I recently found screen shots of all the old estate agent pictures and thought you’d be interested to see how far the house has come.

I personally know people who viewed this house before we did but were put off by the lime green kitchen. I hope these before and afters will show you how a little bit of vision (and a lot of hard work) can get you a long way.

Just click on the images to scroll across to the afters.

The Living Room:

The living room which we made brighter and bigger by knocking the wall down through to the dining room. We also opened up the fireplace, bricked up the door to create an internal window, installed bespoke storage and shutters, sanded the floors and replastered the walls.

This is the first time I ever noticed the taxidermy owl! Oh my goodness! How did I miss this in the original photos plus three viewings to the property before we moved in?!

Anyway, the dining room feels more spacious now we’ve knocked down the wall through to the living room and removed the storage in the corner. We’ve also retiled and painted the fireplace, sanded the floors and replastered the walls. The house is not overlooked, so I prefer to make the most of the beautiful view and south facing light by not having any window treatments at all on this room. Is it missing the owl though?!

The Kitchen:

The kitchen needed the biggest overhaul thanks to the lime green gloss that permeated the room. As we want to extend this space, and thus not spend too much on it for now, we chose to paint the floor, cabinets and shelves, we used paint and tile stickers for the tiles and had the original door dipped and stripped of it’s original paint. You can have a look at our budget kitchen makeover here.

The Hallway/Entrance:

The hallway is still my favourite part of the house. It’s a small space but one that shouldn’t be forgotten about. We walk through this space all the time to go upstairs so it’s important that it makes me smile just as much as the rest of the house. In this area we ripped up the carpet, sanded the floors, replastered the walls and painted the original door. I also fixed the bell which is another fun (and functional) element to this space.

Downstairs Toilet:

Another budget makeover in the downstairs toilet, we used tiles that had been sent to me by mistake (and the sender didn’t want them back!), upcycled the cupboard doors, replaced the sink unit and flush, boxed in the cistern and hand-painted the sliding door.

Utility Room:

The utility room was such a lovely room to update. It has a big south facing window so it’s always filled with bountiful natural light making it the perfect place for lots of plants. We painted the floors, freshened up the white paint, painted the uPVC back door and cut out a cupboard to make space for the washing machine (hidden by a curtain panel).

The Nursery:

As you can see this room felt very cluttered and claustrophobic. It needed a lot of vision to get past the multiple shelves that lined every wall of the room. It took a while to take over one hundred screws out of the walls, remove the polystyrene ceiling tiles, sand the floors and install a bespoke cupboard in the area over the stairs but it was worth it to make the perfect space for a nursery. Thankfully, once the whole room was replastered the shelves were a distant memory.

Girls’ Shared Bedroom:

The girls’ shared bedroom also had the fireplace opened up, cupboards removed (which revealed some huge holes in the walls), walls and ceilings replastered, carpet removed and floors sanded. All the rooms had new electric sockets and switch plates too.

The Bedroom:

Our bedroom went under the most changes before we reached an end result I was happy with. I tried out a natural lime paint (disaster), arch wall (which I didn’t like at the time but now wish I’d kept), an abstract desert mural (even more of a disaster) and now channelling a more subtle style in Farrow and Ball School House White. We also replaced the tiles on the fireplace, ripped out the cupboards, installed bespoke wardrobes with sliding doors and sanded the floors.

The Bathroom:

The bathroom is the room in the house that still needs the most work. We have given it a temporary update by painting the floor and walls, popping up a peg rail shelf and a bright shower curtain works wonders to distract from the rest of it!

I hope you found that as interesting as I did putting it together! I had forgotten what it looked like when we first viewed it as it feels like so long ago now (even though it was only just over two years ago.) In our time on the property ladder we have viewed over 30 houses and I am an absolute sucker for coming away and immediately redecorating the whole place in my head on the car journey home. Before my husband has a moment to think, I’ve removed walls, added extensions and installed Crittall windows - anyone else like this?!

Anyway, it was such a privilege to actually see some of those dreams come to life in this home - still waiting on the Crittall though!