In 2018, my husband Keith and I purchased an older home in the middle of town. This house was older than others in the neighborhood and had a farmhouse/cottage feel to it.
However, it was in really rough shape. It had original hardwood that could not even be saved because of how bad of shape it was in. The kitchen had the original appliances from when it was built and the cabinetry was poorly built. Every room needed paint, the kitchen needed renovated, and everything needed cleaned up.
We got to work and in the 3 years that we lived in our sweet little farmhouse in town we gutted the kitchen and remodeled it, painted every room, replaced all flooring, updated the bathroom, updated most of the doors, gave it some curb appeal, built a garden area, and connected the laundry room to the interior of the home. It was a lot of work but we loved how it turned out.
Unfortunately, I did not take good quality photos and I really regret this. I am happy that I have some photos taken with my phone.
Kitchen
This was the biggest renovation we did. This includes the laundry room that was originally outside of the house and had to be accessed from the carport. We connected this to the house and added a door through the kitchen.
Since this door is where the wall stove originally was, we changed the layout of the kitchen some and moved the stove to the adjacent wall.
In the kitchen, we kept the original top cabinetry but did have to replace all of the lower cabinets and countertops, flooring, all appliances and the sink.
We add a slate gray tile for the flooring and a white cast iron sink for that farmhouse charm. I opted for a marble inspired countertop.
Living Room and Office
The living areas of the house all had original hardwood floors. Unfortunately for us, they were beyond repair and could not be refinished. They were old and previous owners pets had damaged them so badly we could not fix them back to their original beauty. We had a professional come out to look and his only suggestion was to stain them as dark as we could, which we did. But the stain did not hold up and we decided it was best to just cover them at that point. We chose a flooring that was similar in color and style to what we believed the house originally had based on our neighbors memory.
This living room was very long and skinny. We were told it had originally been a bedroom and a living room but the wall was taken down. Since the house only had two bedrooms and we needed them both, we decided to split them living room into two spaces- a living room and office. We used furniture and rugs to create the divided feeling.
My favorite thing in the house were these original built in bookshelves. I made little curtains to make the lower half easier for storage and added baskets to the top for additional storage. Perfect for a small home office! We also built a long built in farmhouse desk. This was long enough for a desktop computer with double monitors and my sewing machines.
Master Bedroom
Our master bedroom was one of the last rooms we worked on before moving. We kept it really simple since it did not need much. We updated the flooring and added a bead board accent wall with sconces. We kept the furniture simple with white side tables, a black bed frame and a painted dresser for storage.
While this room was a good size and not small by any means, it was a little awkward with furniture placement. We did decide to just add a curtain to the closet instead of full doors to accommodate for the awkward space.
Nursery
Other than the built in bookshelves, this is by far my favorite room in our home. Neutrals with a simple, farmhouse theme and soft splashes of pink.
We added the same bead board accent wall in this room as we did in our master bedroom. A white Jenny Lind crib added a vintage touch and mismatched furniture that I DIY’ed to all be cohesive gives a handmade feel. I added a lot of antique finds. I don’t think anything in this room was brand new but the rug. I opted for a jute rug to hide messes since this is a nursery/kids room.
Handmade curtains covered the large window and closet but left a natural, light and bright feel to the room.
I covered an old chair with a slip cover, half purchased and half handmade. Even though it was white, it was so easy to wash since it was a slip cover.
Bathroom
Our bathroom is the only room we did not touch much. It had tile halfway up the wall that was a creamy white. It resembled subway tile (but was not) so we decided to just leave it.
We did redo the flooring with the same tile used in the kitchen and we painted the entire room. Changing out the lights and the door knobs made a big difference!
We had more plans for this bathroom if we decided to stay but kept it simple until we moved.
Exterior
The exterior had red brick veneer on the lower half. It was outdated and needed some work. The shutters and front steps were painted a burnt orange color as well. We painted the brick and front steps, as well as the shutters for a simple upgrade.
I say simple, but the brick took us so long and had to be done by hand. It was a lot of work but completely transformed the exterior of our home.
We also updated the flower bed and replaced the red mulch with black. I added in a hydrangea bush from Keith’s grandmother which grew to be a huge, beautiful blue hydrangea. I also added ferns, lamb’s ear and a few other mosses.