Alright, my friends… I’m super excited to share this project with you, because, well, it was our first house! My hubs and I bought this home on the East side of Colorado Springs in an adorable little starter neighborhood and we spent four beautiful years there living life and raising our two precious kiddos. When we bought this place, there was a lot to be desired. It was a bank-owned house (read: killer deal + A CRUD TON OF WORK), and we knew that it couldn’t stay the same if we were going to raise a family there. There were safety hazards galore and style hazards aplenty. Before we even moved in, we spent three months planning and renovating it just to get it up to a “functional/livable” standard, and the next four years were spent chipping away at the rest. By the time we sold it, I’m proud to say that this house was a totally different house; it was safe for a new family to live in, it was beautiful, clean and inspiring, and we felt we had done some good for our neighborhood by taking care of our place and passing it on to someone else who would take great care of it too.
The list of improvements we made to the house is loooong, but out of all the things we did, here are the top 5 things that I feel made the biggest noticeable difference:
1. PAINT:
For real, people. I know everyone says it, but paint inside and out made this place feel brand new, even though it was built in the early 90’s and was SUPER GROSS when we bought it. Here are some before and afters of our kitchen and you’ll see what I mean. Notice, we didn’t have crazy expensive new cabinetry, appliances or accessories, but the paint made everything look and feel fresh.
2. REMOVE UNNECESSARY WALLS:
Open floor plans are all the rage these days, and it’s for good reason. An open floor plan promotes togetherness. Before, whoever was cooking during a dinner party was banned to the kitchen and separated, but now, we see cooking and conversation and party-having happening simultaneously in the same space and I love that! Now, we couldn’t afford to replace flooring right away when we moved in, so my solution was to take the wall between the kitchen/dining room down by 1/2 and put a butcherblock countertop on top of it to create a breakfast peninsula. I really love how it turned out!! Budget friendly + totally changed the feel of the space.
3. FLOORING:
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; If you have gross, old carpet everywhere, get that junk out ASAP! It makes everything cleaner, smell better, and look better too.
4. REMODEL YOUR FOCAL POINT FIRST:
Find the focal point of the space you’re wanting a change in – that should be one of your biggest priorities! This remodel wasn’t anything massive. We just took the (crazy huge!) hearth out and tiled the floor in front of the fireplace instead, tiled the face of it and painted the rest. A few hundred bucks later and we had ourselves a sleek, modern looking fireplace + more space for seating in our teeny tiny living room now that the huge hearth was gone.
5. LIGHTING:
We added can lights and pendant lights around the house. The right lighting can take a cave-like space and turn it into a bright & happy sanctuary.
So, there it is! To see the rest of the before an afters, check out my gallery here. Crazy how much a place can change with a little love and elbow grease. Drop me a comment below and let me know some of your favorite simple ways to bring about a big transformation! I’d love to hear some more ideas.
Xoxo,
Alyssa