Before & After: Living Room

This is what our living room looked like when we bought our house:

Yuck, right?  We immediately tore out all the dark heavy drapes and the carpet.  We installed a (I can't believe I'm about to admit to this!) vinyl wood-look floor on top of the concrete slab.  I typically avoid fake-wood floors, but this one is actually pretty impressive.  It's a commercial-grade floor, which means it's great with the abuse it gets all day from the dogs and it's good with moisture too, which is great when you have dogs that track in mud and also drool insane amounts of drool all over the floor.  PLUS the pattern of the grain actually matches the grain texture on the floor... imagine that.  (This is my complaint with most wood-look floors.  The grain rarely matches the texture, making it look even more fake.) 

Aside from the floors, we painted, and we added a dog door in the left side of the bookcase.  That's really it, but what a big difference.

Here's how it looks now:

This is definitely not a finished product, but you can see where we're going.

Things to do: 

1.  Do something about that big blank wall behind the sofa (see earlier post).

2.  Get rid of the hideous end tables.  I'm on the lookout for something cool to replace them with... but I refuse to pay full price.

3.  Get rid of the Ikea chair.  It's lived its life and it's time to move on.

4.  New sofa pillows.  These are stand-ins for the pillow the dog ate.

5.  Reupholster the sofa.  Will do this myself, hopefully, once my sewing and upholstery skills improve... a lot

A Small Cottage Bathroom Gets a Makeover

This little cottage bathroom, featured in BHG, didn't always look this pretty and serene. Here's the "before:"

You can see it was a challenging space with the sloping ceilings and the washer and dryer plopped in the middle of the room. Now the laundry area is discreetly tucked away:

And look at all these shelves they added for storage:

P.S. If you love old Cary Grant movies as much as I do, then check out the post about Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House over at Hooked on Houses today.

A Beachy Bathroom Makeover for Boys

See this nondescript bathroom? Designer Kellie Cashon redecorated it with a nautical theme for her boys in their house on the Gulf. Here's how it looks now:


Isn't that fun? I love the little pirates grinning out at us. Kellie Cashon is the talented designer behind Cashon & Co. Interiors. You may remember her beautiful master bath makeover that I featured here.

You can see more of Kellie's work on her website, or check out her blog.

Love before and afters? I'm featuring the sets from the Sex and the City movie at Hooked on Houses today, and it includes Carrie's dramatic apartment makeover. Come tell us what you think about it!

Before & After: A Gulf House Master Bath

When I saw this bathroom makeover from Kellie Cashon's house on the Gulf (Cashon & Co. Interiors), I thought it looked really fresh and pretty. Here's what it was like before:

Another shot of the after:

Thanks to Kellie Cashon for letting me share these photos with you. You can see more of her makeovers on her website, or check out Kellie's blog here. (Big thanks to Laurie of My Domicile Style for telling me about her!).

P.S. If you like looking at celebrity homes, then check out Suzanne Somers' sprawling Palm Springs estate over at Hooked on Houses today.

Eww to ahh

This lovely tranquil spot above, used to look like this (below). What I like most about this transformation is that they haven't seemed to have made any structural changes, just got rid of all the 'stuff' and repainted and resanded the floors, then added in some lovely vintage pieces including a reclaimed fireplace, just casually propped up. Even I could do that. All you need is a place that is solid, not too old and has 'good bones'.

In the same home, this very red living room becomes.....

....this! So much lighter and brighter. They just used loads of white paint and refurbished some flea market finds. Superb!

For more before and after images from this lovely home, go here.

I've been getting itchy feet lately. I'm longing for a little place that I can turn from 'eww' to 'ahh'. I love my home, but I want a challenge! So I trawled the net today for a look at what is available in my price range, which isn't much given that I would need to put money aside for the horrendous stamp duty, as well as a renovation budget.

I have my eyes set on a suburb just a couple of kilometres away from where I live - it's closer to my son's school and a little more of a pleasant neighbourhood (but not much more). My search on the net quickly revealed I could only afford a tiny two bedroom unit in this suburb - ie a major step down from my light-filled, modern three bedroom home, albeit in a slightly more downbeat neighbourhood.

