Its time for another Throwback Thursday, where I share a space in our house and all the renovations that went into it. Just to recap, we bought our house in May of 2012 and immediately started a gut renovation. It took about 6 months for the house to be livable (meaning there was a functioning toilet and shower – still no kitchen at this point) and another year and half after that for the main renovations to be completed. Since then, we’ve been enhancing the features of our home one DIY project at a time.
Today I’m sharing the entry way (which used to be the living room) and the hallway that leads to our bedrooms and bathroom. If you recall, our original floor plan looked like this:
Yes, there were two front doors and neither one allowed any sort of entry area upon arrival. We removed the door leading to the old family room and after opening the kitchen and living areas to each other, we were able to use the space by the main front door as somewhat of an entry area. As in, you don’t walk straight into the living area and get yelled at for blocking the TV as you cross the room.
Our current floor plan now looks like this:
We were able to tuck the living room into the original one car garage area (aka the converted family room), allowing the original living room to take on another roll. To read about other floor plan changes we made, check out this post.
But let me get to why you’re really here (the before and afters, am I right?). Let’s start with what these spaces looked like when we bought the house. First, the entry, which was a living room for the previous owners.
I found this gem from when we toured the house before we bought it. All I can say is our realtor is one heck of a salesman because looking back on these photos, I often wonder “what the heck were we thinking?!”
And here are a few pictures from the first day of demo:
All of the rooms were so small, it was hard to get a good photo back then. Also, we didn’t own a camera back in the day so these are all 1st generation iPad photos (you’re welcome).
If you’ve read my post on our living room, you know we salvaged and repurposed all of that knotty pine into baseboards when we removed the wall to open up the living spaces.
As you can see, the first major change was replacing the center wall with a beam. We removed the drywall and the little bit of electrical that was in the wall, then built two temporary walls on either side. The wall came down and a doubled up 2×12 went in its place. Since we have attic space above the ceiling, we were able to recess the beam halfway into the attic. So, you only see 6 inches of the beam from the living space.
Next up were the floors. The majority of our house had red oak hardwood flooring under the worn carpet (we added new, matching hardwoods in the kitchen and living area) so we sanded them down and refinished them using Minwax’s Dark Walnut.
Along the way, we textured the walls, painted, added wood planks and crown moulding to the ceiling, and bought a new, unfinished front door (because at this point we clearly needed more projects). We finished the door with Minwax Dark Walnut stain and an exterior grade spar urethane.
At this point, the room was starting to take shape and it was a far cry from where it started.
Again, please excuse the iPad photo quality.
The last big project to conquer was the windows. We actually started at the back of the house and worked our way to the front when installing the windows, so by the time we replaced the windows in this room, we were old pros. At the same time, we swapped in our new front door too.
We worked quickly one weekend to remove the old windows, waterproof everything, then install the new windows, all before the sun went down.
Replacing windows is one of those projects that gives the term ‘sense of urgency’ a whole new meaning. But, we managed to get everything installed and no gaping holes were left in the house when we went to bed that night.
Soon after the windows were installed, we trimmed them out and finished installing the baseboards. Everything was then caulked and painted and the entry was ready to welcome guests. This room has morphed and changed over the years, like all the rooms in our house, but here’s what it currently looks like:
We’ve had my grandfather’s drafting desk in here for the last couple of years and it serves as a great drop zone when we come home to the house; we even added hooks to the side to hang backpacks and jackets.
The drafting table has a great ‘standing desk’ height, so a lot of the time we use the desk while standing. And since this is a high traffic area, we don’t have a chair that lives here. If Andrew or I want to sit while working at the desk, we pull up a stool from the breakfast bar to use. Maybe one day we will invest in a designated chair to go with the desk, but for now, this works. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve looked for a chair/stool to pair with this desk and haven’t found anything I love yet. My grandfather always used it as a standing desk (he even had it on risers – he was a tall man!) so in some ways its an ode to him.
I forgot to mention earlier that we moved the thermostat from the wall above, to the backside of that wall (so it is accessible from the hallway now).
And speaking of hallways, there aren’t many renovation pictures to show – its kind of the forgotten space of a renovation, but it got the same treatment all the other rooms received.
This is the best ‘before’ picture I could find. And to be honest with you, Andrew and I didn’t even remember there being wallpaper there! When we were renovating the adjacent rooms, we also removed all the drywall and trim from the hallway and started fresh.
New electrical was added, the floor was refinished, and the wood plank ceiling was continued into the hallway. Then we buttoned everything back up with new drywall.
Next, we textured the walls and painted, and added new door trim, our refurbished knotty pine baseboards, and crown moulding. I even made a new macrame pull string for the attic access door. And now the hallway looks like this:
My parents found this old brick form at a flea market and we found the perfect use for it to display some handmade pottery we received as a wedding gift, along with some other random finds.
And here’s a view from the other end of the hallway, looking toward the bathroom.
And just so you don’t have to scroll back and forth, here’s a few before and afters for ya.
It feels so much more open with the wall removed and the extra natural light from the new windows.
And just so the hallway doesn’t feel left out:
To see renovations of other rooms in our house, check out our renovations page.
Entry wall color: Casual Gray (Behr)
Hallway wall color: Dolphin Fin (Behr)
Trim color: Ultra Pure White (Behr)
Have you been working on any renovations lately? Big or small, I’d love to hear about them. Comment below or connect with me on instagram @elleandjaydesign.
So beautifully done!