Our first home before/after pictures

Well, I had hoped to wrap up every room in our old home with lots of before/after pictures each in a separate but to be honest my heart just isn’t there anymore.  And my computer time is very limited because of a sweet little baby. 🙂  So I decided to conclude that chapter in our lives with a massive before/after picture heavy post of our entire home.  It has taken me quite a while to gather all of this in one place, but here it all is.  12 years of our life was spent in this home – so many memories.  It was our first true home – a foreclosure that was in decent shape but definitely needed some character and some updating.  I learned about the world of DIY and frugal decorating and did so many firsts in this home – painting-  so much painting!, installing lots of trim, painting furniture, installing light fixtures, updating a kitchen, working on landscaping, installing built ins, and so much more…   So here it is from our first time we walked through to the last months we lived in it.  

Front exterior of our home before

Front of house after (painted shutters, painted door, spring flower beds)

Painting our shutters and door black was one of the best and cheapest decisions I made in the exterior of our home.

Front porch

Back of house before

Back of house after – we had new deck built and added lots of flower beds over time.

Entryway through the front door.  Don’t have a before picture but there was carpet all the way to just a 2×3 foot section in front of the door.  We had the tile installed right after we bought.  And then we updated paint, light fixtures over time.

I loved these simple hooks – they added some much function and organization and yet added character too.

Half bathroom before – looked like a closet with a toilet and a sink inside. 

This bathroom went through two updates but the last one was my absolute favorite.  

Dining room before

And dining room after – this was really the first room that I decorated probably 5  years ago when I really started doing some updating on our house.  And it is also the room that although pretty was least my style when we moved…   Amazing how styles and my decorating eye/ability/what I love changed. 

Living room before

And living room after… honestly besides the paint color the thing that changed most about this room was just my ability to better decorate a room.  DIY painted striped curtains made a huge impact along with lots of yard sale decor and linens, and a $3 coffee table I made over.

This painted diamond wall was one of my favorite things about our house – find the tutorial for it here and the tutorial for the DIY sunburst mirror here.

Eat in kitchen/bay window before. 

Our eat in kitchen also went through several makeovers mostly with just paint.  And because of all the light it was my favorite room in the house.

The curtains made from sheets, DIY EAT letters, yard sale light fixture, Craigslist table and chairs, and a simple chair rail (my very first trim project that I cut with a box miter saw!) updated the room so much.

And the kitchen… here’s the before from one angle.

And the after – oh how I loved when we finally got around to updating this kitchen.

Another angle before…

And the same angle after

Another before picture – as you can see that one cabinet door was missing from the beginning. 

I finally just embraced it and removed the other cabinet door and as the popularity of open shelving in kitchens became very popular I loved my open cabinets even more.  Oh I miss my kitchen in this house the most!!  Which I never thought I would say because it was my least favorite room almost the entire time we lived there.  

But we finally did a very low cost update not even a year before we moved and I LOVED it.  We finally came up with a plan, installed new laminate countertops (yes those are laminate!), painted the cabinets and installed new hardware, put up a beadboard backsplash,  installed a $4 thrift store light fixture, and over the years replaced all of the appliances as they slowly died.

All of the bedrooms were upstairs at our previous home. 

This was the first guest bedroom that housed all my craft stuff in the closet and became my nephews room/playroom over time.

This was the guest bathroom – again just a bland box of a room.

And here it is with a framed in mirror, molding, and another thrifted spray painted light fixture.  Small inexpensive things really can make a big difference.

I did a simple refresh right before we moved to just make the room a bit more simple.

Guest bedroom before.

Guest bedroom after – this entire room is pretty much secondhand finds and you can find all the details on this gray and yellow guest bedroom here.

Master bathroom before.

And after…

Before again.

And another after.  You can find more details on the new dark gray paint, subtle painted stripes, and framed in mirror at those links.

Master bedroom before – this room was massive!

And once again it was one of the last rooms I worked on – wish I had done it much sooner!  (More details – painted curtains, IKEA bedframe and mattress, painted dresser turned nightstand, painted dresser, before/after paint)

This room had this weird nook in the left corner…

And I added a built in shelf there that looked like it belonged from the beginning. 

Before of laundry room

And the very last update I did – adding built in shelves and a thrift store cabinet, thrift store light fixture, new paint, and fun decor!

So there it is – so inspiring to me as a I plug away at an even bigger fixture upper project in our new/current home.    I have to remember those after pictures happened after many years not months.  And I hope that is an encouragement to you as well.  You can find lots more details on rooms/projects and more on our former home here on the blog – use the search box on the left and just type in something you were looking for or leave a comment and I can help direct you to it. 

This home was also where I began my blogging journey which has truly changed my life in so many ways – so thankful I got to share all these afters and in-betweens and projects with you along the way.

And now on to our current home – you can see the before picture tour here and later this week I’ll start showing you all of what we have been working on outside this summer and fall!