So I guess I'll just stay put in my current home for a little while longer and just keep looking at other people's before and afters!

Best wishes,

A Cottage Gets Some Colorful Curb Appeal

The house on Tybee Island looked like this when designer Jane Coslick got to it. Then she worked her magic and transformed it into a fun beach cottage that has to be the cutest on its block:

I never would've seen the potential in the house that she did. Thanks to Posey, who left a comment tipping me off to Jane's website. Now my dream is not just to own a cottage by the beach, but to have it decorated by Jane Coslick!

If you love colorful cottages, check out the paintings that artist Fifi Flowers did of a pink one that Jane designed. You may also like the cute yellow country house from the movie "Baby Boom"-- I'm featuring it on my other blog for Movie Monday.

{Today I'm joining Metamorphosis Monday over at Between Naps on the Porch. Go see all the other before & afters people are sharing today!}

Image tribute to Domino - great living rooms

Trust me fellow Domino mourners, there are many more tributes to come! I will be scouring the site thoroughly before they take it down. *tear* Today's tribute is to living rooms.


I like it when open floor plans use furniture (like these couches back-to-back), in place of walls

It's the color on this wall that gets me...gorgeous

I couldn't live with this wallpaper, but a lovely room



jewel tones aren't going anywhere my friends!

Not cozy enough for me, but the colors are dreamy!

A lovely vintage living room of Domino reader contest winner Lara Rossignol

Rashida Jones's instant hit of a living room.

One of the many before and afters Domino graced us with! I love how serene the room turned out - the perfect place to relax after work.

Before and after: living rooms

Time for some more before and afters!

There's so many things that you have to get right for a renovation to be successful.

First and foremost you have to have the vision to see beyond the ugly and find some redeeming factor that gives you a glimmer of hope that this unattractive space is worth spending time and money on.

Take this living room above - it is from a home that won Australian Home Beautiful's House of the Year in 2000. Here's the living room before: lots of seventies brick (minus), ugly bar (minus), exposed beams (plus), soaring ceilings (plus, plus).

Now I'm sure many potential buyers would take one look at this living room and walk straight out again - all that wood makes it look not only dated, but closed in - claustrophobia inducing.

But some clever and talented person had the vision to see that if you painted that wood white, the room would open up, especially if you added some mirrors to bounce the light around. The drab fireplace becomes a feature with a beautiful new surround, while those rickety looking shelves look fantastic painted white and artfully filled with antique silverware, books and other small treasures.

Check out this next living room before - very dated, furnished with uninspiring furniture, but check out the soaring ceilings, and the sheer size of this room.

Here it is below, renovated so tastefully. At last this little lady gets to show off her assets!

I love the pitchforks as art. Gorgeous! And the staircase looks so more open and lighter with the clunky bannister replaced with something fresher and quirky.

Change of subject: Aussies please note that Coles (on Friday the 13th) and Woolies (on Friday the 20th) will donate all profits from sales Australia-wide to the bushfire victims. So if you can, please save your supermarket shopping til then. It's been inspiring to see how generous Australians have been, raising more than $10million already.

And thank you to those of you from around the world who left lovely messages of support yesterday.

Best wishes to you all,

Kitchen transformations

If you've read my blog before, you'll know that I just love 'before' and 'after' house transformations. And I think many of you do too - it's so inspirational to see what can be done with some imagination, hard work, time and a little (or a lot of) money!


In today's post I'm focusing on kitchens. So many people get put off buying a house because of a dated, dirty kitchen, and yet you can sometimes grab yourself a bargain-priced house if you are prepared to put in the hard yards and renovate your kitchen. And when it is done you can sit back and admire your brand new glistening new kitchen, knowing that you have also increased the value of your home greatly.


Starting off with this stylish white beauty....white cupboards, stainless steel benchtops and splashbacks with a stone-topped island bench.

Now look at it before.....cheap and outdated looking....

