It’s finally time, friends! After putting our old house on the market 6 months ago, house-hunting for weeks, and living with my in-laws for 2 months, we finally have moved into our new house! *And there was much rejoicing and the sound of golden trumpets* PHEW! It’s been quite the process to move in Seattle’s ridiculously INSANE housing market. I’m surprised we even managed to get a house at all. Seriously, just google “Seattle” and “housing market” and you’ll see what I mean. Yowzah. But here we are, miraculously in a house that is newer and bigger than we were expecting *throws confetti* so that’s awesome.
So now I’m here to show off a tour of before photos so that you can see what the inside looks like and also get a feel for what I want to do in each space. There’s a lot I want to change, so that means lots of projects to post here on Dwell Beautiful! 😉 Excuse the crappy cell phone potato-quality photos – I snapped them as we were moving stuff in and had to be quick about it so I could get back to hauling boxes 🙂 Enjoy!
Entry Before
About the Space: The entry way opens up with lovely hand-scraped planks in the most gorgeous mid-tone wood/faux wood. There is a nifty little bench for putting on shoes and a ledge for keys and sunglasses.
What I Want to Do with It:
- Reupholster the bench cushion
- Add some sort of shoe storage
- Add decor and personal touches
Dining Room Before
About the Space: This dining area is actually pretty sizable and fits up to an 8ft long table. It has the same pretty wood floors as the entry. It’s sort of it’s own little nook that is off of the living room/kitchen.
What I Want to Do with It:
- Change out the curtains
- Lay down a big rug
- Add a bar cart and some sort of sideboard
- Add decor and artwork
Kitchen Before
About the Space: The kitchen is off of the living room and features dark wood cabinets, tan/khaki counters and large tile backsplash. It’s definitely not my style, but it’s nice to have a kitchen that is new and not falling apart! And for the first time in my life I have a real pantry! There is also a breakfast nook area to the right of the kitchen.
What I Want to Do with It:
- Eventually get the cabinets refinished/painted
- Change out the counter and backsplash
- Change out fixtures and pulls/knobs
- Add my signature tea/coffee bar
- Find mini table and chairs for breakfast
- Decorate with art and decor
Living Room Before
About the Space: It’s a carpeted (blargh) area that is just off the kitchen and dining room. It features a gas fireplace and some nice windows! You can see it when you enter the house and is a great entertaining area.
What I Want to Do with It:
- Eventually replace the carpet with more of the wood flooring (luckily there are a bunch of leftover boards in the garage!)
- Re-tile the fireplace surround with something more timeless/modern
- Add furniture, art, and decor
Master Bedroom Before
About the Space: The master is at the top of the stairs and is a nice sizable room with a big window and an attached en suite and closet. It’s carpeted (like basically the whole house, which sucks), but is neutrally painted and has some nice crown moulding.
What I Want to Do with It:
- Eventually replace the carpet with hardwoods
- Get rid of the boob light for something more stylish and fun
- Maybe add an accent wall with shiplap
- Add furniture, decor, and art
Master Bathroom Before
About the Space: I’ve never had a full-size master bathroom in my life! Apartments always have small shared bathrooms, and then even at our last house our master bathroom was the size of a pantry, didn’t have double sinks, or a separate tub. So the size of this space is a dream!
What I Want to Do with It:
- Replace the tile floors with more modern/timeless tile
- Have the cabinets refinished/painted
- Change out the hardware and knobs/pulls
- New sinks and lighting
- Replace the counter/backsplash
- Change out the mirrors and add some open shelving between the sinks
- Reconfigure the tub/shower area – I want to bump out the shower farther towards the window and re-tile, the install a claw foot tub perpendicular to the shower
Master Closet Before
About the Space: Pretty standard builder-grade master closet with plain closet fixtures. Still, it’s the biggest closet I’ve ever had in my life! In our last house, we didn’t even have a real master closet, just sort of a cut out area that we did our best to makeover.
What I Want to Do to It:
- Add some custom closet organization
- Make the space functional and stylish
Laundry Room Before
About the Space: Second story laundrryyyy bayybayyyyy! The laundry room is right next to the master bedroom which is sweet. Equipped with nice machines and basic storage.
What I Want to Do with It:
- Re-tile the floors
- Add a feature wall – tile, backsplash, shiplap??
