family room to back porch to bedroom makeover

When we purchased our home a year ago, the back addition was labelled as a family room. It was also one of the first rooms that I tried to improve a bit. In this blog post, I explained how we added wallpaper, a new light fixture, barn wood shelf, and began using it as a porch/office. This worked very well for us and our dogs until recently. Above are the before photographs.

Knowing that we desperately needed a third bedroom for guests, I began to brainstorm how we might be able to change the space into just that. I was also thinking about resale. I contacted our realtor and asked him what it would take to legally call a room a bedroom. He replied that it would need a window (or door) and preferably, a closet. The room was already equipped with the former, so we set about obtaining the latter.

The first thing that had to go was the carpet that our dogs so aptly stained over the previous year. I returned to the same flooring store where we purchased the carpet for Remy’s room, and picked out a laminate floor that I thought would work well.

Next we ordered a large wardrobe from IKEA. Prior to its arrival, I gave the room another coat of white and Geoffrey added the quarter round moulding. After we completed that and the closet arrived, he put it together for us. Then I set to decorating- the best part!

Here is our newest bedroom:

I will be the first to admit that I know nothing about staging a room. That and my style so often changes. That said, I do what I can on a limited budget. I’m sure that many will pick out flaws with our work, but we’re both so happy with it. It’s a huge improvement and better yet, has increased the value of our home. We know that it was a smart decision in the end.

Emory

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simple porch makeover

Disclaimer: This really isn’t a total porch makeover so much as it is more of a temporary fix.

The front porch of our century old home slopes. When we bought our house, the room was drafty, dirty, and had a linoleum floor. I think. I can’t tell the difference between lino and vinyl. It was in one big piece, and rather than being glued down, it was merely placed on the sub floor. The entire perimeter of the flooring was curling upwards. It was so unattractive. One day I got fed up with it, so I picked it up and threw it out the back door. What I was left with was a sub floor covered in old glue, pictured below.

The issue with installing any new flooring in our porch was that the space between the floor and the bottom of the front door was approximately 1 cm. That ruled out hardwood or tile. Rather than buying new linoleum, I asked Geoffrey to try to get rid of the glue so that I could stain the sub floor. It was still in pretty good condition, considering its age.

When he used an electric sander on the floor, the glue heated up and began to spread. It became a sticky mess and was quite apparent that sanding and staining the floor was no longer an option. So I went onto Plan B. We ended up removing the remaining carpet and I painted the sub floor white. It really brightened up the small space!

I purchased a hanging light fixture from Home Depot and Geoffrey switched it with the motion sensor spotlight.

I also hung a few things and stacked two crates so that I could display my Kinfolk magazines and a few other items. I finished the room off with my Baba’s rug that I adore.

That’s it! This room only cost $20, which was the price of the new light. It’ll have to do until we can really get in there and make more drastic changes.

By the way, keeping your home this neat and tidy is no easy feat with a toddler! Sometimes, a little extra help is needed. If anyone is looking for amazing home cleaners, be sure to this NYC maid service!

<3

Emory

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  • Hello! My name is Emory. I am a wife, mother of four (three on earth in heaven). This is our life on the Canadian prairies.
    email: helloscarlettblog@outlook.com

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