Big Reveal: a month of home improvements!

Our month of renovations started with a bang, a chisel and a lot of dust!

We ripped up the original marble foyer tile...

and replaced it with granite and travertine limestone.

Our 21 year old white kitchen was replaced with...

stained cabinets and granite counter tops,

black appliances turned to stainless steel,

we added new knobs and handles,

and a porcelain tile back splash.

Our 9 year old red sofa got a face lift...

and turned a soft sage green.

Our faded red striped chair and ottoman...

was reupholstered to a bright blue stripe.

The "new" keeping room!

I've got fabric to re-do my red kitchen chairs and desk chair too.

The white spindles and carpet were removed...

oak treads were installed and stained...

and wrought iron balusters added.

My desk alcove became...

an empty space, and then...

our new wine bar!

We also had the entire downstairs painted

"Tobacco Leaf" by Martha Stewart.

There were days I had 4 crews working at the same time. It was crowded, chaotic and dusty. Five weeks of contractors and mess... and we're finally done!

I love everything and feel like I'm living in a new house!

So yes... it was worth it!

linking to:

Metamorphosis Monday

Amaze me Monday

SavvySouthernStyle

TheGirlCreative

and Remodelaholics Anonymous

before and after: I'm in love with my new foyer floor

The "before" foyer was builder marble surrounded by a metal strip separating it from the rest of the main floor tile. We inherited it with the house. I.hated.it.

So when the time came to do some demo work in the kitchen and make the house a mess, I decided it was a good time to add to it. And boy did it add to it! Tile demo creates the biggest mess! The broken pieces flew everywhere and dust settled on everything.

But the mess and clean up was all worth it with this result...

I.love.it!

We did a natural granite tile with a border of our limestone and a 4x4 brown tile accent.

It looks like it was always there and a planned part of the original main floor.

That was my hope and vision and I'm so happy with the way it turned out. Yeah!

Now, use your imagination...

Our recent home improvement renovations include re-tiling the foyer. I think it's a must have project since I already had them rip out the old tile!

I like this type of pattern

Ours won't be quite as busy though. We're doing a border of 6x18 granite rectangles and then a 2nd border out of my limestone tiles , cut to 4x18 rectangles. We're incorporating 8 4x4 squares into our pattern, keeping it more in the middle.

In the picture below, imagine the wood area as my limestone tile, with a double border like this (the inner border the limestone tile again), with the brown accent tiles and that's what we're planning.

I'm so glad I found this picture!

Here are the tiles I've chosen:

I'm trying to keep it natural to go with our existing limestone so we're incorporating similar colors and a brown porcelain tile to accent the brown flecks in the granite.

You do need imagination and vision... can you see it?

kitchen progress, day 2

They finished taking everything, appliances, cabinets and countertops,

out of the kitchen on Day 1 and here is how it looked:

The previous owners put in the new limestone floor over the existing floor and up to but not under the cabinets, as you can see. That's why we had to keep the same footprint.

Day 2 they put up this "knee wall" as a support for the breakfast bar. It will be covered in cabinet veneerer and look like part of the cabinetry.

And now for the messy part...

I've disliked my foyer tiles since day one 9 years ago. When tiling the rest of the house, they left the original marble tiles in the foyer. I hated the color and I hated the metal strip where the two tiles met. So... be gone ugly tile!

This little job left a fine layer of dust over everything. I had covered all the upholstered furniture and closed all the bedroom doors, so those rooms are okay. But the living room, dining room, kitchen and keeping room all got snowed on. I vacuumed the floors, and maybe I'll dust today just to keep up with it, but I'm sure tomorrow will bring another "dust storm".

We have 12 tiles from the existing limestone to incorporate into the foyer, not enough, so I found this granite tile to coordinate:

We're working on a design. I was working on it with graph paper and little squares I cut out when it dawned on me my designer must have a computer program to do it! That's a bit easier, right?! I want to incorporate the limestone so the foyer looks like we did it on purpose, and not an afterthought. I'll keep you posted!