Since we’re at that stage where I’ve made progress on several projects around here, but I’m not quite ready for full reveals, I thought today it would be fun to show the DIY projects we completed in our last home in the form of a before and after home tour. I made Life On Virginia Street a public blog right around the time we purchased our current home. Although I brought over most of the old blog posts from when it was private, I know I really only had our parents reading at the time.
Our last home was actually the second house we purchased in our marriage. It was where I had a lot of DIY experience because I really hadn’t defined my style at the time. The reality was I like nearly all styles and tried them all, even if they weren’t “mine”. My husband constantly joked that we were rapidly losing square footage because I had painted the walls in each room so many times. Seriously – nearly every room had painted three times in the five years we lived there.
Much like our current home, our last house had one paint color throughout – a flat, flesh-toned color. Although we built the house, it was with a builder that only allowed for some customization – mostly cosmetic updates on finishes throughout. It was a really cute house, but really lacked any true character. We tried to add as much as we could on a very limited budget. A few of our “big” projects consisted of adding board and batten throughout the main floor, tearing out all the carpet on the main-floor and having hardwood installed, new backsplash, refinished island, painted walls, new light fixtures (multiple times), building a pergola on the deck, and more!
Here is the progress we had made after five years (if you check out my Paint Colors tab under Source Lists you’ll see all the in-between phases of many of these rooms about half-way down the page). It was raining and gloomy the day I took most of the after photos but they work because our house was clean that day for the realtor photos 😉 I can say by the time we moved out in December of 2012, I had finally started to hone in on my actual style and about half of the spaces reflected that. The rest are the styles of Sarah past.
Exterior – BEFORE
Sadly, I don’t have any full shots of our house once we had updated the landscaping.
Entryway – BEFORE
Entryway –Â AFTER
Living Room – BEFORE
Living Room – AFTER
 
Kitchen and Dining Area – BEFORE
Kitchen and Dining Area –Â AFTER
Laundry Room – BEFORE
Laundry Room –Â AFTER
Main Bath –Â BEFORE
Main Bath – AFTER
Master Bedroom – BEFORE
Master Bedroom – AFTER
Master Bath – BEFORE
Master Bath – AFTER
Guest Room #1 –BEFORE
Guest Room #1 –Â AFTER
Guest Room #2 – BEFORE/AFTER (not really an after – it was just staged to sell at this point. I had pretty much only painted the room)
Bonus Room – BEFORE
Bonus Room – AFTER
I hope you enjoyed this mini-tour of our last home! We have a lot of great memories there.
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You are truly AMAZING, Sarah! I’m sharing this tour on my Sunday Links post. I am in awe of this transformation!
Thank you Brenna!
Where did you purchase your jute rug in the dining room? Is it dusty and/or hard to clean?
Beautiful makeover!
Thanks!
~deb
Thank you! It was from Rugs USA for a steal. But, it did shed a lot in the form of constant dust and fibers underneath it. It was a real mess on the hardwood floors. We never had any major spills on it so I can’t speak to cleaning it, but it did hide dirt well. It was a beautiful rug, but my one (minor) complete was all the dust it left behind!
Wow! That is exactly the type of home I want to move into one day!!
I can tell your style changed from a little bit of country to elegant. I like what you did! What paint color did you choose for your living room?
Thank you! The living room paint color was Benjamin Moore Healing Aloe (which is actually the same color I have in my craft room now!)
I love the dark floors! We are looking at options to replace the flooring in our builder-grade home. What type of flooring did you install? Is it laminate, engineered wood, or real wood? Did you install it yourself or have it professionally installed?
Thanks! They were engineered hardwood from Bruce (a division of Armstrong). We had them installed by Nebraska Furniture Mart where we bought them. You can read more about them specifically in this post: https://lifeonvirginiastreet.com/2012/12/hardwood-floors-process-html/
Sarah, you did a great job with this house, and I love seeing how your taste has changed along the way. We’re all like that, I think!
I absolutely love your style and how elegantly you pull everything together! Can you tell me the name of the fabric for your living room throw pillows? I am looking for something along those lines for my great room and I really love how they look in your space. Thanks!
Thank you Stacey! The big pillows are P Kaufmann’s St. Thomas in the Parrott colorway. I also used Schumacher Betwixt in Water, Windsor Smith Riad in Seafoam and Thom Filicia’s Citysquare in LimeTree.
The after pictures are absolutely beautiful. You did an awesome job. I like these rooms better than a lot of pics I see in magazines. I also love it because it isn’t a huge mansion of a house it is the size if the average homeowner. You show how we can have a very stylish home with the home that most people can afford. Love it and love following you.
Thank you so much! That means so much to me! 🙂
I would love to know the name/brand of the color on your gray bathroom walls and your laundry room……:-) All of it is just amazing!
Thank you! The bathroom walls were Behr Light French Grey and the laundry room was Restoration Hardware’s Slate 🙂
I LOVED everything you did to this house, which is why we bought it! A friend sent me the link to your blog (she found it on pinterest) and she asked me if this was our house. I love being able to see all of the before shots of the house! We haven’t made too many changes…just a few light fixtures (similar to the ones you had already changed) and changed the Guest Bedroom #2 to our daughter’s room. We left the color of the room the same, but added some large bright pink chevron stripes to one wall and bright pink curtains. We also changed the light fixture to more of a chandelier look. Thanks again for transforming this house that we know call our home!
Thank you so much for reaching out Nicole! I’m so glad you love the house and when we secretly drive by we love to see what great care you are taking of the yard 🙂 I’m sure you can guess where the blog name came from and that home was truly where I got the decorating itch. I love to hear that you love it as much as we did!!
Thanks for responding! We are very happy with the landscaping and yard. I’m glad that you are happy with how we are taking care of it! I truly love your decorating style and can’t wait to carry it on to the basement (whenever we get to it ????)! I definitely know where I will be looking for inspiration! Since our daughter’s room is the one room who didn’t get to do much to, I could email you some pictures if you would like to see it. Even though it has pink in it, I thought it tied in nicely with the rest of the house.
I love your dining room table. Where did you purchase it ???
Thank you! It was from Nebraska Furniture Mart a few years back.
I scan the realtor multi listings for decorating ideas and I fell in love with your house on Virginia street when it was listed. I live in the same neighborhood as your Virginia street house. We have changed out the builder grade finishes in most of every room. I’m still trying to deal with the ugly color of the cabinets in the kitchen but don’t know which way to go. I love your style and I’m still trying to sort mine out as it changes with the trends. It is really neat to have a blogger so local!
Thank you so much for checking out my blog! We still drive through that neighborhood occasionally because we still love it, and it’s always fun to see the changes 🙂
I realize this may be a shot in the dark since it’s been a few years… But do you happen to remember the brand and the color of the countertop in the kitchen? The house is beautiful!
I don’t – sorry! We built that house with a builder that basically had a handful of options and we pointed at the one we liked best. So I don’t have any brand specifics.
Hello! Love your curtains in the spare bedroom what pattern is it? And may I ask where you got them! They are brown and black or blue? Thank you!
Thank you! I got them from Z Gallerie about ten years ago, and they were brown and cream/tan. I hope that helps!