When it came time to buying a new home my husband and I were faced with many decisions...the big one being - where were we going to move? For months we considered our options and in the end we decided to stay in the same community...a place my husband has called home for nearly 30 years and a community I have grown to love over the past decade. After nearly one year of searching for homes...we found one that was close to perfect. It had a beautiful property and was situated on a quiet court. It was ideal for raising a family...the downfall - it looked like it had been decorated in the 90s and left that way for the past 25 years. It didn't matter though. We fell in love with the home and knew that over the years we could make it our own. It would be a work in progress...and so the journey began - almost right away!
Our first Christmas in the house we renovated the family room, next on the list was the nursery. I had so much fun decorating bedrooms for Hudson and Georgia (in the old house) - I wanted our newest addition to have a special bedroom as well! We've just recently finished our biggest home reno to date. What started as a simple renovation in the kitchen to fix a torn wall, turned into a fairly large endeavor! We decided to paint nearly half the house! It's hard to envision without knowing the layout of the house, but basically once we started, we couldn't stop! Our home has a very open concept and painting one room (the kitchen), meant we had to paint the hallway, entryway and into the upstairs. This made choosing a colour extremely challenging. My hubby and I had to pick a colour that looked good in all types of lighting (natural and artificial) - because the colour was going to carry throughout the home. Some areas within the home have lots of natural lighting, while other areas have very little to none, depending on the time of day. We both agreed that we wanted gray - but there were hundreds of grays to choose from.
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| Benjamin Moore offers so many beautiful colours! I'm very happy we spent a little extra time deciding. |
How did we make our choice:
We chose Benjamin Moore paint (we've used it with all our home renos over the past 10 years and been very satisfied).
We researched the latest trends in home décor (we spoke with several people in home design and found some great advice online as well as through Pinterest).
We tried to envision what we wanted our home to look like in 5 years and recognized this reno as the beginning.
We bought a lot of samples - and didn't end up choosing any of those colours - ha! But we did learn that it's ok to go a little darker.
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| We spent about $40 dollars on samples but it was worth it! It helped us realize we needed to do a little more research before making the final choice. |
In the end we chose Benjamin Moore's Balboa Mist...actually in the end I chose balboa mist - my husband decided it was best if he left the final decision up to me - ha! I think he was trying to avoid being blamed for choosing the wrong colour. Besides, we had narrowed it down to about 3 colours - and they were all very similar.
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| The Winner! |
Here are some photos illustrating the before, during and after shots of our home reno:
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| Our entire main floor had walls that looked like this...Wainscoting everywhere! It all came down...we wanted a fresh start and clean walls! This was a huge job involving lots of patch work (filling in several holes and sanding). Most of the wainscoting had been clued to the drywall - so taking it off left quite the mess! |
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| Newly painted ceilings! ...and here's Alex (a good friend of ours - he did all the renos) |
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| Our new light fixture (Our inspiration can be see below). We found this one at Home Depot. It was in our price range and available for store pick up - double bonus! It's very rustic...but this a look we are eventually hoping to achieve in our kitchen someday. |
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| The hallway. |
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| The entryway and into the upstairs. |
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| The finished kitchen...and our dog Cody:) |
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| Entryway and front door. |
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| Staircase and into the upstairs. |
Now that the walls are painted...the fun really begins - Time to decorate! Of course we'll be taking our time with this process but it helps to have a vision and some goals. The following are photos that provided some inspiration and direction along this journey. I'm sure we'll continue to gather ideas as we make this house our home, but these photographs offer a starting point and a glimpse of our future home goals! Lots of rustic charm...
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| I just love the look of these dark floors contrasting against the light gray walls. |
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| Check out the chandelier...similar to the one we bought! |
Inspiration for our next major Home Reno - the kitchen (a few years away for sure!)...
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| Open concept kitchen...I love the stone detail. |
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| Beautiful floors! |
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| A DIY project someday! Rustic Kitchen table. |
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| Again, I love the stone and granite counter tops! |
It's all about the baby steps - here are some ideas we plan to incorporate into our home in the near future...
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| Our pantry is in the basement but I love this door! ...maybe for the main floor laundry room. |
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| We need a small table to put in our front entrance. We got rid of a little black shelf which we used to put our keys and other random items on. |
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| Another DIY project. I'm thinking for the hallway! Surrounded by photos of our children...and our dog Cody! |
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| Wooden rustic lockers in our front entryway. These are a must! I've always wanted them after seeing them in a friend's home. I think they're great for larger families and trying to stay organized. |
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| For the kitchen...I think I would prefer a wooden one and one that is a little thinner, but this photo gives a general idea. |
Sometimes I wish we could have moved into a perfectly decorated home, but then I remember we have 3 little kids and the reality is things get ruined! It's best to take our time making this house our dream home. In the meantime, we couldn't be happier living where we are. We are truly blessed to have such a beautiful home and wonderful family.
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