Tour of the Before & After (Part 1)

Hello world!!! We are finally back after a long hiatus due to extreme amounts or work and catching the flu. No good! But I am on the mend and the fiscal year at work is over (for all you attorneys out there, you know that means a mad dash to make sure you hit your hours requirements, which equals no life) - Oh Happy Days! So now that that's over, let's get back to the fun stuff shall we? We have officially been in the house for a month now. I seriously can't believe it! September was here an gone before I blinked my eyes. In honor of our one month anniversary, I thought I would show y'all some before and afters to see where we started and where we are now. This is coming from the advise of my darling friend Melissa, who oh so kindly pointed out that I am good about showing the "hey, here's this new idea that we're starting" but never following up with the "and here's out it turned out".  So if you're out there and reading Mo, this one's for you babe! As many of you know, our house was built in 1967 by Ben and Rose Green as their family home where they raised their five daughters and welcomed husbands and grand babies. They lovingly and meticulously maintained the house for the 40 years that they called it their home. As soon as Matt and walked into the house, we fell in love and knew that this was the home for us. However, for as carefully as Rose and Ben maintained their home, they never really updated anything and it stayed in somewhat of a 1967 time capsule. Here is what the downstairs living room, dining room and kitchen (you can see a tiny glimpse of its blue walls to the left of the fireplace) look like before with all of their wonderful 1967 wallpaper and dark wood paneling:



As I have said before, this was nice and 1960's cute, but unfortunately not our style. For a temporary fix when we moved in, all of the woodwork was painted white and the walls were given a neutral tan color...and the dining room turned into this:

  

Big improvement! But now let's fast forward to today and check out what she looks like after we gutted the room, pushed the front wall out five feet, added wainscoting, crown molding, new paint, new windows, a new chandelier, recessed lights, installed reclaimed hardwood floors to the extension and refinished all the floors a dark walnut color:



I personally love it! As a disclaimer, I took all these photos with my IPhone, so the paint color is a bit off.  The tan walls do not read quite as dark in person. After a month, my big excitement is that this room is 100% box free.  However, we have a lot left on the ole "To Do" list:

New furniture

New rug

Purchase and install plantation shutters

Add artwork and accessorize

 

With respect to the furniture and rugs, these were hand-me-downs from Matt's parents.  Although they are in great shape and super nice, they don't really match the style and color scheme that we are going for in the room.  Now let's head through to the left of the dining room and move into the kitchen! Here is what she looked like when we bought the house:

 

Although I though that the kitchen was absolutely adorable and super 60's kitsch, the cabinets were not very practical, the white tile counter top was impossible to keep clean and the faux brick linoleum floors were past their prime.  So here is the kitchen now after the remodel:

Although we kept the same footprint, we completely gutted the kitchen and added all new wood floors, two-toned cabinets, appliances, sink, faucet, hood vent, travertine back splash, granite counter top, a breakfast bar behind the stove with built-in storage, two-tone dental crown molding, paint, recessed lights throughout, and french doors in the breakfast room. Whoooo, that's a lot!  And we are super thrilled with the results. We decided to keep the same footprint in the kitchen because it is an extremely wide space, with lots of count top/workspace, so there is plenty of room for multiple people to prep, cook and hang out...and bonus, we didn't have to move any walls (and a massive fireplace that is on the other side of the left wall). Score!  And here's the before shot of the breakfast room:

And here is the after:

My favorite part of this space is definitely the french doors. They let in so much natural light into the kitchen and once the back patio is finished (which you can see through the doors), we will be able to open these doors and move easily back and forth between the indoor and outdoor spaces. The "To Do" list is not too big in the kitchen/breakfast room, but it's still there:

 

Bar stools for the breakfast bar

Small table and chairs

Artwork and accessories

Dummy handle for the left french door

Add missing molding piece to the left of the last piece of travertine above the stove

 

And here is another view of the kitchen from the back corner of the breakfast room looking out towards the living room and the dining room to help orient you to the house:

Now we'll head out of the kitchen and into the living room.  Here is a view of the old living room from the kitchen looking back towards the front door and the old stairs. This picture was taken after all of the woodwork was painted white and the walls were painted a light tan:

And here is the same view today:

This part of the house went through the biggest change layout wise. We pushed the front of the house out five feet, which allowed us to add an entrance into the house from the garage, move the location of the stairs (which completely opened up the space...for reference, the left side of the staircase used to be where the house ended), and close off the doorway leading into an old hallway outside of the old master bedroom.  Here is another view of the living room before the remodel looking from the opposite side of the house back towards the front door and dining room: 

And here is the after:

 



It's amazing how moving the stairs made the whole space so much more airy and open! The pictures don't really do it justice, but trust me when I say it is a huge improvement!  In addition to moving the walls, we refinished the fireplace with dry stack limestone, removed the hearth from the fireplace so that it is now flush with the ground, added cabinets and storage to the right of the fireplace where the wood storage used to be, a new chandelier, recessed lights throughout, crown molding and baseboards throughout, refinished the wood floors, an all new staircase (and staircase accessories), and new front door and side lights.  As you can see, we kept with the same color scheme of dark molding/trim and neutral walls.  You can't tell from the pictures, but the wall paint is Ralph Lauren Suede, so it gives a nice subtle texture to the otherwise simple walls.  Now for the next-to-last view of the living room (have I lost you yet?).  Here is what you saw before when you walked into the front door and looked out towards the sun room/back yard:

And here is what you see now:

 

Our La Cantina Doors! We love these things!!! These things are great because (as I showed you here) they fold on themselves to the left so that the wall disappears and we are able to completely open inside of our house to the outdoors. You can also see that we removed the old sun room and added a large patio. The plan is to have outdoor lounge furniture in that space (couch, chairs, etc.). That way, once we open the doors, we will more than double the length of our living room with the combination of outdoor and indoor living.  We think that it is so cool and it is going to be AWESOME for parties!

And here we are to the last view of the living room looking back towards the kitchen and the backyard. Like all the other rooms, the living room/back yard have quite the "To Do" list:

New furniture and rugs

TV for above the fireplace

Some sort of decorative cabinet to hide said TV

Mantel for fireplace

Clean and refinish inside of the fireplace

Artwork and accessories

Cabinet and drawer pulls for the built-in

Finish the wine room

Furniture for the patio

Add pergola above back living space

Plants for the back yard

 

So now let's move onto the master bedroom. The footprint of the master bedroom did not change much, other than moving the entrance and removing the old closet.  Here is what the master bedroom looked like after getting its coat of tan wall color and white wood work:

 



Although we didn't change the foot print, we did quite a bit of work in the master bedroom.  Here is what she looks like today:

So here, we added new crown molding and baseboards, removed the chair rail, refinished the floors, added recessed lights and a new fan, painted the walls a soft teal color with our favorite Ralph Lauren Suede paint (the color isn't reading right in this picture, but you can see how it really looks a few pictures down), and installed new windows (although you can't see them behind my super DIY temporary curtains made from a king bed sheet and a significant amount of painter's tape...but they have been up for two weeks now, so I think I did good! Just keeping it real folks!).  Now here is a view of the master bedroom before the renovations looking from the back of the room towards the front of the house. 

 

That used to be our master closet. Although it looks large in the picture...in reality it was tiny! So as I mentioned before, Matt used that closet and used all the other closet throughout the house. Fair trade! And one of my favorite things about this picture is the small round face plate on the wall.  That was actually an original 4-prong phone jack from 1967! I had no idea what it was and my mom had to fill me in. It's crazy, because we don't even have phone jacks in the house now! How the times have changed! Here is the same view of the master bedroom today:

The paint in this picture reads a lot more true than the previous one. Here you can see that we also added double doors into the master bedroom and you can see the master bathroom in the background.  We went with the same dark trim and woodwork in our bedroom as well.  I love the combination of the dark trim with the soft blue walls.  It is very relaxing.  Here is out "To Do" list for the master bedroom:
 

Purchase and hang plantation shutters (shocking!)