- Replace shelving with more stylish and functional storage
- Make an area for the cat food and litter to go
2 Middle Bedrooms Befores
About the Space(s): Okay, so there are two basically identical bedrooms upstairs, they are just mirrored, so I only showed pictures of one. Pretty basic – window, closet, carpet.
What I Want to Do with Them:
- Replace carpet with hardwood
- Add new knobs on the closets
- Add curtains
- Figure out what these rooms are going to be and decorate/paint accordingly (fingers crossed that one will eventually be a nursery and the other will likely be Nate’s offices)
Upstairs Bathroom
About this space: Pretty standard guest bathroom with builder-grade finishes and style throughout. The counters are super tall and the tub has a nice ledge in it.
What I Want to Do with It:
- Retile the floor
- Have the cabinets refinished/repainted
- Change out the sink and lighthing
- Replace hardware, fixtures, and knobs/pulls
- Replace the counter and backsplash
- Change out the giant mirror and add some additional storage
Craft Room Before
About this Space: So this is the tiniest bedroom in the house (I mean, you could fit a twin bed and dresser in here, but not a ton else), and it is at the front of the house. I have claimed it as my crafting room/office and I’m excited to create in here!
What I Want to Do with It:
- Change out the curtains
- Replace the carpet with hardwood
- Add craft storage
- Add art and decor
Bonus Room Before
About the Space: The last room on the upper floor is the bonus room, which is a big space at the front of the house with no closet, but does have a nice big window and loads of room. We might keep the carpet in this room instead of changing it out as it might potentially be a playroom someday
What I Want to Do with It:
- Construct a built-in bench under the window and built-in bookcases on either side for a library feel/area
- Set up a small workout area that can somehow be hidden
- Add furniture and decor
Basement Living Space Before
About this Space: This house is freaking ginormous and has 3 stories, so we also have a walkout/daylight basement. TBH I’m kind of freaking how I’m going to fill all of this space! Still it’s super nice to have. You come down the stairs and there area a couple of closets (the doors you see in the space above), and a big open space with a slider that leads to the backyard.
What I Want to Do With It:
- Install a projector and turn this space into a theater/game-watching lounge
- Put our giant 13 foot couch along the wall
- Install amenities for watching football games (snack bar, drink cart, etc.)
- Add additional furniture, art, and decor
Basement Guest Suite Before
About this Space: Off of the basement living area there is a bedroom and a bathroom. The previous owners were using it as an office, but we are going to turn it into a guest suite so people can have their own space when they come to visit! Pretty standard bedroom and an identical bathroom to the one upstairs.
What I Want to Do with It:
- Take down all the weird leftover shelving in the guest room
- Add furniture, decor, art, and amenities
- Same spiel for this bathroom as the one upstairs – basically gut and replace everything!
Random Giant Closet Before
About this Space: One of the closets in the basement is actually pretty enormous and strange. You could fit a twin mattress in here easily. I suppose it’s for additional storage (or making Harry Potter live here) but we already have so much other storage space that we don’t really need it for that purpose.
What I Want to Do with It:
- Hubby had the awesome idea of turning this space into like a little speakeasy/bar area. It backs the bathroom so we would be able to pipe water in for a little wet bar, so I think it would make a cool little setup with bottles for shelves and maybe even a little bistro table!
- To add to the speakeasy feel, I want to add a faux bookcase to the outside of the door so that you don’t know that it’s there. How cool would that be??
And that my friends, is the extremely long winded tour of our new house! Pretty neat, huh? We live in a nice little neighborhood that is muuchhh closer to Nate’s work and we already have some friends from church who live right down the street! So nice to have built-in friends in the community 🙂 It’s still taking some time to get used to being in a new space, but we are excited for this new adventure and to share it all with you! <3
What’s your favorite space in our new house?
It’s absolutely perfect! I cannot wait to follow along as you make it your own my friend!
Thanks so much, Kristi! It’s fun (but also overwhelming!) to have such a large blank canvas! We will see where it takes us! 😀
So much space!!!!! You’re going to lovefilling it up and making it your own. Such a great space for kids to run around and entertain guests in. Having space for people to comfortably spend the night (without making them stay in an office) is SO NICE. Yay!! So happy for you all.
There definitely is a ton of space! Figuring out how to fill it all up will be the challenging part! Glad to have a separate guest area, though – definitely useful! PS SO exciting on your property! It’s gorgeous. Can’t wait to come visit 🙂