Here's another view of the same kitchen after it's transformation. Ikea's Kalcuim pendant lights add a slight industrial edge (and are cheap too!). Love the use of turquoise accessories to add a bit of spark. And look, they've even colour coordinated the little girl with the kitchen accessories! The wooden floor, wicker storage baskets, and custom-made rangehood add a little bit of country.

Take a look at this sad little kitchen: cheap, dated and boxed in....

And now....

Travertine benchtops, industrial light fittings and stainless steel splashbacks make this white kitchen extra special.

And finally for today we have a dark, outdated 70's kitchen, complete with the brown laminate and orange counter tops that were so popular back then.

Here it is today. What inspires me most is that this kitchen makeover cost less than $6000

New doors were placed on the old frames and new splashback and countertops were added, while panelling was added to the island and Ikea pendant lights installed. Then the kitchen was simply tricked up with some stylish accessories. Simple, but effective!

I love the baskets on top of the cupboards. They remind me of this basket:

I love this delicious photo of the textured blankets folded in the basket. It is from the gorgeous Swedish blog dreamhouse. The creator of this blog, Camilla, has the most exquisite taste! I'd been looking for an excuse to put this basket picture in a post, and now I've found it!

Pictures 1 - 5 Australian Home Beautiful, 6 - 7 For Me (no longer in publication), 8 dreamhouse

More charming transformations

Here are two more classic Australian houses, transformed from unloved eyesores to the best house in the street.

The charm of this house below is overwhelmed by the overgrown shrub (blocking out all natural light, no doubt) and a clunky brick fence, utterly out of keeping with the era of the house.



But look at it now, with a smart new coat of paint, new fencing and landscaping. The owners retained the bottom part of the fence, rendered it and topped it with clean lined picket fencing. This house stays true to its heritage, but the modern colours bring it up to date too.

Here's a house stripped bare of its character features, waiting for someone to nurture it back to its former glory.

And afterwards, what a transformation! New fencing, cladding, windows and trim make this a picture postcard home.

I'm packing my bags and moving in!

Images Australian Better Homes and Gardens and Notebook Magazine

Charming transformations

It's the time of the year when we are full of enthusiasm, with a fresh page before us just waiting to be written on. Its a time to tackle new projects and turn our visions into reality. So I thought it fitting to show you two fabulous renovations, two of my absolute favourites that really inspire me.

First up we have a 1914 Federation house, in a beautiful heritage listed suburb of Melbourne. This house had been lived in by an elderly couple for more than 50 years, and as you can see, the house's needs obviously got too much for them. It was so painfully in need of some tender loving care. Such a sad state of affairs. The house leaned to one side, all the timber fretwork on the porch was rotted and the corrugated iron roof badly needed replacing.





Take a look at this baby now! Lovingly brought back to its former glory, painted a gorgeous clotted cream colour with white trim. Beautiful classic landscaping was added.

The back of the house was extended to add a new open plan kitchen and living area, with three sets of french doors opening on to a newly landscaped courtyard.

Here's another tired, sad little home. The owners, in their inexplicable wisdom, had covered up the charming weatherboards of this single fronted cottage with horrid brick cladding and a dreaded aluminium window, stripping this heritage home of all its charm. Sad, sad, sad. I bet many potential buyers ran away screaming....

.....But not Tina Buchanan. Tina (who had tackled 15 previous renovations) had the vision to see what this house could become. Take a look at this beauty now...

I am in love! This home deservedly won Australian Home Beautiful's home of the year competition in 2001.

I feel totally inspired by people who have the vision to see the potential in the old and unloved, and the bravery and tenacity to make it happen.

The lovely thing about Australia is that all the cities and older towns have many charming, single fronted cottages like this. They are usually in old, leafy suburbs oh-so-close to the city, so they are right by great shops and cafes. If I win the lottery any time soon, I'd being buying a lovely little single fronted cottage like either of the above homes for me and my son. I'd even be prepared to buy the ugliest and see what I could do with it! Time to buy a lottery ticket....

All images Australian Home Beautiful