D.C. and Me

This is a project that has been near and dear to my heart.  One of my closest friends recently moved into a "new to her" house 17 houses down from her 'old' house in the same neighborhood.  I owe our friendship to my business.  Debbi hired me to help her finish the basement in her last house about 7 years ago and it was as if we had been friends our whole lives. Our friendship has survived  three remodels, two moves, and lots of drama! She has helped me navigate through lots of personal change as well. So fortunate to call her friend. 

She's not a bad client either.  :) We've been having fun working on small (and not so small changes) in each room to update it and make it feel more like 'her'. Here's a shot of the kitchen before...

Here's the after shot...

Before she even bought the house, she had me do a 'walk through' so we could assess how to leave the beautiful custom oak in some places, and downplay it in other areas.  Since the kitchen sits in the middle of the house and sets the tone for what you might expect in other rooms, we decided to have the oak cabinets professionally painted and glazed, (thanks Doyle)!  The granite and formica countertops on the perimeter were left, as well as the tile backsplash. 

Here's another angle....

And some more...

The kitchen dining areas was painted a deep red and originally looked nice against the oak, but we wanted something a little more rich and earthy so we chose a dark greenish/grey/brown color for kitchen and dining walls. 

We wanted to minimize the intensity of the oak trim in here so we hung soft, silky fabric panals over the window trim between each window in the dining area.

You can't see it very clearly in the top picture, but if you look closely, you can also see that we had the original oak flooring sanded down, distressed and darkened.  It really made the creamy white cabinetry pop and made all the rooms appear richer and a little more casual.

Above, you can see the darker stain color in the entry.  (Bear Creek Floors..thanks for putting up with two fussy females, Kendall DeLange)!

Here's a before shot of the living room. We liked the color so much that we just freshened it up with a new coat of paint.

We both loved how the kitchen cabinets turned out, that we couldn't stand to leave the entertainment center alone. Another call to Doyle, the painter, and he worked his magic on the living room wall and mantle.Below is a before shot of this wall.  The new paint and black mantle transformed that fireplace.  The slate tile was barely noticable before and now it's the focal point of the whole room!

Doyle used a darker cream paint for the basecoat and heavily glazed it to give it a different look than the kitchen.  We are now having the basement kitchen cabinets done in just a creamy white without a glaze. More pics on that project to come.

Here's the front office before...

Here it is with a coat of chocolate brown paint and new hardware:

And some miscellaneous shots of other rooms that have been updated:

The mudroom which was orginally a hair salon...

Stay tuned for the rest of this 'home tour' once we've worked our way from room to room...bathrooms, bedrooms and basement next.....