Before & After: Our Cottage Inspired Home

Some days it feels like the projects will never end, but sometimes looking back on how far we have come fills me with so much gratitude. Join me on this post that is updated regularly – a before & after: our cottage inspired home.

For anyone out there with a fixer upper, I thought it creating this page before & after: our cottage inspired home might be an encouragement to you. We have now lived here over 10 years, and have made so many changes along the way.

There are still many more projects ahead, so be sure to check this post again if you’d like to see our progress, but for now here is where we are at.

Before & After: Our Cottage Inspired Home Exterior

Here is what the outside of our home looked like when we first purchased our home. I loved so many features of it, and thankfully it had been painted recently, a color that I loved. So many ask what this color is, but unfortunately it was painted already when we moved in. We will eventually have to repaint it though, and I plan to try to match this.

Here is what it looks like today, we have added flower gardens, did a porch update, add shutters and flower boxes:

Before & After: Our Cottage Inspired Home Interior

As you walk into our home, this is what our entryway looked like…

And here is what our entryway looks like now…

Over 80 years of Michigan winters damaged the entryway floors, making them gray and black in many areas. We replaced the hardwoods with slate, refinished the stairs, added bead board to all the walls and installed beams.

Here is the view of our entry from our living room before…

And here is the view now…

We painted the walls, tore out the green carpeting, and updated the fireplace with AirStone.

Here was the view looking in to our living room from the entry…

And here it is now…

All of our paint colors throughout our home can be found in this post here. We also purchased some Ikea Farlov chairs for corners adjacent to our sofa.

The dining space is right off of the living area. Here is a before photo…

The above photo was taken right after we had filled all the cracks in the plaster. Here is our dining space today…

We added board and batten as well as DIY shelves to the walls…

We also created a DIY plate rack wall where I display my bread and cutting boards.

Here is another before photo…

And after…

Our new corner cupboard is a beautiful addition to our dining space!

While this house came with many projects, one room that I am so very grateful for is our kitchen. Before selling the home, the previous owners completely remodeled it. New appliances, cabinets, counter tops, and floors. Here is a before picture…

The dust all over the counter tops is from sanding the plaster in the dining room.

We painted, changed out the modern hardware, added corbels and a subway tile back splash as well as an AirStone accent wall.

Here is our kitchen today…

The biggest project by far was our guest bathroom. It was pretty scary guys. Here are some before photos…

And after, there is still a lot of work I’d love to do in this space, but these updates still helped so much…

The room was a complete gut job…new ceiling, new tile, toilet, bead board, paint, floors, everything. We saved a lot of money by doing it ourselves.

I wish I had chosen a classic tile that was more true to the home, but I’m still very happy with how it looks now compared to when we moved in.

Here is a fun shot of the vanity when we bought the house…

My Dad helped me build a custom vanity using $5 fence posts that I found on clearance at a lumber yard. Here’s the after…

There are so many other before & afters, and like I said, this post will be updated regularly as we continue our dream DIY projects! As I always love to say, little by little, inch by inch.

I hope this post sharing a before & after: our cottage style home was an encouragement to you friends! There are still so many projects I’d like to complete, but for now I’m so thankful for how far we have come!

Thanks so much for visiting!