House Tour {Part 1} - Before and After

After 5 years in Pullman doing collegiate ministry, we are moving back home to the greater Seattle -Tacoma area. We had a blast here in "Cougar Country" but we feel God's leading away from here and toward there. We are excited to move back home near both sides of our family and to both use our gifts in new jobs too. We aren't sure where we will settle, hopefully close to the jobs we find (in business and ministry), our families, the water, maybe a lake or two for swimming, and close to a little more shopping. (Oh the things we missed while living in Eastern Washington!)

But for now, we are focused on selling our current home. I lovingly refer to it as "Pioneer Heights" since it is perched on Pioneer Hill, near parks, downtown, and in one of the best and oldest neighborhoods in Pullman - what a sweet location. For the past few months, our noses have been to the grindstone finishing up our basement remodel and shaping up the rest of the house. And now we are officially on the market! So, without further ado, here is the first set of Before and After pictures of Pioneer Heights - our home for the last 3 years:

Living Room - Before & After

Before we moved in - dark knotty pine & navy wall, dated fireplace & no overhead lighting.

After - We painted, decorated, changed the fireplace, window treatments & lighting. Here's the final "staged" product. 

Before - window valances and curtains did no favors to those lovely windows.

After - the windows (from another perspective) with new double curtains hung high & wide - to show them off.

Before - Orangish knotty pine & old brick fireplace darkened the room.

After - I painted the pine a light taupe to match the other walls, crisp white went on the mantle, trim & built ins, and the fireplace brick was painted black to add some much needed contrast.

After - The whole living room feels lighter, larger and updated with the new fresh paint on the walls, trim and fireplace.

Dining Room - Before & After

Before - The small lovely dining room was not serving its purpose.

After - Layered drapes highlight the beautiful windows. A refinished glossy ebony round table (w/leaves) offers flexible seating & fits the room well. New lighting centers the room and gives it an updated, polished look.

The Kitchen - Before & After

Before - Orangish-red countertops & backsplash, and cabinets that blocked the eating area and view of the yard beyond.

After - I replaced the laminate with cement countertops (I used a product called "Ardex") & crisp white subway tile with dark grout for the backsplash. We took down the upper cabinets & I replaced them with new pendant lights over the bar and the remaining beam got clad in weathered shiplap (I reclaimed it as is from our laundry room). New stainless steel appliances complete the updated look.

After - Here's the other side of the bar (in the kitchen nook). I added the barn wood to the bar (extra fencing we had on hand) which makes a great pin board for the kids' artwork (keeping the fridge uncluttered). I added the open shelves and tied everything together with some old corbels I scored at my favorite reclamation junk yard. Four stools painted light blue completed the look.

 Kitchen Nook - Before & After

Before - this is how the nook was furnished before we moved in. Its such a large room, it can be utilized better - more seating, more storage, and let's play up the great view of our large backyard.

After - Built in cabinets (IKEA) and a window bench (my dad & I custom built) provide ample storage and frame the view of the backyard nicely. The table can expand to seat 12, with the window bench providing a lot of comfy seating.

Backyard - Before & After

Before - from the Kitchen Nook, the paned-glass sliding door leads out to a large deck. The deck wide steps along part of it but no railing along the rest of that side - just a 2-3 foot drop into the garden and yard!

We added more railing and bench around the deck and painted it white for a fresher look. We also refinished the deck.

Here's more pictures of our big backyard:

View from the deck - garage on the left, shed in the back right corner. The 3 trees provide wonderful shade in the afternoons.

View from the back yard - up to the house and large deck. This place is great for entertaining!

The shed offers great storage for all our yard stuff and outdoor toys.

View from the back gate coming from the driveway into the backyard.

That completes Part 1 of the "Pioneer Heights" house tour! Stay tuned for a tour of the 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and the newly remodeled downstairs!

Geometric/Chevron Wall - Before and After

This week I have been working on Resonate Church's offices. We have a Design Team in place and I have ADORED working with these gals, all of whom are studying Design at UofI. I want to go into business with them and be BFFs with them and, and... We have dreamed up some pretty great ideas for this much larger office space. And now we are beginning to administer them. Starting with a small grimy storage room we turned into a modern, clean-lined Conference Room.

Here was our inspiration for the walls:

These images are from one of the Fritz Hansen furniture galleries. Love the chevron inspired geometric wall! It has a mid-century modern vibe too. We want all of this up in here.

This wall is actually a mosaic of different colored wooden parallelograms. But for our wall we used 5 different colors of paint and A LOT of time and tape.  

The colors were inspired by Resonate Church's logo:

Here's how we did it:

Step 1: Choose colors. We chose 2 grays, 2 greens, and 1 white that all worked well together. All Valspar paint.

Step 2: Sketch it out on paper. Doing this on a small scale will help you execute the large wall so much faster. You won't have to second guess the pattern. (Although if you're like me and accidentally paint a shape the wrong color, you may have to make another sketch!)

Step 3: Measure & mark the wall.  Using a measuring tape, level & pencil, carefully (& lightly) draw the shapes on the wall.

Step 4: Mark each piece. To save time, put a dab of each color in their respective places on the wall. This way you won't have to constantly refer back to your graph each time. (The pic below was mid-project, but you can see "dab marks" for the deeper green.)