Change out switch plates and plugs from builders white to oil rubbed bronze

Finish unpacking boxes

Hang artwork and accessorize

 

Now onto the master bathroom.  This is probably the biggest transformation of the entire house and most definitely one of my favorites!!!  Here is our master bathroom before the renovation (please excuse the poor picture quality) - first we have the master vanity (taken from the hallway looking into the bathroom with the master bedroom on the right):

And here is the view of the master bathroom from the master bedroom with the vanity to the immediate right:

The bathtub/shower was behind the wall.  This space was TINY!!! I could stand straddling the shower and touch both the exterior wall and the shower wall.  There was no room for two people to get ready in the morning, so Matt used this bathroom and I used its twin upstairs to get ready.  You can't see from this picture, but there was a 6 foot wide hallway to the left of the bathroom and a 10' by 10' "study" (but really, more like a glorified closet) on the other side of the wall from the toilette.  The first thing I thought when we saw the house was that the hallway and 10' x 10' study were not usable space for us, so we blew out all the walls and created a large/proper master bathroom and walk-in closet.  Here is the master bathroom today:

 

I'm telling you, when I walk into this place all I turn into George Costanza and constantly exclaim "Xanadu!!!" It is such a complete 180 from what we had before! Once we moved the walls, we added a two person shower with double shower heads, body sprays and a rain shower; a claw foot tub; large 18"x18" travertine tiles on the floors, travertine tile "wainscoting"; a large double vanity with granite counter top; a new large window, a massive custom mirror (which you will see in the next few pictures); crown molding throughout and new paint. Oh it makes me giddy!!! I don't have a good picture of how the vanity looks today, so here is an older one (before the mirror frames were painted) to give you an idea:

 

I love the gooseneck faucets and handles! And the detail in the sinks is super cool. But the best part is that we have enough room for Matt and I to both get ready in the bathroom at the same time. It is wonderful!!! And here is how the mirrors look today (mess and all from getting ready this morning, also with a little Elvis-Matt in the background..Hey Hey!):

 

And here is our lovely "To Do" list for the master bathroom:

 

Hang second vanity light

Hang chandelier above the claw foot tub

Finish the trim around the mirrors and remove painter's tape

Install hooks or towel bar to hang towels (so they're not on the shower)

Paint hand mirror oil rubbed bronze

Floor mat for the tub

Hang artwork and accessorize



And last but not least on our downstairs tour is the master closet. I showed you my "Master Plan" for the closet here.  This little beauty is also one of my favorite changes in the house because all of Matt's and all of my clothes fit into one closet! Woohoo!!! This is the first time that has ever happened and this is the first time in six years that all of my clothes have lived in a single closet.  It makes getting ready in the morning SOOOOOOOO much easier! Now I warn you, the closet is still in the unpacking and organizing phase, so it is a bit of a mess. But hey, this is where we are after one month and hopefully by month two, I can show you a beautifully organized closet. So for now, here is the left side of the closet:

The left wall of the closet holds Matt's clothes and a mirrored accessories cabinet (that behind the two mirrored doors on the far left). The accessories cabinet is only about 3 inches deep because we had to steel some room from this closet for the wine closet, which is on the other side. In the middle we have an island with a bench on the end.  And the back wall is one giant built-in.  My boots and flats are on the left, a chest of drawers in the middle with cubbies above, and my heels are to the right, which you can see in this picture of the right side of the closet:

 



 

This side of the closet houses my clothes. You can see the rest of the vanity and to my right are more shelves that hold all of Matt's shoes and accessories. I love this closet! It makes me giddy every time I walk in! Yippy, closets are so fun!!! And now for the final "To Do" list for today:

 

Hang chandelier above island

Finish unpacking boxes and organize/purge clothes

Add pulls to the chest of drawers, accessories closet doors and hampers in island

Make a covered cushion for the seat on the island

Install butcher block counter top on island

Finish off the inside of the accessories closet to hang/organize accessories (more to come on this fun project)

 

Phew, that is a lot of information for one day! If you stuck around till the end, congratulations and thank you! I will try to post the before and afters for upstairs tomorrow. But before I go, one think that I mentioned on the very first post of the blog was that our goal with this remodel was to update the home to bring it into the 21st century, but to ensure that we honored Rose and Ben's dream and keep the spirit of their home alive. This was something that was extremely important to us throughout the year-long remodeling process. I feel like we accomplished our goal and very much hope that Rose and Ben are smiling down and are happy with the results too.

 

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope that you have a wonderful day!!!

