Showing posts with label before and after. Show all posts
Showing posts with label before and after. Show all posts

8.15.2016

:: a lakehouse renovation - the living room

Hello Friends & welcome back to { driftwood cottage }. I finally got around to taking some photos of the lake house and thought I would share the before and afters of the main floor Living Room. 

:: AFTER ::








:: BEFORE ::

This is the living room when we first viewed the home.
 As you can see this isn't a super large space.
Ugh, that pass through only highlighted the side of a big black refrigerator...I knew immediately how I wanted to solve that problem. The built in bookshelf & banquet have been the perfect solution. I can now fit twice as many people comfortably in the same amount of space.

:: DURING RENO ::
Ceilings have been stripped, and paint swatches are on the walls. At this point I had so many paint choices up I was driving myself crazy. I knew I wanted a neutral and something that would work well with the stone fireplace, I still hadn't decided on furniture so I was still up in the air.
The pass through between the Living Room & Kitchen.

 Crown moldings are up and I'm still deciding on paint color, also whether or not to paint the wainscoting the same as the wall color, not sure where that idea came from, but glad we didn't.
This was the exciting day when the flooring was finally going in. What a huge difference the hand scraped antique bamboo floors made throughout the house.
 Oops, looks like they painted the wainscoting after all...but not the trim...miscommunications happen...of course we went back to the wainscoting the same as all other trim. I went with Sherwin Williams White Duck on the walls and Benjamin Moore's White dove for all of the cabinetry & trim.  I am so pleased with the color I chose for the walls & trim. The walls are a lovely white with a hint of gray, and White Dove is the perfect white with no strange undertones. The floors are in & I'm already bringing in accessories and furniture is being delivered. 
 Lighting was so much fun to pick out and made such an impact on the updates to the house. I purchased most of the overhead lighting from Shades of Light, they have a specific section of lighting for 8 foot ceilings so I knew whatever I chose would work in our spaces. I also ordered some of our kitchen and bathroom fixtures from Lowe's, all very affordable stylish options.
The beginnings of decorating, little by little I brought in my online purchases & little finds from the usual places like Home Goods & World Market. Since this is our second home and we are only there part time I went with less expensive large furnishings knowing they would last longer with only minimal wear. Sofas & Living room chairs I ordered from Rooms To Go, opting for slipcovers & microfiber for easy cleaning. Two years in and the furniture from Rooms to Go is holding up quite nicely, and I suspect we will get many many more years out of it without a problem.

We opted to go without a television in this space since we have a large lounge area in the basement. This living room is for lovely lake views, cozy fires, good books, coffee & conversation.

{peace, love & hugs}
Carrie
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1.06.2011

:: playing designer

For years now, I've thought about going back to school for interior design. I love to decorate & over the years I've helped all of my friends buy furniture, fluff and rearrange their homes, I've even helped in their friends homes...but I've never actually gotten paid for my help. 

Well, that's all changed now. I've officially gotten paid for my first real design job. My new friend/client is a client of my husbands, and friend of his sister's who suggested that she give me a call. She's a real sweetheart, a busy working mom who needed some help decorating her house. 

I first thought I would be going over to help do more of a fluff job, but nope...this is full on bottom up decorating job {yee}. Before the holidays we picked out flooring & a wall color, and over the holidays she had her new flooring installed, and she had everything painted. I've helped her pick out a new Sofa, rug, entertainment center, coffee table, side table, and an adorable phone table for her kitchen. We still have the kitchen, dining room, and master bedroom to buy for. It can be hard to stay on track with so much to do, but I'm trying to let her see one room put together at a time.



This is the room I laid out today in photoshop. { please excuse any wonky pictures & bad perspective } 

No...I don't plan for the chairs to be facing this way, crazy huh. In the end they will be facing the sofa for a comfy cozy conversation area. I need her to see what the chairs I'm thinking of for the space will look like with everything else. I also wanted to give her a good visual of what her room will look like once we get some accessories and curtains up.

Here's another version with a different set of chairs and a swing arm lamp instead of the coral based lamp {which I love}. Man Oh Man, the hardest thing is not turning around and buying all this great stuff for myself. Luckily though I get to live vicariously through her. Not to say that some rooms around here aren't on my agenda this year ; ).





