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Hi Friends! First of all, Happy New Year! I started this blog post in December, but the holidays got the best of me and I just didn’t have time to finish. So better late than never, right? 🙂 Let’s take a look at the changes and progress since we built our home two years ago.
In early December 2017, we closed on our custom home. It felt like it took forever to complete (about a year) but we love it even more than we did the day we moved in. So, I thought it would be fun to highlight a few then vs. now to see how the spaces have changed. Who doesn’t love a before and after?? The following three photos are mostly from the same point of view. Construction, move in and current.
We replaced the doorknobs on our french doors to some antique gold ones from Emtek. We bought new furniture, which you can read about in this post and we swapped out our white shelves in our built-ins for some rustic wood ones that I stained to match our hardwood floors. I’ll share more of those details further down in this post.
The photos below are our upstairs hallway the night before we moved in vs. now. Mostly decor but not a lot of change in this space.
Sorry for the night photos, but this is our entry/staircase and the window in our stairwell is quite squatty and shorter than I like. I’m not entirely sure why I didn’t notice while we were building! Well, it bugged me enough to think of a way to disguise it and it’s with outside mount roman shades. We just hung them closer to the ceiling to give the illusion of height, but the folds actually end where the window sill starts. They do go all the way down, but they’ll stay stationary.
Below is a photo during the construction, the day we moved in and current. Again, we changed out the door knobs on the french doors, and we also replaced the original kitchen island lighting for some lanterns.
This is from the point of view of our entry. See how our door knobs disappeared? Opps.
Entry
Here are a few other photos of our current entry from a different perspective looking into our dining room and living room.
Pantry
We had the standard wire shelving in our pantry, but that changed in August of this year and I love our new pantry!
Island Pendants
As I mentioned, I switched out the kitchen island lighting in exchange for oversized lanterns. I like the original ones, but felt they were too small for our 9 foot island. Now I think I want to change the lighting over our breakfast nook. Lol
Powder Room
Our half bathroom got a makeover too, for about $120 and done in less than an hour! Added some decals and swapped out the mirror. Check out this post for all the details.
Backyard
This photo of our deck is just embarrassing. We moved our existing patio furniture from our first home and the scale was completely off. What color is that umbrella?! I swear it was an ivory color, but it looks peachy pink. Yikes. Luckily, it was destroyed in a storm. Lol But we purchased some new patio furniture and gave this space some much needed personality.
Our daughter’s playset got a makeover and it looks even better now, but I will wait for Spring to show that along with some other changes. 🙂
Living Room
As I mentioned, we bought new furniture for the downstairs living room. The first photo is the before. You’ll notice the change in the shelving and doorknobs too.
Upstairs Living Room
Our upstairs living room also got some new chairs and decor. Here is the before right after we moved in:
Mudroom
This makes me laugh because I knew what I wanted, so I had my husband draw a sketch of it. But I’d say he did a pretty good job! The other side of this room is laundry, but I am changing that up now, so stay tuned. 🙂
Master Bedroom
Ew, the photo is bad and I don’t like anything about it. This was right after we moved in, so we changed this up relatively quickly. Lol
Sorry for all of the randomness, but these are the main spaces where things have evolved the most. I think it’s fun to look at the changes and progress since we built our home two years ago. Laundry room (adding a countertop over washer/dryer), backyard (huge changes!), upstairs living room (adding built-ins and a desk) and master bathroom (wallpaper) are on our list for 2020!
7 Responses
You know I love your style! Questions: 1) Do you keep a table runner on your dining room table all year and do you change it out seasonally? 2) How do I determine if I have too many little things around? I’d like to be more of a minimalist. 3) Any fake flowers or trees in your house? Thank you!!
(I see vases with things and assume they aren’t real, but maybe you cut things from outside)
Haha I can’t keep a plant alive…But we have a huge real one in a corner of our kitchen and I am not sure how it’s thriving. I use empty water bottles when I remember, but it’s a miracle. I have dried hydrangeas on my island counter that are real but require no watering. Lol Most of my faux greenery is from Pottery Barn, Michael’s or Hobby Lobby. I switch it out a lot too.
Yea, I leave it there but I like it without it too. It’s a cheap one from Amazon!
Happy 2nd house anniversary, as always, the house looks wonderful – comfy yet elegant!
Your house is beautiful, great job!
Just wanted to say huzzah. Good for u. Great job. And u rock. When did u know u had this gift?? I have a few things i always wanted to do. I have decided that im going to go for it.. Looking at what u do and have done. U r in the right field and it shows. I want to write novel and screenplays. So there u go. God bless katie ???
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