living room before

Apartment: Before Pictures & Plans

Since I’m up to my eyeballs in apartment renovations, you’ll be seeing quite a few posts of our progress leading up to the reveal. Please bear with me until I get to the fun/creative/decorating stuff…I can’t wait for that part myself! It’s the reward for the dirty work, isn’t it? I shared the first project yesterday {sanding floors} and here is the apartment “before-before” and after cleaning/’in progress’ but before paint. Got that? lol It’s just the before pictures before and after cleaning, before and after sanding hardwood floors.

Everything got a bath. E.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g! It went from disgusting to clean. As you can tell, someone was a heavy indoor cigarette smoker. Thankfully with washing/scrubbing everything, sanding floors and primer+paint, airing out and sitting empty for quite a while, the smell will diminish. I apologize in advance for these ‘before’ cleaning pictures. I did spare you worse ones, I promise!

Okay, ready?

Dirty kitchen ‘before’ and before cleaning…{gag…what is the brown stuff all over the walls? Tobacco? Cooking grease? Coke explosion? Maybe we don’t want to know!}

rental kitchen before

All cleaned up and in progress…ready to move forward

  • paint ceiling {done!}
  • paint walls
  • paint trim
  • paint cabinets
  • redo countertop
  • storage and organizing solutions
  • thrifty furnishings
  • decorate!

There’s a paint fest going on! Envious, aren’t ya?

clean kitchen before

Pantry under the stairs – before

apartment pantry

Apartment before then ‘after’ cleaned/sanded…

wall 1

apartment living room entryway before

living room before

wall 2

living room before

apartment makeover - before

wall 3 – dirty before

apartment living room before

in progress…

apartment before

{You just turned 360 degrees and saw the entire first floor!}

Stairs are so narrow with a bend…we’ll have to get creative with upstairs furniture/getting furniture up!

before:

apartment stairs before

  • clean (done as of yesterday)
  • sanded (done as of yesterday)
  • stain stair treads
  • fun paint technique on the risers
  • paint trim and ceiling
  • patch ceiling/trim

Someone obviously wasn’t too careful with moving furniture out {it’s a super tight squeeze and odd angle for furniture} and tore off the trim and part of the ceiling on the way down…uh oh!

trim before

I love the vintage light fixture hanging in the hallway upstairs…

vintage light fixture

  • patch and paint ceiling
  • fun idea for the small wall space coming up!

Bathroom needs a complete overhaul, but we’ll see what’s in the budget. Hate.hate.hate the faux tile walls and yellowed tub surround. Actually, I hate it all! I may be able to get away with a new floor, vanity and lighting but that’s probably all we can manage financially for right now. Those walls and tub surround have to stay for now. Wahhhh!

  • new flooring
  • new baseboard trim
  • new vanity
  • new mirror/medicine cabinet
  • storage solutions
  • new lighting
  • paint
  • caulking
  • decorating!

This bathroom is so tiny, the sink/vanity only leaves a small entrance…

apartment bathroom before makeover

Bedroom before…

apartment bedroom before

who paints half a room and walks away?

apartment bedroom before

After will turn this small room into 3 areas:

  • office/study area
  • bedroom for one
  • dressing room

Improving with every little bit of TLC and elbow grease. Ah, progress. Still a ways to go, but getting started is always the tough part for me and we’ve passed that goal! 😉
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