Sunday, February 8, 2009

Another Look at the Living Room

My parents have been beggingasking me to post pictures of the house. I've been feeling lazy. Not much has changed since I posted pictures a month ago, other than some base trim, paint and other miscellaneous crap.

Here is a before picture of the dining area looking into the kitchen before the renovations.

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We moved the kitchen from the back right of the house to the left side, and added a half bathroom in the back right corner. In the dining room we removed the faux fireplace, changed out the light fixture, laid floors and decorated. It looks much better now.

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A lot of the items we used in the dining area and living room are discussed here. A new addition is a 5x7' wool rug we score for $123 on clearance from rugsusa.com.

Backing up a few steps, you can see the redone stairs.

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The stairs were very squeaky. The old stairs treads were screwed into the base thingamajig (I don't know the technical name of the main stair girder) to remove any squeaks. New treads and risers were laid over the old stairs. We used pine treads custom stained and polyurethaned by moi, and 1/4 luan plywood for the risers. The trim up the stairs was redone, and after a coat of white paint to the risers and trim the stairs look like a million bucks. Our teak and peacock blue MCM rocker we scored off ebay looks hawt too.

The TV wall and bookshelf area is also looking a lot better. Before.

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After.

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I still need to shim a few shelves, run some wiring for the home entertainment center, and straighten the tv. All in due time. I must say that we love our 50" plasma tv. The Queen likes watching the Real Housewives of Orange County, while I prefer to spend time playing XBox 360 games on it.

We finally got our white leather arielle ottoman from Macy's after over six months. We keep it at the front of the house when we're not using it to avoid cluttering the space. We got around to hanging the drapes from Ikea; the pattern helps add some intrest to an otherwise boring wall.

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I also changed out the old light with the Fado light from Ikea. We figure it will go well with the custom transom that is forthcoming.

20 comments:

Momnipotent said...

I've become obsessed with Before/After photos! Who knew!? Can't wait to come see your house with Dadolescent. Your floors are to die for.

Anonymous said...

Nice Job!

(blogger is causing me troubles so I hope I'm not duping).

Mark

lauren said...

It looks incredible! love seeing the before/after shots...

NV said...

I adore your floors and that exposed brick wall. Things are really looking great.

Isn't it fun to stand back and look at what you've accomplished? :-)

Liz said...

You and The Queen are doing such a great job - your place looks fantastic. All the hard work was worth it! We're thinking about refinishing our stairs - do you find the treads to be slippery with polyurethane on them? I really don't want to cover ours up with a runner, but I also don't want to fall down the steps on my hiney.

Anonymous said...

Everything looks amazing! I whine and complain about things like painting and moving minor things, but you guys are moving kitchen and bathrooms! I am in awe.

Freckles Chick said...

*de-lurking*
It looks AH-mazing! Tasteful, serene, classic. The revamped stairs are beautiful!

I saw that you used slate tiles in your bathroom (which looks stunning). We're putting in honed slate in ours. Have you experienced any problems w/ moisture and the tiles? Thanks for any feedback!

Anonymous said...

Short and sweet article. very informative. the images are attention catching. great

Momnipotent said...

We were happy and lucky to be your first dinner guests last evening. It was great to be invited over without a list of work to do. The pictures on the blog are beautiful, but don't do justice to the real thing. It looks 10 times better in person. The transformation is amazing. It looks like a decorator's model home. Congrats to Corey and Leigh for sticking with it and getting it done.
Momnipotent & Dadolescent

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

What a beautiful place to leave with this classic interior designs. I really admire the stylish way of the designs that you made, truly classic design never fade. It's one of the best interior designs I ever seen because of the unique and remarkable design that you have. Your maybe belong to the best interior design firms in the world.

Patrick said...

Going to wings at mahaffey's tomorrow, Wednesday, Feb 25 if you are free come by.

Patrick

Alison said...

Just saw your post on Grassroots Modern...your place looks great! I have the same curtains in my dining room and have been thinking about the Corona sofa. It looks really nice in your place.

Corey said...

Hey Freckles chick - sorry for taking so long to get back. So far, there is no issue with the slate tiles. I have read that most people wouldn't recommended slate in actual shower areas, especially on the floors.

Also, with regards to moisture I only sealed the grout on the slate tile. I didn't want to seal the slate for fear of making slippery, and I wanted the more matte surface of our honed slate.

Corey said...

Liz - The stairs with poly on them are not slippery at all. I only put two coats on them, but am thinking about putting another coat on them due to being such a high traffic area.

Anonymous said...

Hello! Your renovations look amazing and I love the brick wall! May I ask where you got the blue rocker chair? Thanks!

-ellen

Anonymous said...

gorgeous reno! i'm really impressed by all of your hard work. where did you guys find the blue rocker in the first few pics? i love it!

arb

nikinikinine said...

So did you just buy new pine treads and risers from home depot/lowe's? I ripped the carpet off of our builder grade staircase last year and sanded/refinished each step by hand (what a nightmare) but they aren't looking amazing. I talked to my contractor about installing new treads/risers over the existing stairs last summer but he said you can't do it - so do you mind sharing how you did just that??

Kit Pollard said...

Hi Corey,
I'm not sure if you're still getting the comments on this blog but I just came across it - I'm researching exposing brick for an article that will run in Chesapeake Home + Living magazine. I'd love to interview you about your experience, if you're up for that.

If you get this, would you mind emailing me at kit@kitpollard.com?

Thank you!
Kit Pollard

Unknown said...

Hey your house looks excellent. My question is, how did you get around the permitting process for all the work you did? Did the city give you any grief? We are looking to do the same thing but MD state codes are a PITA!