One of My Favourite House Transformations: Client Reveal

This was a pretty special transformation for me. While I love working with all my clients, this client gets a bit of extra love -- he is my brother after all!

He and his family just purchased this house, but it was feeling a little 'old' for their style. They asked me to help them freshen up their kitchen and living room/dining area and entry it turned into one of my favourite transformations.

This was going to be a true DIY-driven makeover. Being that they lived in a small town and I was only there for a couple of weeks, we had limited resources and time to get things done.

Kitchen Before

The kitchen was a great size and had been renovated probably in the '90s. There were no upper cabinets on the one side of the kitchen already giving it a more modern look which I knew we could work with. There were also open shelves hung up, even though they were dated I liked the idea of them still being there, but we would make a much more updated DIY version of some shelving. Also, that horrible mirror behind the shelves would definitely be going!

Living/Dining Room Before

The living room was also quite dark with the red paint and they were looking for more storage in the room. I loved the symmetry of the two windows around the fireplace and immediately thought of a way to take advantage of the windows and provide more storage. The open concept between the living and dining was another great feature of this house, but in its current state, it just needed a few minor updates to give it more of an updated feel. These rooms were surrounded by plenty of incredible windows with views of the surrounding mountains!

Entry Way Before

This front door entry area was a good size. At this point, there was an oversized armoire taking up most of the space and not a lot of room to walk into the area. The lighting was also too ornate and would have to go and it just felt very dark and unwelcoming.

The Design

This design was all about brightening up the rooms, making them feel more modernized for the young family.

Kitchen

For the kitchen, I thought about adding a shiplap wall above all the lower cabinets. Also making DIY wood shelves to replace the current ones and painting the shiplap behind those shelves to add a contrasting black. The lights would all get replaced, the ceiling painted a fresh white, and all the original hardware spray painted black. I also had an idea to paint out all the blue countertops white as well!! You can check out how I do that here.

Living Room

My idea for the living room was to paint the brick out on the fireplace, place affordable storage cabinets under each window, paint out all the walls in a calming light shade, add new lighting and drapes and accessories and use a large empty wall to display family pictures.

Entry

For the entryway, I wanted to show them a few options. One idea was to demonstrate an affordable quick turn design. Adding a shoe cabinet from Ikea to serve for storage and as an entry console, and creating a dressing zone with a simple DIY bench we could make, hanging a mirror above and adding some practical hooks. There would also be a sofa backing onto the entry to act almost like a wall to further help separate this area from the open living room.

In another design, we could go with a more substantial wardrobe, but not too large it takes up the space and still hang up a mirror and add a bench. We will paint out the inside of the front door too to create more of a dramatic contrast against our new wall colour and visually making this area stand on its own.

The Results!

Now for the best part....the afters!! These spaces came together so well and my brother and his young family couldn't be more happy and thankful with all of the hard work we put in making all of these rooms come alive again! Everything now reflects their style and we managed to pull it all together in 2 weeks on a teeny tiny budget!

This turned out to be one of my favourite transformations! To create a focal point in the room, I did a black shiplap treatment, something you can do for $100-$300 in a space like this, and replaced the open shelving with a few new shelves I created. This looks so amazing against the newly painted countertops and painted ceiling, giving the kitchen a much younger, modern look.

Eventually, the cabinets are going to be replaced so we cleaned them up and spray painted the hardware to match the black shiplap. We kept the shiplap theme around the rest of the kitchen, using white to keep the space bright and airy.

I am just so in love with this black shiplap look! We also freshened up the lighting fixtures in the kitchen and dining area and gave the dining area a fresh coat of paint.

In the living room, we carried the same paint colour through (goodbye red!) and did a fresh coat of paint on the fireplace. It's honestly so amazing to see what just a couple of coats of paint can do to a room!

To help with the added storage, I found cabinets from the Canvas line at Canadian Tire that fit under each window perfectly.

We did purchase some new furniture and changed the room layout to add additional seating to the space, but still, keep the fireplace and windows the main show of the living room.

In the dining room we refinished a table and chairs we found on a local buy and sell site and it worked perfectly in their dining room.

In the entry (which they are still finishing up), they decided to go with the first design and use the Ikea shoe cabinet and make their own DIY bench to fit the space. They still plan to add a few finishing details, but already it looks so much more updated and useful!

I was so happy to help my brother and his family out with their new home! Now they just have to get used to me coming over all the time to admire their new decor!