Before & After

For anyone out there with a fixer upper, I thought it might be an encouragement to share some before and after photos of our home.

There are still many more projects ahead, but in eight years I feel so blessed by how far we’ve come. Here is what the outside of our home looked like before:

Before photo of our Cottage Home
Before photo of our cottage home

Here is what it looks like today:

Before and After: Our Cottage style home
Cottage home exterior makeover

We added flower beds, DIY window boxes and shutters, and stone to the base of our porch.

Cottage home flower boxes and shutters

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

And here is what our entryway looks like now…

rustic cottage style entryway

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 faux beams.

The after of our cottage entryway

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

And here is the view now…

Before and After of our cottage style home

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…

Minimal rustic cottage style living room

We painted the walls Halo by Benjamin Moore and added board and batten behind the couch.

We also purchased some Ikea Farlov chairs for corners adjacent to our sofa.

Ikea farlov chairs for our cottage style home
I am asked about this table all the time - it was thrifted!

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…

Our cottage dining space after photo!

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

A garage sale dresser makes the perfect buffet table!

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

DIY bread board wall

Here is another before photo…

And after…

Cottage style corner cabinet

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…

English cottage inspired kitchens often have stone and beams
Our white cottage inspired kitchen has a stone accent wall as well as faux beams!

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

And after…

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 8 years ago!

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…

I hope this 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!

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