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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DIY Nursery Reveal (and more) – The House of Wood

I love meeting “new-to-me” DIY blog friends. I just recently met Jen from The House of Wood. Jen is a songwriter. When she’s not writing, recording or touring, she is enjoying everything life has to offer with her husband and growing family. Being 7 months pregnant hasn’t stopped Jen from DIY-ing! She loves DIY as much as we do and she just calls it “nesting” so she doesn’t get any grief from her husband. haha!

The House of Wood

She looks so cute too with her safety glasses and little baby bump (had to include this picture too, Jen!)

Jen

Her little girl’s room is super sweet and packed full of DIY projects.

Yellow and Gray Birdie Nursery Tour – a full nursery tour with a bunch of DIY projects involved: curtains, crib skirt, pillows, bookshelf, bunting, mobile, and more! Visit Jen’s original post for links to the ‘how to’ for each project and full details. 

DIY nursery reveal

yellow nursery DIY

nursery makeover

DIY nursery reveal

DIY nursery gallery wall

Adorable!

There are so many other great DIY projects at The House of Wood. Here are just a a couple sneak peeks:

Restoration Hardware Night Stand Knock Off Tutorial

DIY restoration hardware inspired end tables

DIY Box Planter Tutorial

DIY box planters

Go ahead – you’re invited to stop over, introduce yourself, say ‘hello’ and be inspired.

The House of Wood

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One room, multi-functional – a makeover story {dining room/home office}

Meet: Sweet Monica from Monica Wants It. I’ve e-known Monica and her amazing DIY talents for quite a while. I’m super excited to ‘show off’ her most recent project. This girl (and her hubby) put in some long hours and hard work and it’s well did an amazing job!

Combined Home Office/Dining Room Makeover

They started with a room which is a combined home office and dining room with dark paneling, wall paper and nothing Monica’s style…

before

dark cabinets and paneling before

They took down the cabinets, removed the dark paneling and stripped old wallpaper…

old panelingold wallpaper

put the cabinets back, gave them a fresh new look with paint, new countertops and hardware.

in progress…

painting cabinets

after

painted cabinets

Huge difference from the old dark before…

painted cabinets

They painted the walls and installed crown molding. The installed new flooring and swapped out the ceiling fan. Makes you crave a break just reading about it, doesn’t it?

DIY room makeover

Then Monica worked her decorating magic…

Wow!

home office

My favorite of her DIY decorative accents is this chair

chair makeover

and framing Restoration Hardware catalog pages…brilliant and so pretty!

DIY framed Restoration Hardware catalog page

The entire room is a beautiful place to entertain, dine, work, relax…I might even sleep in there!

DIY dining room makeover

dining room makeover

dining room makeover

What do you think? It’s so hard to believe it’s the same space. Glam and comfy and so functional! Love it! There is so much more to see! Pop over to see the full original post with more pictures and details at

Monica Wants It

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