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Budget Beach Cottage Before and After: Kitchen

by H. Camille Smith May 22, 2013 5 Comments

Three years ago, my sister bought a rundown fishing cottage on the NC coast. While any beach house is certainly better than no beach house (I’m not complaining!), this particular cottage was in pretty bad shape. Check out more before-and-after photos here to see what I mean.

Before: Dark, mismatched and cramped, the kitchen was a mish-mash of colors and materials. The yellow cabinets were constructed with the house in the ’70s while the previous owners added a few white pre-fab cabinets (front left) in the ’80s for extra storage. In addition to being just plain ugly, the sheet vinyl flooring had definitely seen better days and was cracked and peeling up. Dark, dated and dingy beach house before makeover

The yellow kitchen cabinets put up quite a fight, it took no less than 2 coats of primer and 4 (yes, 4!!) coats of white semigloss to make them over. Other than A LOT of paint, shelf liner and caulk, the cabinets stayed the same. If you look again at the before photo, you’ll notice we had a board cut at the hardware store to fill in a pointless empty space above the sink. For less than $10 for the brackets and board, we added a cute shelf that gives the cabinets the cottage look we wanted.

After: We briefly considered laying tile in the kitchen but decided to continue the wood flooring from the adjacent living room for better flow. Isn’t it amazing what a few gallons of paint (and A LOT of elbow grease) can do?! Paint works wonders to brighten up this beach house kitchen

Before: The fridge was tucked into an L-shaped wall that concealed it from the dining room on one side and the living room on the other. This also meant that the kitchen felt really cramped and wasn’t fully open to either room. Paint works wonders to brighten up this beach house kitchen

After: Moving the fridge and water line to the opposite wall allowed us to entirely remove the wall between the kitchen and dining room and turn the wall separating the kitchen and living room into a small bar area. Bonus: Moving the water line meant my brother could plumb in the dishwasher so we no longer need to roll it over to the sink to run a load of dirty dishes (which was a serious pain in the butt).
Paint works wonders to brighten up this beach house kitchen

After: Here’s another view showing how open the kitchen is now to the dining and living rooms after we removed the partial walls. The column conceals a necessary steel support so it stayed, my dad boxed it in with leftover paneling and trim to make it a design feature. A thrifted brass bell (just $3) lets everyone know when it’s dinnertime.
Removing walls opens up this sunny beach house kitchen

*Three years later, the beach house is still a work in progress, keep checking back for more thrifty transformations.

MORE BEACH HOUSE MAKEOVERS:
Adventures in Antiquing: Easy Beachy Candle Update
Budget Beach Cottage Before and After: Living Room

Budget Beach Cottage Before and After: Living Room

by H. Camille Smith February 27, 2013 24 Comments

My sister bought a fixer-upper beach house almost two years ago which we’ve slowly but surely been hammering back into shape. In addition to a long list of structural changes, we needed to find a house full of beachy furniture and accessories on the cheap. I hail from a family of bargain hunters/diy-ers so the beach house has been a fun challenge for us.

Before: We started in the main living area which was dark, crowded and just plain sad. Sunny yellow trim did nothing to brighten up the driftwood gray paneling. Unfortunately, you can’t see the pitiful greenish-gold shag carpet which, thanks to leaking windows, had mildewed and actually smelled worse than it looked (hard to believe, I know). Dark, dated and dingy beach house living room before makeover

See the Afters

Adventures in Antiquing: (Easy!) Beachy Candle Makeover

by H. Camille Smith February 20, 2013 14 Comments

If there’s one thing my frequent estate/garage sale forays has taught me, it’s that no one need ever pay full price for a candle. Ten bucks for a pillar candle? What?! I can’t remember the last time I shelled out more than $1 for one. The only downside to purchasing secondhand candles is that they’re often dented, scratched or are a color that won’t work with your decor. No worries, a little hot glue and twine will cover up a world of sins.

I recently picked up some bargain candles at an estate sale in Knoxville before heading down to my sister’s work-in-progress beach house. I had some jute twine and furniture webbing left over from other projects so I decided to give these 3 thrifted candles a quick beachy makeover — et voila: coastal twine-wrapped candles

Pretty, huh? I paid $2 for the 3 candles and, as I said, all the other materials I already had on hand — but, if I had to buy them, this would be a $10-$15 project. They fit right in with our other beachy bargains: coastal twine-wrapped candles

I know people will ask about fire safety for obvious reasons — twine and upholstery webbing are flammable. First, as with any candle, you shouldn’t leave it burning without supervision — but — I’ve done variations of this project (covering pillar candles in paper, ribbon, bark and even paint) many times and never had a problem. The key is to choose a pillar candle wide enough that the wick burns down the center leaving a wax shell. Don’t try this technique on a narrow pillar or taper candle.