 

 

Let the Painting Commence!

Hello everyone! I hope that you are having a great week so far! We just returned from an amazing trip to London, Paris and Bordeaux for one of my dear friend's weddings. The wedding was absolutely BEAUTIFUL and it was so good to spend some time with our Aberdeen friends who we haven't seen for far too long! The renovations continued at the house while we were gone, with tile being installed and the long painting process commencing. So far, the painters have focused primarily on all the wainscoting and trim.  Last week, I showed you the primed and sanded wood work...but now, we have first coat of paint to the wood work as well (the walls and ceiling paint will come next).  It is really cool to see our color pallet finally coming to life!  In the words of Homer Simpson...can I get a "WooHoo"?!?!?! 

 

 

But before we check out the paint, here are the colors that we have picked for the house:

 

 

So now, onto the dining room and the living room. As you can see in the picture above, we are painting the wainscoting and trim a dark brown color called Bronzetone 60 from Benjamin Moore.  Here is a view of the dining room from the living room:

 

I love the rich color of the wainscoting. However, to keep the rooms from turning into black holes, are going to paint the walls a dark cream color by Ralph Lauren called Plaza Blanca.  The color is from their suede collection which will also give a subtle texture to the walls.  Here is another view of the dining room and the painted wainscoting. 

On the stairwell, we are using a custom cream color for the wainscoting. We chose to paint the stairwell cream because the color scheme upstairs is different than the color scheme downstairs...specifically, we are going to have bright white wainscoting and light gray walls upstairs.  So, in order not to have such a drastic change from downstair's cream walls and brown wainscoting to the upstair's gray walls and white wainscoting, we are using the stairwell as a transition area and will have cream wainscoting with the same Ralph Lauren Plaza Blanca color on the walls.  Here is a picture of the stairwell...although the color isn't showing quite right (it is more cream than white). 

 

Here is another picture of the stairwell where you can see the wainscoting a bit better.

And here is the upstairs hallway with all the wainscoting, baseboards and crown molding painted.

 

We are also painting the wainscoting in the reclaimed attic bright white. And in this picture, you can see the hidden doors that open up to major storage in the eaves of the attic.

And here is a picture of another upstairs bedroom. 

 

We previously painted the walls blue (I was going for a Wedgwood look) and are keeping the same color scheme.  However, we are repainting this room because we had to fix the chair rail and baseboard when we relocated the entrance door.   I LOVE the combo of the blue walls and white trim..it is very peaceful and relaxing to me.  So that is all for now.  I hope you enjoyed seeing the painting progress that we are making around the house. Thanks so much for stopping by! 

 

Primed and Ready!!!

Good Monday morning to you all! I hope that you had a great weekend. It was HOT this weekend in Houston (109 degrees on Saturday); however, the sun was shining, so I was a happy gal! But what is crazy, Houston's 109 was nothing compared to Vegas, which recorded 127 degrees with sidewalks clocking in at 150 degrees. Yowzers!!! That's-a-one-spicy-meat-a-ball! Things are also heating up at Casa de Mosley - the painters arrived last week and started priming and prepping all the walls and woodwork.  I have been so excited about this major step towards completing our project that I have been running around like a crazy person (a la Paul Revere style) shouting to the rafters and anyone that will listen that "The Painters are Coming! The Painters are Coming!  The Painters Are Coming!!!"





Here



 

Last week I showed you the wainscoting that we added throughout the house. And here's the dining room wainscoting all primed and ready to go!

 

I absolutely LOVE how the wainscoting looks primed and how it is all coming together! The painters still have to put a skim coat over the middle panels on the wainscoting to make it them super smooth, but we are definitely heading in the right direction! Here is a closer view of the dining room wainscoting.

And here is a view taken from the front corner of the dining room looking back towards the living room.  As you can see, they also have the crown and baseboards all primed in there too!

