because I kind of hate decorating with blue. Then, I found this photo, and changed my mind. I do have a project to add a birch effect to that monogram P. I have a few gold frames that I want to add as well.

The windows desperately need some curtains. There is an even bigger window facing the bed, and some flowing white curtains would give them some oomph.

This is the "master" bathroom - just a half-bath in what I swear used to be a second closet. The entire wall behind the sink is mirror, so it was tough to get a photo. I really don't want to change much about this room, besides hang a little storage on the wall.

Brace yourself -things are about to get scary. This is the current state of my office / studio space. I apologize for ruining the dream of perfection and everything the home office can be right now, but this is what happens when you are designing new collections for your shop. I do have plans to reorganize, though! All is not lost.

Here's the main bathroom. It needs a lot of love, but it's at the bottom of the to-do list. That mirror cabinet over the sink is just terrible. The bathtub itself is a lame design (hard to clean), I dislike the cabinet over the toilet, and the sink faucet is in bad shape. I would love to tile the floor someday, and replace the counter top, but that will be a ways down the road.

Brace yourself again - here is the girls' room. It doubles as the play room. There is actually a little room in the finished half of the basement that will eventually be the play room, but I don't trust little legs on stairs yet. Right now it houses a crib and toddler bed, but I see a bunk bed and desks in there some day.

Here is the front entryway. I'm not a huge fan of the green slate tile, and it needs some color! I can also see a little console table to the right of the closet. I also don't know what to put in that little room divider - maybe some plants?

These are the hallways. I need to paint the background of the shelves some color - something to make the items pop out. I will probably leave the walls white, to help things seem brighter, but I will definitely hang some art eventually.

Here's the back yard - we finally got some snow last night!

And here is a view of the front from the bay window:

Finally, here is the family room in the basement. I know for sure that I will paint the paneling, and paint the brick white. It needs to be brightened down here. This picture is also from the Realtor - currently we have a light brown couch, two end tables, and a TV down there.

The rest of the basement has my husband's "man cave" which is his space, so I won't share it here, but there is also a little empty room that will become the play room; a laundry room, and the furnace / workshop room.

Thanks for taking the tour with me! I will share the finished results as they happen.