Happy Fixer Upper Friday!! Side note, I actually thought today was Sunday when I woke up this morning; how’s your quarantine going? After last week’s post, I was thinking it’d probably be several weeks before I blogged another area of the house. I figured I’d be unloading my two large storage units at that point and would share each area of our new home as I finished setup/decor. Instead, I think it’ll be fun to share these construction-complete spaces, and then again later to show further transformation as furniture is placed and decor is hung.
Last week, I shared the first bathroom renovation. If you were looking closely, you may have noticed that faucets were missing on the vanity. Thanks to Covid-19, those bad boys took about 6 weeks longer than promised to be delivered. I figured I’d show a detail shot now that they’ve been installed. I am OBSESSED with the waterfall look! It’s such a simple touch of elegance & class. The color matches the mirrors and hardware perfectly too, which was a pleasant surprise. It can be hard to match color tones when you’re not purchasing items from a complete set and prefer online shopping to in-person browsing.
The Original Upstairs Hall
On the first walk-through of this house, reaching the top of the stairs was underwhelming to say the least. Orange 1970’s carpet, orangey-oak trim, flat white paint. This space needed just a small amount of TLC to bring it back to life. I wouldn’t call it ugly, just boring & outdated.
To be honest, you see this in so many homes, no matter how beautiful or grand they appear from the outside. Two summer’s ago, my ex and I were house hunting. We literally looked at 20 homes before landing on our final decision. But up to that point, some of the houses we were most excited to see just based on their exterior appearance, were some of the most un-aesthetically pleasing houses we looked at. There were homes we did walk-throughs of in the half-a-million dollar range that looked like they hadn’t been updated in 40 years on the inside.
It was pretty remarkable to me to think that there are homes at that price point still needing such an extensive amount of work. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with being completely content with living in an outdated home. Nothing! I guess it just surprises me more than anything that a house can retain that much value without any significant upgrades in so long. You see it more often than not.
Anywho, back to my boring hallway. That was it. Just boring.
The Transformation. YAY!
This space proves just how easily and inexpensively an area of your home can be given a quick facelift & make a world of difference.
The Prep Work
I’ll start by saying that I am not the most handy person in the world, but I did spend hours, literally hours, sanding down every inch of trim work throughout the entire home to prepare for paint. I never want to look at a piece of sand paper again. But just like the rest of the house, that’s where prep for this area began.
Most older homes, and some new, are typically complete with plaster walls. This one was no exception and there were cracks everywhere from years of neglect. We had a professional plaster guy (for lack of a better title) who was so talented and did a really amazing job at making those cracks look like they never happened. He also refinished every ceiling throughout the house, both upstairs and down. If you scroll up & look closely at the first image with the light fixture, you can see he created a light stucco ceiling texture. When he first described it to me I was unsure, but after seeing the finished product I absolutely love it!
The Paint
Next we used one of my favorite paint colors- Light French Gray by Sherwin Williams. This color is used all throughout the house in a few different areas. It was everywhere in my last home too, I’m obsessed to put it lightly. We used a semi-gloss pure white by Sherwin Williams for all trim.
The Flooring
Let’s talk carpet. For so many people, it’s just a thing of the past. Everyone wants the original hardwoods restored, or to simply have brand new installed. That is the look I went for downstairs, but upstairs, whether to carpet or not was never a question. As beautiful as wood floors can be, I so much prefer that warm look & feel of carpet in a bedroom. I went with a light gray and I love the way the warm undertones complement the color scheme throughout the house.
The Lighting
Lastly, that light fixture!! I am so in love! I was torn for a while between a flush mount or a pendant light and I’m so happy with my final decision! From that gorgeous shadowing it projects against the ceiling to that blingy wow factor that I always tend to lean towards-it was the perfect addition to this simple space.
The Final Product. Voila!
Make sure to swipe between the two photos in the below gallery to see how such a simple facelift can make such a huge difference. Stay tuned for more upgrades every week on #FixerUpperFriday !!
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