Here's the living room before. Her house was under a good bit of construction when I first started, she had popcorn ceilings replaced, and the walls were being repaired and smoothed out, you can see here she still had her carpeting down. {we had already purchased the rug and coffee table before I remembered to take pics }


Here's where we are today. So you can see this is the image that I added my furniture and accessories to. Now, I'm not the best at Photoshop layouts yet , so some of my items in the first image are probably a little out of proportion, and the perspective is off too, but I still think it will give her a good idea of where we are going.

Now you know...best laid plans and all. The room may not end up looking that much like the first pic, it just depends on if we purchase the items I have pictured, and of course whether or not she even likes what I've put together...so we shall see.

Anyhoo, this is what I've been up to lately, and it really feels good to have a somewhat real job again. We'll see if it leads to more. I think I could get used to this. 

Hope you all have had a wonderful week so far.

:: peace, love & hugs ::
Carrie
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1.04.2011

:: just because


Just because I love green apples. Sorry, I don't have anything super exciting to post about, unless grocery shopping and cleaning out my pantry is considered exciting. Well, maybe to some...especially when it ends up looking like this. Ahhh, I love me some organization.


Organizing the pantry is an ongoing process for me. I organize & get everything looking somewhat pretty, and then my family shoves everything in front of what I've organized in whatever empty spot they can, and the whole process begins again. Ahh...The life of a pantry. Now by no means is this my dream pantry, but hey, I try to make do with what I have.

I guess I'm like a lot of you out there, I'm having some strong nesting urges happening this time of year. After the holidays it seems that everything needs some refreshing & de-cluttering. That said, you can probably expect more of these types of posts from me in the next couple of weeks months...heck I'll probably be doing this until time for spring cleaning. Let's face it the cycle never ends....Oh if only I could live in a photograph.

I have plans for many new projects this year {bringing them to fruition will be the challenge}. Since tackling Miss P's room, I feel I can take on much more around my house {at least upstairs where the ceiling heights are manageable} and believe me many spaces need updating after 7 years. For now though, I'm going to link up to The Lettered Cottage with Miss P's apartment reveal. This was by far my favorite project of 2010. I really feel like I pulled off a pretty cute look, and on a decent budget too.





You can read more about the big reveal here. Then you can go here for the before photos, I think it's a pretty significant improvement from where we started. I cringe at those before photos and feel like I need to defend myself and the pink {eek}.

:: peace, love & hugs ::
Carrie


The Lettered Cottage





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7.27.2010

{ landscape design part 1 }


This is the view into my backyard.

See our lovely trampoline that was demolished in the last storm we had.

It ended up close to the driveway of the house behind us....can you believe that.

Now it sits in it's original home, unusable, and I can't wait to get rid of it,

or at least move it over to the left side of our lot { out of the picture }.


While I was sitting outside this afternoon, enjoying the slightly cooler weather today.

I was daydreaming about the trees and landscaping I would like to add to improve my view.

I really do love the wide open views of the skies at night, but I don't care for seeing

other houses. My goal is to create a park like setting in my backyard.

I long for complete privacy, and surrounding myself with 

NATURE.




So, Here's the planting PLAN
I'll need about ten of these Leyland Cypress,

four more of these River Birch to add to the two I already have,
two of these lovely Yoshino Cherry trees
four more of my favorite Limelight Hydrangeas,


and last buy not least by any means, one of my favorites the Weeping Willow.




Now, here's what I have in mind.





You can barely see the house behind me, 

and I'm sure I don't have the cypress scaled to full size.

What do you think?

Is it an improvement?


You have to forgive me for my symmetry,

no matter how hard I try, I just can't get away from it.


This is just a plan too,

things are always subject to change in my world,

Now, my image isn't true to life, because never would my cherry trees

and limelight hydrangeas be in bloom at the same time,

but you get the idea.


I'm thinking it would be the perfect spot for a wedding someday.

Is it crazy that I'm even thinking of that.

I can't help it, I would love to see my backyard be beautiful enough

that my children would wan't to be married under that weeping willow someday.

A girl can dream can't she...now let's just hope I can make it that pretty.



I used photoshop, and the images above to compile the finished photo.





 floridata.com  { yoshino cherry }, sodahead.com { river birch tree }, wofarms.com { leyland cypress }







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4.26.2010

{ that was then }







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