Since the primer is up, it was time for Mattey and me to buckle down and make our final decisions on paint colors for the walls and trim throughout the house. And here is what we have come up with so far:

 

The two middle colors are what we are using for the walls downstairs. The second sample board from the right is Ralph Lauren Suede Plaza Blanca, which we are using on the living room, the foyer and the stairwell walls. It is a deep rich cream color, which will give a lot of warmth to the rooms. We chose Ralph Lauren's suede finish (instead of regular flat paint) because the suede paint gives a subtle texture and added depth. I am all about layering textures when decorating, and using a suede paint is a super easy way to add a layer texture to the whole room in one fair swoop.  Our dining room walls will be the second color from the left, which is Ralph Lauren Suede Cordova Cream. Like the walls in the living room, foyer, and stairwell, we also are using a suede finish in the dining room; however, this color is just a bit darker than the Plaza Blanca and will help set-off the dining room from the rest of the downstairs space without screaming "Hey look at me!!! I'm different!!!!!"  Since tans and creams can become a bit boring, we are adding interest by going DARK with the trim (instead of your typical white). We have picked Benjamin Moore's Bronzetone 60 (the far left color on the trim sample board).  It isn't on Benjamin Moore's website, but you can get a sample made at any of their stores.  This is because Bronzetone 60 is actually a commercial color that they sell to manufacturers and is typically used to paint machinery. That might sound a bit strange; however, the color is FABULOUS!  It it super rich with a ton of depth.  We love the look of light walls with dark trim, and previously had this look out in our game room, which you can see below.

 

 

 

The walls in the game room were Ralph Lauren Suede Silver City and the trim was Ralph Lauren Turret Stair.  Although I love this look (and we are using the same color combo in the new game room), I thought it was a bit too dark and too tan for downstairs (I feel like we will be locked into a distinctly tan color pallet if we go this dark).  Instead, I wanted a lighter feel for the downstairs and more flexible pallet. The back room in the picture below is a good example of the look I am going for:

 



Here



 And here is a good example of how the dining room will look with the dark wainscoting and light walls.



Here



I think that house is so dreamy and am praying to the paint gods that our house will look as good when we are finished! Like the picture above, we will are using a light cream for the wainscoting on the stairwell.  Although all the other trim downstairs will be dark, I decided not to carry the dark trim up the stairwell. This is because we are painting the walls upstairs in the study and the hallway a greige color (so that it will blend with the Plaza Blanca) and painting the trim a bright crisp white, and I thought that dark wainscoting on the stairwell would be too much contrast with the white wainscoting and woodwork in the upstairs study and hallway, which you can see in the picture below.

 

 

The far left color board is Sherwin Williams Fleur De Sel and is the color that we chose for the walls in the upstairs hallway and the study. I wanted upstairs to be a grey and white pallet, but needed to choose a grey that would blend well with the Plaza Blanca since you will see the stairwell walls and the hallway/study walls when you are upstairs. This turned out to be a far more difficult task than I originally anticipated because the Plaza Blanca is a warm color and most greys out there are cool.  So in order for the two not to clash, I had to find a grey with some tan undertones. After trying about 15 different greys (greys are so freak'n difficult), I lucked upon Fleur De Sel. It is a pretty light grey with a hint of beige undertones and blends great with the Plaza Blanca. SCORE!!! For the trim and wainscoting, we are using Benjamin Moore's Chantilly Lace, which is the middle white on the trim sample board.  This is a super bright white and pops like crazy against the Fleur De Sel. I love it because it will make the upstairs hallway bright and airy (and this is super important to me since there are no windows in the hallway and the space could easily turn into a cave if the paint is too dark).  The color on the far right of trim sample board is Sherwin Williams Snowbound and is what we have picked for the ceiling color.  We chose this color because we needed something that will blend with both the Plaza Blanca and the Fleur De Sel...and Snowbound is a rock star chameleon that looks great with both colors.  And finally, the color block on the far right is Benjamin Moors Pure White.  We are using this color on the walls in the upstairs guest bathroom and the Laundry Room.  Although it is called Pure White, it is a lovely cool grey and works really well with the Carrara Marble counter tops that we have in the laundry room and guest bathroom. For the trim in those rooms, we are going with Chantilly Lace again to Keep Pop'n you proud Popper!  I am counting down the days till the paint is up so I can see how it all comes together!  I hope that you have enjoyed seeing some of our paint choices!!!  I'll keep you posted as the progress continues.  Have a wonderful week everyone, and if we don't talk before, have a very HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!  Thanks for stopping by!