Little House in TerryTown
My last full home renovation project was a 1940's bungalow in beautiful TerryTown Austin. I loved this little house but at 850 sq ft it just wasn't big enough. All the of the design and decisions you see were my own and the majority of the interior renovation work was done by my husband and myself.
Exterior/Foundation
The foundation of the house had to be completely redone (it is a pier and beam structure and was still sitting on TREE stumps... bark, limbs and all) and the leaky metal roof replaced.
Besides that most of what was done of the outside of the house was cosmetic. We had a crew strip all the paint off the outside of the house and had them add a craftsman style "sunburst" over the porch, then paint the entire house a sunshine yellow with white accent trim.
My husband replaced the rotted 4x4 pillars on each side of the porch with beautiful tapered columns and then we had amazing professional landscaping done by French Landscaping Design for the landscaping and stonework
A new door, antique mailbox and pop of red furniture finished it off.
Besides that most of what was done of the outside of the house was cosmetic. We had a crew strip all the paint off the outside of the house and had them add a craftsman style "sunburst" over the porch, then paint the entire house a sunshine yellow with white accent trim.
My husband replaced the rotted 4x4 pillars on each side of the porch with beautiful tapered columns and then we had amazing professional landscaping done by French Landscaping Design for the landscaping and stonework
A new door, antique mailbox and pop of red furniture finished it off.
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Living Room
For the living room we wanted to continue to play up the Craftsman theme, there were no quaint details in the house whatsoever when we bought it and it did not even have a fireplace or chimney!
We were determined to have the charm of a fireplace so decided on a vent free fireplace that just needed a gas hookup but produces real flame. We were extremely lucky and found someone on Craiglist in our area selling the exact model we were wanting so managed to save a lot on that! We had a "dummy" bump out built for the fireplace to mimic a chimney and set it up so all the TV cabling would be hidden inside the fake chimney. We finished with a very traditional fireplace surround (made out of drywall, 1x6 pine and some decorative molding) completed with ultra traditional 1x1 gree onyx tiles, then crowned it with heavy dental molding.
From there we custom designed the wainscott to match with the traditional theme. The wainscott looks like a million bucks but was surprisingly easy and inexpensive to do. We had already gotten all the drywall redone with a flat finish so we just used 1x6 pine boards against the floor (with our 4" baseboard over the top so there were two inches showing above the baseboard), then 1x4 pine for the top edge with 2" chair rail casing the top so there were 2" showing below, and then used 2x1 trim boards for the slats in between. Once all that was done we painted it a glossy white to match the rest of the trim in the house.
We were determined to have the charm of a fireplace so decided on a vent free fireplace that just needed a gas hookup but produces real flame. We were extremely lucky and found someone on Craiglist in our area selling the exact model we were wanting so managed to save a lot on that! We had a "dummy" bump out built for the fireplace to mimic a chimney and set it up so all the TV cabling would be hidden inside the fake chimney. We finished with a very traditional fireplace surround (made out of drywall, 1x6 pine and some decorative molding) completed with ultra traditional 1x1 gree onyx tiles, then crowned it with heavy dental molding.
From there we custom designed the wainscott to match with the traditional theme. The wainscott looks like a million bucks but was surprisingly easy and inexpensive to do. We had already gotten all the drywall redone with a flat finish so we just used 1x6 pine boards against the floor (with our 4" baseboard over the top so there were two inches showing above the baseboard), then 1x4 pine for the top edge with 2" chair rail casing the top so there were 2" showing below, and then used 2x1 trim boards for the slats in between. Once all that was done we painted it a glossy white to match the rest of the trim in the house.
Dining/Kitchen
The original kitchen was extremely small and cramped and was completely non-functional so we blew out the wall between the dining room and kitchen. and extended the kitchen into the dining room getting much needed square feet, as well as closing up the back door through the kitchen and a door into the master bedroom from the kitchen (which was weird anyways!). Off the bat we had all the plumbing and electrical in the house redone so we were ready to go on that front. Now that we had a more functional footprint and good electric and plumbing we were able to turn to design.
We used Ikea cabinets and saved a fortune. This is my second Ikea kitchen remodel and I really do love their cabinets. Especially the drawers! I spent a lot of time working in the Ikea kitchen app to completely redesign the kitchen and appliance placement. For the back splash we went with white beveled subway tile with a dark ground and an accent strip of glass and honey onyx then splurged on an amazing granite called "Onxy" since it had so many of the onyx colors and clear sparkly crystals embedded in it.
