Renovations: Before and After!

FIRST- Memphis, please sign up now for your holiday photo session! I know it's not til November but I'm about to have an ad on a very popular Memphis website and I'm afraid slots will fill up fast after that.

In case you missed this post, we bought our little old 1950s home last June of '08. We had all intentions of doing a full-out home reno but due to monetary restrictions and occupied wombs, we decided just to do what we had to do to get by. So we renovated the kitchen, painted, etc. and were ready for baby boy #2 this past January. Don't get me wrong, we did A TON (and when I say we, I mean contractors and my dad and stepmom). But there were still a lot of loose ends and a lack of cohesion in my decor.

So here we are, a year and a bit later and we are ready to do some finishing touches. Priority #1 was defining a space that could be my office/play room. I was about to go in.sane. with no definition of space, a growing business, and 2 small children. I was not pleasant to be around most of the time.

Inspiration
The more I thought about my home, the more I realized that the things I'm drawn to are warm colors, natural elements, and a rustic look... And then I realized- I wanted to do a contemporary take on a Tuscan theme (which works out great since I'm Italian).

So my first taste of Tuscany came in choosing the backsplash. The nice thing about waiting a year to do some of these touches is because my taste totally changed for the look I wanted in my home. I originally was going to choose a green glass tile, but since deciding to go all Tuscan, I chose this natural split light travertine 5/8 stone (coincidentally from Memphis' Tuscany Tile). I wanted to carry the 'Botticino' color of the countertops up the walls in my tile. And I wanted it to go alllll the way up on the ventahood wall. I also wanted more of a division between the kitchen (which has new smooth drywalled ceilings) and the dining room (which has old nasty plaster textured ceilings). It just looked unfinished (to me) so I had my favorite contractor in the world Orlando construct an arch to be the go-between. Here's what it looked like after we first installed it last year:




And here it is now: (I took these pictures at night BTW)




You'll see that we took out the ceiling fan in the dining room and got a chandelier, busted out the shelves on the back wall as a feature wall, added can lights over that wall, added the arch, and got a new dining room table (Pier 1) after selling the big black one on Craig's.





Here's the backsplash:






That arch spurred the idea to do the arch off the entryway. Here is what the original wall looked like in case you forgot:






And here's what it looks like now:




(Ignore the fact that the canvas is hung off center; there was already a nail there and I was trying to see if I liked it in the entryway. I found this canvas at Bed, Bath, & Beyond).



Then, to solve my definition of space issue, we added a wall to go between the living room and new office/playroom space for definition. Here's what it was before. Just big wide open space. It was a catch-all type room that was great for storing folded laundry and miscellaneous toys, as well as unsorted mail. No longer, my friends.




And here's what it is now:

(wider angle shot from iPhone)




closer up shot:



Doors open:




We took out 2 of the cabinets in that built-in and left it open to be my desk. The cubbies on the top left were ones I already had and I'm just embracing the dark espresso, and then the 4 cubbies on the right I found at JCPenney and I'm embracing the off-whiteness. The bottom cabinets house the toys. Except the cabinet to the right of the desk is where I have my printer and paper shredder.

The view standing in my laundry room/mudroom looking into office:




The view sitting on the couch in the office/playroom: (we have a armoire in this room as well that will hold our other tv)


My newly organized cabinets:



(Note: I had a moment of self-realization after organizing these cabinets. Remember the book Berenstein Bears' Messy Room where they organize all their toys and label boxes and containers and things? Let's just say that was probably my favorite book as a child...I had totally forgotten about it until I looked at my finished product here.)


And then we got a new front door. Here's the original:



And here's the new one:



That's all I got peeps, hope you enjoy!