Since sharing the news about our move into our family home, my dm’s have been getting a lot of action when it comes to the decisions + details of our remodel. Today I’m outlining the deets, from renovations, interior design + furniture:

RENOVATIONS

I shared an IGTV video of the lower level of our new home while it was empty to give you guys a sneak peek on what the ‘before’ looked like, pre-renovations. You also may have missed the full empty house tour (both levels, including the mudroom + laundry rooms) on YouTube. While the majority of the house is getting a major cosmetic facelift, there are some things we are doing to the lower level that will drastically change the feel, flow and appearance of those areas.

Firstly, we were pretty dead set on having our main living areas of the house be open concept. When we bought the house, it was your typical 70’s split-level home with separated kitchen, dining, living and family rooms. One of the first decisions we made was to take down the wall that separated these spaces to create one larger, open-concept area. We also decided that we would flip the original location of the kitchen and the dining room to create better flow and some very specific sight-lines (that you will see eventually). The family room was always a separate room around the corner, which has pretty much remained the same, since our thinking was to make the living room be more of a space for hosting + entertaining and have the family room be just that, a room for our family to gather, relax and watch movies (think more kid-friendly).

The next thing we did was make the lower level all one level by removing the ‘split-level’ that was part of the original design. We wanted to avoid having too many flights of stairs (with dogs + little people) so lowering the entire floorplan was a-must, thus also giving us added ceiling height downstairs which opened things up even more.

Even though we did most of our renovations in our current apt. ourselves, we knew this house would be a MUCH bigger job and required the expertise to match so we hired a contractor at NuHaus. They have been incredible to work with – from taking the time to discuss options, dealing with city permits and holding our hand through demo and possibilities we may not have even factored, we couldn’t be happier with our choice to have them work with us to create our forever home. For contractors, they are incredibly meticulous when it comes to everything and anything they touch, and that includes having an extremely neat and tidy construction site (which in the world of construction is very rare).

INTERIOR DESIGN

When it came to interior and all things design, my husband and I had a very good idea of what we were wanting for this house. If you are familiar with our currently apt, think the total opposite LOL. When we moved in here (8 years ago) the all-white everything look was very ‘in’, our hardwood was dark and something we weren’t willing to change, knowing we wouldn’t be here forever – and we are so glad we didn’t waste the money, as much as it’s driven us NUTS!

The vibe for the new house is going to be very bright with lots of natural light, light oak hardwood throughout with earthy tones for cabinetry and the only white we will be incorporating will be on the walls. The tiling in the mudroom, laundry and upstairs bathrooms are all stone/cobblestone materials and all the windows + doors (except for our front door which is a natural fir wood) will be black. There will be A LOT more contrast in this house but also a lot of natural wood tones and finishes to balance everything out.

Even though we’ve been pinning our inspo non-stop over the last 5 years, I knew I wouldn’t have the capacity to do this entire project on my own, so again, we decided it would be wise to enlist the help of an expert. I’ve known Amanda Evans since the start of my blogging career. We met at a media event back in 2014 and had been acquaintances ever since. I also knew that she had gone out on her own to create Amanda Evans Interiors and approached her to work with us, as she also had lots of experience working with NuHaus. I am SOOO glad we did, because as savvy as I think I am and as clear as we have been on what we wanted, there is so much that goes into this process, that I again would not have the time/capacity for right now with everything on my plate. I might have a vision, but the next step is to be in contact and know who the right manufacturers and brands to work with when it comes to ordering in all the details. Amanda and her team have been right there with us every step of the way and have been extremely accommodating when we’ve needed to get more options or look in new directions. Its also been great to have someone to bounce my thoughts and ideas off of and to make sure that we were creating balance in every space – it’s so easy for design to fall flat if you aren’t using a medley of colors, tones + finishes.

FURNITURE

You know I don’t like alot of fuss and prefer to do things in a streamlined process. I’d much rather do a one-stop-shop, if possible (rather than running around aimlessly like a chicken with my head cut off) and choosing furniture was no different. Because our apt. now is relatively small (less than 900 sq. ft.) we don’t have a lot of furniture – even if we wanted to use what we have, we would still need to think about adding pieces in to fill the home.

We decided that working with CF Interiors to help make that happen was the perfect fit. When I had our first meeting with their team, they literally said “bring us your inspo, the world is your oyster” — and they were not kidding. I put together a moodboard of what we were thinking and a few hours later they had sent over options. And if they didn’t carry it or know someone who did, offered solutions on how we could have something made. They’ve been incredibly thorough, patient and helpful throughout this whole process as we continue to nail down what we’re looking for.

I cannot wait to show you how everything comes together! We are still a few months out from completion and even then, will have to wait a while before the furniture arrives, covid has brought about SO many delays but we know at the end of the day, it will be WELL worth the wait.