I was set on a giant farmhouse sink (which we ended up procuring through Ikea as well) but I wanted more of a furniture look for the base of it. After a lot of 'Ikea Hacking' I was able to build the 36" cabinet to accept 30" doors using matching toe kick. Ikea does not have the leg spindles so I took a small door up to Home Depot and found one of their fancy cabinet options that offers those kind of decorative details and used my sample door to get a good color match, then ordered the spindles. And Voila! custom look :)
We stole a TINY, unusable closet from the master bedroom and turned it into a great pantry. Topped the dining room with a sparkley chandelier (and can lighting for the entire space), got a nice round table for better flow and the kitchen was complete!
We used Ikea cabinets and saved a fortune. This is my second Ikea kitchen remodel and I really do love their cabinets. Especially the drawers! I spent a lot of time working in the Ikea kitchen app to completely redesign the kitchen and appliance placement. For the back splash we went with white beveled subway tile with a dark ground and an accent strip of glass and honey onyx then splurged on an amazing granite called "Onxy" since it had so many of the onyx colors and clear sparkly crystals embedded in it.
I was set on a giant farmhouse sink (which we ended up procuring through Ikea as well) but I wanted more of a furniture look for the base of it. After a lot of 'Ikea Hacking' I was able to build the 36" cabinet to accept 30" doors using matching toe kick. Ikea does not have the leg spindles so I took a small door up to Home Depot and found one of their fancy cabinet options that offers those kind of decorative details and used my sample door to get a good color match, then ordered the spindles. And Voila! custom look :)
We stole a TINY, unusable closet from the master bedroom and turned it into a great pantry. Topped the dining room with a sparkley chandelier (and can lighting for the entire space), got a nice round table for better flow and the kitchen was complete!
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Master Bedroom
Since we stole a little closet from the master bedroom we had to figure out how to replace storage. After closing up the holes left from removing the closet and closing off the door to the kitchen we went with an Ikea closet solution but again, we had to modify the solution to get what we wanted. We knew we needed a little space for nick-nacks and a TV so planned the solution around that. We got two of their largest sliding closet doors the cabinets to go with them. We also got their longest sliding door kit (which is the width of the two doors put together). We had decided that we wanted to add an open space between the cabinets using a matching Ikea kitchen cabinet so needed more length than the rails supported. We were able to find an open set of rails in their "discount" section and set to work cobbling the rails together to extend the width. Once that was done we added the center section (the kitchen cabinet) and used drawer slides for the large door and set it up as a laundry hamper. Added some shelving, painted it to match the doors and we were set with the closet.
For the room proper we didn't have to do much more than add a quick chair rail using a contrasting color, then some size appropriate furniture and we were set.
For the room proper we didn't have to do much more than add a quick chair rail using a contrasting color, then some size appropriate furniture and we were set.
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Bathroon
From the "before" picture I know the bathroom dosn't look bad, but believe me, in person it was HORRIBLE with gross dirt caked into every surface. With the exception of the original marble hex tile there wasn't a single redeeming thing to say about that bathroom.
So we gutted it.
Once everything was down we realized that the half window was actually a full window and they just covered up half of it in the wall! We opened that back up to get more daylight in (using a privacy film on the bottom half). Added an AMAZING Jacuzzi brand tub.We went with the matching subway tile with glass/onyx accents we used for the kitchen, a great furniture look vanity, new toilet, then standard beadboard wainscott in bright white and a lovely green to complete the serene feeling.
We stole the original linen closet for a laundry space (see "Front Bedroom") so lost that important space. We were able to store towels in the open space on the vanity but that still left a lot of things homeless... SO, we got creative and created a full length 6" deep cabinet using the dead space in the drywall.
So we gutted it.
Once everything was down we realized that the half window was actually a full window and they just covered up half of it in the wall! We opened that back up to get more daylight in (using a privacy film on the bottom half). Added an AMAZING Jacuzzi brand tub.We went with the matching subway tile with glass/onyx accents we used for the kitchen, a great furniture look vanity, new toilet, then standard beadboard wainscott in bright white and a lovely green to complete the serene feeling.
We stole the original linen closet for a laundry space (see "Front Bedroom") so lost that important space. We were able to store towels in the open space on the vanity but that still left a lot of things homeless... SO, we got creative and created a full length 6" deep cabinet using the dead space in the drywall.
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Front Bedroom
The ront bedroom didn't need much after new all new drywall as installed. The big project in here was adding a laundry area. This little 1940's house did not have anywhere for a washing machine and/or dryer. So we again stole some closet space - this time from the original linen closet in the bathroom- and combined it with the closet already in this bedroom to create a much larger space, then had the water and electric run to here (which was pretty painless since it is directly behind the bathtub). We were able to squeeze in a stacking HE washer and dryer perfectly by going with thin 3/8" drywall for the closet instead of the 1/2" for the rest of the house.
With a double hanging rod opposite of the washer/dryer there was still as much hanging space as the original layout.
With a double hanging rod opposite of the washer/dryer there was still as much hanging space as the original layout.
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The End
With all the work finally done we had a sizable yard with lush green grass and nice tree cover.
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