 

Step 5: Tape and Paint by Number. Repeat. This takes some time! Put on some good music and tune into the perfectionist in you. Work with one color at a time, taping the outside of that color's shapes. Each color takes 2-3 coats. Remove the tape carefully. If needed, score along the tape edge with an exacto knife to keep the edges clean. Wait until each color is dry before gently taping over it for the neighboring color! This process took a few hours for an 8'6" x 8' wall. But once you get going, you can touch up paint other areas while the current color is drying.

Step 6: Touch up. With this much painting, there will inevitably be touch ups needed. The better you clean up your lines and corners, the sharper your pattern will look. (Below you can see a white gap that needed touching up.)

And here is the final result of the wall in our small 8 1/2 foot wide conference room:

We love this fresh geometric take on the chevron. So graphic!

The Dining Room - Before & After Pics

Below is our Dining Room before we moved in. It was being used as a reading nook. And just beyond you can peak into our Kitchen (in all of its red-counter glory).

And here it is now from the same angle...

We haven't changed the bones of the room at all - same paint, same curtain and we've only hung one picture up.  But oh, the plans we have! The Dining Room just has to wait its turn. We've been working on the kitchen for now - you may notice that the peak of red is gone from the Kitchen! But more on that later.

The Dining Room is pretty small. So we sold our too-big antique dining set and buffet (seen here and in our old house tours) for $700. We used the money to buy all of these pieces and still have change left over:

Chairs: We bought 6 IKEA Henriksdal chairs (for $70/ea) with black/brown legs and white slipcovers (washable!). We love them! They are so comfortable and fairly wide, great for long dinners and conversations with friends. They are also very transitional pieces, looking great in any room as a stand-alone chair. We have one of them in our living room. 

Table: I found this smaller pedestal table on Craigslist for only $35! It has an additional leaf and can seat 4-6 comfortably, 8 if you really like each other! Originally the table had a wood top and green base, but I spray painted it black and brushed a couple good clear coats over it. The size is perfect for the room and we have a much bigger table in the kitchen for larger parties.

Antique Tiger Oak Buffet: This was my birthday present last year. I found it at a nearby antique dealer and got them down to $200. It has a rounded front and curved legs, which complements our round table. Its sturdy which is great - I needed a hard working piece since we entertain a lot. The drawers hold linens, platters & other serving dishes, silver and lots of extra candles. I'm in this thing all the time.

All in all - even calculating in the spray paint - we did this room for FREE using the money we got selling our old set. We have more ideas to come for this room, like curtains, a chandelier, paneling and a plate rail. Something like this:

Here's what's left on our TO DO list to get to this point:

• Sell dining set
• Find/buy better-fitting dining furniture
• Install high paneling, topped with a plate rail
• Find/buy curtains for windows
• Paint paneling white
• Paint walls above paneling a deep saturated color
• Prime & Paint trim
• Decorate the room and walls
• Replace ceiling light with low-cost chandelier

Lots left to do! But we'll get there, and we'll do it on the cheap. Stay tuned.

The Boys' Room - Before/After Pictures

Here is the boys' room before we moved in (it was being used as an office):

 

On moving day it looked like this:

Beds and toy shelf fit well on the big windowed wall.

The window looks out over a large backyard and deck.

The bedroom door (center) and dresser/changing table to the right.

The clothes closet is generously sized and fits most of their clothes and toys.  The second closet (on the right) is deep enough the pack'n'play, totes of clothes that are seasonal or don't fit yet, and all the other bulky things that little ones require.

We wanted to go with a Rodeo theme (this includes a little mixture of rustic cowboys and old-timey trains).  I sewed some pennant banners - in red, blue, burlap and gingham - and hung them above the crib as a sort of mobile. (Click here to learn how I made mine.)

Rodeo Pennant Banners hang above the crib as a mobile - but high enough to be out of little hands' reach.

The crib wall -before the rodeo pennant banner and rocking chair

I bought this little rocking chair at a local antique store for $35. I added the pillow (our old Master Bedroom bedding - from Ralph Lauren). The colors work well in the space and it makes for perfect reading spot for night time stories with the boys.

Updated Afters: 

Just this month Zander turned three and got a "big boy bed" (aka a toddler bed we found on Craigslist for $35). So here are some updated pictures with TWO toddler beds. I'm sure in a year or so we will be upgrading to bunk beds. But for two little guys, this is a good set up for now:

We still have things to do in this room. Some of them are a ways out. Here's out TO DO list:

• make/hang pennant banners
• hang blackout curtains with tie backs
• upgrade to toddler beds
• upgrade to bunk beds
• hang better art, etc on walls
• prime & paint trim and doors
• remove carpeting, refinish floors, add a comfy rug
• turn second closet into reading nook or fort
• add a barnwood wall

Here's our inspiration for the reading nook we're dreaming about. This one comes from Sarah at Thrifty Decor Chick. Wouldn't the second closet be perfect for this?

This nook is from Sarah at Thrifty Decor Chick

Lastly, I would love to do another barnwood wall like I did here. Below is another inspirational picture of Katie's barnwood wall.

Here's one last shot of the boys' room - "In Progress" for now.  Stay tuned as we continue to transform it!