We have officially been in our house for four months now and while we still have a ways to go, we’ve also made a lot of progress.

Here’s what we’ve done in four months:

-Painted walls from blue to white in living room, hallway, master bedroom, and office which involved lots of high ceilings

-Painted ceilings that looked brownish yellow after a fresh new coat of white on the walls

-Installed can lights in the living room (the only option was to use lamps like this house was built in the 70s)

-Installed cabinets in the laundry room

-New flooring in 75% of the house: only the boys’ rooms still have the old carpet, and ripping up tile kicked our butts

-Fireplace remodeled

-Picture frame molding installed in master

-New baseboards in master and hallway (still a work in progress for the rest of the house)

-Painted staircase railing (only took about 15 hrs of my life)

Tearing up the brown square tile in the entrway

Painting the blue walls in the office white

The yellow/brown ceiling we didn't plan on having to paint

My little helper with painting the staircase railing

The difference between the blue that was originally there and the white we chose

Tearing up the floor in the kitchen to discover linoleum underneath

I knew coming into this situation that we would be downsizing and moving to an area with a lot more cloudy days than I was used to. Because of that, I decided to design the house with a light and bright feeling hoping that even when it’s cloudy it won’t look too dark and will still feel as bright and welcoming as possible. I’ve also wanted to try contrast trim for awhile, so we landed on white walls with a tan/greige baseboard. Eventually all the trim around the windows and doors as well as the doors themselves will be the color of the baseboards, but that’s a HUGE project that we have not started yet. Since I know everyone loves a good before and after, here are some of the master and living room since they’re the two most finished areas of our house, ha! Also, the before pictures are still after we painted and started replacing the floor, so scroll down to the entryway to get a feel for what it was when we moved in.

The Living Room/Fireplace:

Fireplace with TV over mantle and brown baskets on either side

Closeup of white herringbone tile and light wood mantle on fireplace

Living room with fireplace and two couches and floral curtains

My Thinking on the design:

When I was trying to figure out how to decorate the living room that corner fireplace just kept throwing a wrench in my plans. I knew we couldn’t do bookcases in there because it would look odd, and there also wasn’t a lot of space for extra furniture. But THEN we had an idea-let’s just get rid of it! We didn’t like the style, and it threw the whole room off. But then we were talking to some friends who said they really enjoyed having a fireplace to even out the heat during the winter, so we went back and forth a lot but eventually decided to move it. The placing was difficult because of that window on the left hand side and the dumb wall that separates the living room from the kitchen (which is a whole other story), but I like where we ended up putting it-not exactly in the middle of that wall, but more to the right-hand side so that the tv and couches lined up a bit more. We kept the design simple and clean, and I love how it looks so far. We’re planning on adding bookcases on either side and I think that will definitely finish the look.

The Master:

Master bedroom with white bedspread and picture frame molding on wall behind bed

Master bedroom with white bedspread, wood dresser, and colored rug

Master bedroom with four large frames in a square

Wood floor, greige trim, and colored rug in bedroom

My Thinking on the Design:

I redesigned our master when we moved into our previous house two years ago, but it was the same idea; calming tones, keep it light and bright. We also added this fun picture frame molding to our sloped accent wall and I love how it turned out! You can also see the color of the baseboards which will eventually be the color of the doors as well (no more bright orange wood-can’t wait!).