Often, we end up with a home that we don’t entirely love. We didn’t design it, and there are things we would change with the layout. Don’t worry since you don’t need to spend a lot of money to fix these issues. We really wanted to build our home. We started the design process, but costs were too high to get what we really wanted at the time. We weren’t sure what to do next, until this model home just fell on our lap. We were told we could have it if we wanted it before it was listed. It was a blessing that fell on our laps since it was less that the home build, but it had many of the features we wanted. There were projects though to do, but we could could do those in our time with what worked for our finances.
Here were some dilemmas and how we figured out each one. I hope they are helpful to you as you figure out what to do next in your home!
Dilemma 1: Trying to Figure out the Correct Placement of Furniture/TV in Living Room
Solution:
-L shaped couch facing the large window/mountains
-Building out above the fireplace with a hidden area to hide the TV cords
-Wrapping the area above the fireplace in shiplap, mounting the Frame TV with a digital ocean art piece over the fireplace
More Details: Our home was originally staged to have the couch against the window with 2 chairs on the opposing wall. The TV would would then go on the wall and have a glare on it. Putting a large black TV in this area was definitely not inviting. This made it so that every time you walked into the living room, people would not see the mountain view since the larger couch was blocking the window. This would not work. With the delays in getting furniture, it was a tedious process to get any type of L shaped couch, so we set up what we could, and we waited like so many people have had to do for a year. The couch was still not available, so we canceled that order and ordered a new couch. Fortunately, after almost a half of a year of continuing to wait, we were able to purchase a modular L shaped couch. I placed it where it would face the large windows and maximize the views in the best way. We also had no where to hide the cords, so building out above the fireplace with a home for the cords would work best. Covering it with shiplap gave it the feel we wanted, and we are so grateful we purchased the Frame TV since we are able to change out the art to any type of coastal art we like. It is also so much more peaceful to walk into the room and see the digital art instead of a black TV. Definitely a win-win.
Dilemma 2: White flat walls everywhere, no color
Solution: A coastal palette bringing in sea green, white, and natural light oak colors with use of shiplap and a barn door
More Details:
This was the first project we did in our new home. We hired a local construction company to come in and hang white Shiplap throughout living room and then paint using the waterscape color by Sherwin Williams on either side of fireplace. We are very thankful for how the shiplap addition. The pop of color was perfect, so we also had them create a barn door in place of the white basement door. We ended up having them paint the barn door also using the waterscape color by Sherwin Williams. The entire space was transformed into a peaceful coastal retreat. Unfortunately, our floors are still medium-dark hardwood. They are not white oak, but we don’t want to remove the floors yet since it’s a brand-new floor already. This will be a future project after we need new flooring.
Dilemma 3: In need of more natural light oak tones/natural textures
Solution: Hanging the natural rattan Serena and Lily pendants, purchasing Pottery Barn chairs, adding in the Serena and Lily bamboo coffee table with white tray, adding in more greenery throughout the room with palm leaves, adding in orchids, adding in 2 white/bamboo counter-height chairs from Serena and Lily and 4 table height white/bamboo chairs by Serena and Lily
Dilemma 4: An all-white dining room with no contrast to the beautiful white coffered ceiling
Solution: Adding in a white simple board and batten from the ground to a little over halfway up the wall, painting the middle area Waterscape by Sherwin Williams, keeping the coffered ceiling white
More Details: At first I wasn’t sure I wanted to add the same waterscape color here as well in the dining room, and sometimes I question if this was the best choice. I really wanted to do banquette seating, but it just didn’t work out in our space. The dining table and chairs I already have are a yellowy ivory, so they seem off in the space as well. I was able to sell our yellowy dining table for almost 1000, and use that money to help purchase our new white dining table from Serena and Lily. I wanted to see some contrast in seating so I added in the bench seating from Serena and Lily with their white chairs.
Dilemma 5: A gray island with a gray top and black hardware in the kitchen
Solution: This was quite beautiful to begin with, but I wanted to do a coastal palette instead of a modern farmhouse style with grey and white. I decided I would try to do these small changes: changing out the gray island top for a white quartz top with gold veining, replacing the grey island with a shiplap one painted Waterscape by Sherwin Williams, replacing the black hardware with a champagne gold finish. I will update this once it is done!
More Details:
We did not want to gut a brand new kitchen from a model home. It was already new and beautiful, but it needed some color. We thought about adding a new stove and custom hood vent wrapped in shiplap, but we decided to wait on this since the gas oven we really liked would be out of stock for quite some time. So we committed to just simply changing the black hardware to champagne gold and then also just redoing the island. Making it have a white quart top with gold veining would brighten up the space and look sharper against the painted waterscape shiplap wrapping the island. This project will be done this winter, so I will update you once it is completed!
