New Home Owners- Mini Renos
When I first divulged to my boyfriend that I was painting the kitchen black, he gave a very distinctive look like he smelled something fowl or was chewing on a lemon. It is a bold statement to pick dark/deep colors for walls and if done wrong, can make a space look cheap and dirty. If done correctly, can make a space look classy and striking. It can also be very difficult to repaint so using a matte finish makes it much easier to redo the walls if down the road, you decide to lighten them.
As you can see from the above photo, the kitchen was redone by the previous owners with very busy black, grey, white, and dark blue granite countertop. It draws so much attention to the eye that it washes out the rest of the room and almost seems like it isn’t properly integrated into the space.
The backsplash is a solid grey that has a slightly olive tone which severely clashes with the countertops much to my dismay. My boyfriend wants to keep the backsplash so with the constraints of the existing tile and countertops, the next step would be the cabinets, walls and window treatments.
The hardware is silver which matches the stainless steel appliances and the light fixtures installed by the prior owners. To save money we are leaving those as is. The white cabinets are a nice contemporary style so I decided to leave those white which will also save us some money.
Since black is such a striking color, I plan on doing a flat black paint to give it a cozy and natural feel. The peninsula wall and waterfall counters are a defining piece in the kitchen so I will be installing wood shelving with leather straps to compliment to silver and leather bar stools we purchase for the counter. (Bar stools and concept color photos below)
The inlay detailed backing on the counter facing the dining area is currently white but for posterity, I will be painting that black. Since the peninsula wall is a standalone wall, to create drama, I will follow the black paint into the dining space on the small half wall. This will compliment and create flow from the counter which waterfalls in the opposite direction.
The switch plates will be subbed out with silver or nickel plats to match the rest of the fixtures.
The window treatment is going to be the next big item in the kitchen in order to define the space. We had blinds custom made to our old apartment which were wooden slat blinds. The brown tones of the blinds will incorporate well with the bar stools and shelving. I think they would be a perfect addition if they should actually fit! We will know more when we get situated in the house.
The prior owner seemed to have slopped together a bunch of remnant items to make this house sellable. The walls were painting a light robins egg blue and the trim a darker robins egg blue which it looks intuitional. The doors and door handles are industrial grade like a hospital and the floors are a lower grade vinyl wood which can warp and scratch easily with furniture and liquids. Not a very pet friendly service but it will do in the interim until we decide to either replace them or at least get area rugs to protect them to some extent.
If you are going to install a floor in your house, make sure that it is installed by a well known professional flooring company and to purchase midrange to upper range quality because over time, you will get the best bang for your buck! Otherwise you’ll end up paying double within 5 to 10 years just to have decent looking floors again.
There are a lot of things that need to be redone soon with the home to make it a more valued asset than the basic renovation that was done to get the house sold. Our purchase of the home was not based on the quality of its’ interior but more on how clean it was, its’ location, and the potential return on investment 5 years down the line. This is not our forever home but I intend of bringing this bilevel mid-century home back to its’ former glory!
That being said, the house was built in the early 1960′s and it structurally appeals to a mid-century vibe so instead of fighting that to keep up with current trends in the design market, I am going to appeal to its natural lines and use accent pieces that are removable to define the personality of the interior spaces. I will be changing the front of the house to reflect this as well. The garage doors will be exchanged with horizontal wood doors with windows, the shutter will be changed to match the garage doors, and the front door will be removed and replaced to reflect a sleeker less traditional look.
Since Mid-Century Danish style architecture and design seems to have a timeless appeal, its not much of an effort to move forward with it. The real struggle is going to be staging the house to appeal to a wide range of home buyers.
We have a moving target of budget to do these renovations and more. Having priced out most of them so far, we suspect total cost in renovations will be around $6,000.
The house was valued at 315K and we purchased at $309K. Total break even if sold at 315K. We are hoping that we will be able to list the house at 350k 5 yrs from now. Profit is important when doing a long time flip on a house. For me, creating a space and making it better than I found it is also important. Sometimes those things go hand and hand and sometimes they don't. Once the project is up and running, I will do a play by play on cost and time it took to complete. The kitchen redesign will take the least amount of time. The front elevation will likely take the longest and in-between many other smaller project will hopefully be completed to make the house really what it needs to be.
With a little help, I know my boyfriend and I can do most of the work ourselves cutting down substantial labor costs. For me, it will be worth it. I love projects. For him, he’ll gripe at first but eventually see the fruits if his labor and feel pretty good about it. A good test to a strong relationship is renovating a house together. If you can live through that, you got something special!