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Daily Delight: Oprah’s Home Makeover Sneak Peek

by Grant Dudley February 19, 2013 11 Comments

In the March issue of O, Oprah is discussing making over her California home. Ms. Winfrey feels her Santa Barbara house doesn’t accurately reflect her style or who she really is — and so, she’s getting to work with designer Rose Tarlow to come up with a more “lived in” look (or, as I like to call it — “less stuffy.”)

These photos are Oprah’s “Before” shots. If she plans on improving these rooms (they look pretty good to me!), I can’t wait to see the final results.

I’m a sucker for bookshelves. And, wow — these are spectacular! I believe Oprah is changing them, though.

The goal for this room will be to create an elegant and sophisticated space, but allow for warmth and playfulness. I guess it doesn’t do that, already?

Storage 101: A Closet Makeover

by Erin Loechner March 30, 2012 23 Comments

Organization is my middle name (well, that and Elizabeth), so I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to share our latest video – a closet makeover! Ken’s been hard at work building a custom closet solution that we designed for our master suite, and you guys? It turned out beautifully. Take a look…

What do you think, friends? It’s a vast improvement, that’s for sure. And if you’re inspired to try the look in your own home, feel free to ask any specific construction questions in the comment section; I’ll be popping in to answer any and all!

Laundry Room Makeover: Before & After!

by Erin Loechner March 21, 2012 37 Comments

Laundry room makeovers might not seem like a high priority for most homeowners, but for me? Huge. I am completely, madly and deeply obsessed with doing laundry. It’s by far my favorite chore (although I’m pretty partial to loading/unloading dishwashers, too), and living with a half-finished, semi-cluttered laundry room has definitely put a damper in the joy I usually glean from this chore.

And with the momentum we gained from last week’s DIY vanity project (do you love it as much as I do?!), Ken and I decided it was time we bit the bullet and finished the last remaining items on our laundry to do list. Might I add that this means our renovation checklist for the laundry room is 100% complete? What a feeling!

In case you don’t remember what the space looked like in the very beginning, let me remind you photographically (you’ll want to wash your hands after seeing this image; trust me!):

Laundry Room Makeover Before & After - Erin Loechner

The super gross before photo!

Scary, right? Of course, wood-paneling the walls made a huge difference, and just a few short months ago, the space looked like this:

An in-progress shot of our cluttered laundry room.

January Progress: Goal Check-In

by Erin Loechner February 1, 2012 No Comments

January has been a busy month of travel and heavy sunroom updates (drywall is up next!), so we didn’t get as far along on our goal list as we’d liked. We did, however, cross off two items last weekend — both of which happen to lie in the lighting department (one of my favorite parts of any room).

Let there be light.

Before + After: A Den Turned Into a Dining Room (VIDEO)

by Erin Loechner October 5, 2011 18 Comments

Remember last year when I returned home from San Francisco to a newly unearthed fireplace? It’s been nearly twelve months, but we finally finished the room! I’ve got a feeling you’re going to love our new Swedish dining space:

A few notes about the space:
1. You may or may not recall our former faux grandfather clock decal. After we lived with the clock for a few months, we realized that although we love our sweet decal, it was far too Victorian for the rest of our home. You win some, you lose some. In this case, we had to lose the decal to win our new DIY plywood clock. I’d say we came out on top!
2. We chose a FLOR rug design* (this one!) because we installed FLOR carpet tiles in the rest of our home and they’re the easiest things to clean in the entire world. Perfect for a dining / entertaining area and an accident prone female (read: me).
3. That super modern pendant you probably fell in love with in the video? You can score your own at Iacoli & McAllister. I highly, highly recommend.

As always, I’ll be hanging out in the comment section if you’re wondering where we purchased anything else! See you next week!

DISCLAIMER: The custom rug shown in the above video was provided to me by FLOR for review purposes only. I was not paid to promote or endorse this product and all thoughts and ideas are truthful and reflect my opinion alone.

Before & After: Our Laundry Room Progress!

by Erin Loechner August 10, 2011 27 Comments

You remember our laundry room, right? The second scariest room in our entire home? (Don’t worry, you’ll see the first – our sunroom – next month!)

Still in progress, but a vast improvement.

Well. I’m pleased to announce that our laundry room is no longer scary. Not even a bit. And in case you need a visual reminder, here’s the before, photographed last winter:

The frightening before...

…and a progress shot, photographed today:

Our Living Room: The Big Reveal! (VIDEO)

by Erin Loechner July 27, 2011 20 Comments

Living spaces are so difficult for me to decorate, as it’s really hard to find the right combination of completely comfortable, quiet and calming yet still relatively inspiring. Fortunately, Ken and I nailed it with our recent makeover. I think you’re going to be very, very pleased!:

What do you think? Could you live in a monochromatic living room? How do you like finished design compared to my mood board? And who wants to guess how old that TV is?

Tell me in the comments below.