House Tour: One Year Later
I cannot believe I’m actually writing this, but as of today, Corey and I have lived in our house for an entire year. A YEAR! In honor of this huge milestone, I thought now would be a great chance to do an updated house tour, one year later. Our last tour happened about one month after we moved into the house, and things were looking a bit…bare. Now, however, we’ve had some time to settle in and spruce the place up a bit, so things are looking much more “us”!
Let’s start outside – here are a few shots of the front of the house. We haven’t done a single thing out here beyond keeping the lawn mowed and painting the front door, but someday we’ll be adding some curb appeal with some new plants (hopefully an actual, polished flower bed) and a new color on the house. We kind of love our corner lot and the giant front yard that comes along with it, though, so we’re totally not complaining about the lack of progress out here!
I’m kind of obsessed with the giant bushes along the fence line, and I wish we had about a million more of them. There’s another one on the other side of the house, and I admire it every time I pull into the driveway. We plan to eventually get rid of the boxwood bushes and the dead tree-ish thing behind them, and hopefully we can replace them with some more low-key and colorful flowers. The flower bed in the front of our house is also looking a bit pathetic, so we’ll definitely be giving it a facelift sometime soon.
And now, let’s step inside. Here are a couple of shots of the living room one year ago:
And here it is today:
Seriously more colorful and fun, right? I’m really pleased with the progress we’ve made in here so far, and I’m really excited for the plans we have for this room in the future!
Next up is the dining room. Here’s what it looked like right after we moved in:
And here’s what it looks like now:
There are some major changes in here too, thanks to the bright white curtains, the crazy-huge light fixture, and the crisp, white chairs. We’ve still got a bit of work to do in here as well, such as finally getting around to reupholstering the head chairs (I swear it’s happening – the fabric is in my house!) and someday getting some art or something up on the fireplace wall.
And now, the one room downstairs where we really haven’t made any significant progress. It definitely looks better than it did when we moved in, but the kitchen is still a bit cringe-worthy. Here’s what it looked like last year:
And here it is now:
Definitely a few improvements, right? Hopefully by the time the next house tour rolls around, we’ll have even more changes in this room!
Okay, that’s the downstairs. Let’s head upstairs.
As you can see, I’ve finally started to switch the gallery wall up a bit as I have slowly started to find new frames that are a bit more varied, so we don’t have the white-on-white-on-white look. It’s still a work in progress, but hopefully soon we’ll have a nice eclectic look that isn’t too put-together – that’s definitely the goal!
Our hallway is still pretty boring, other than our “home sweet home” art that I made a few months back. I’d like to eventually spruce this hallway up with some more art, some prettier lighting, and maybe even a runner to bring in some color, but for now it gets the job done.
The office is one of the only rooms in the house that we seriously have done absolutely nothing to. We moved in a bunch of furniture, hung one canvas print, and called it a day. We still don’t really know what the real “purpose” of this room will be (I guess someday it will probably be a nursery, but we aren’t quite ready to go there yet), so we haven’t really felt a need to do anything to it – there are many more rooms in the house that we use on a regular basis, and this one falls pretty low on the priority list.
Here is a photo of it from last year’s tour:
And here it is today:
Not much of a change other than a bit of furniture-shuffling. But we really only use this room to work out and keep Ranger from destroying our house when we’re gone, so it’s pretty efficient for what it is!
Upstairs we also have the guest room – this is definitely one of the rooms we’ve done the most work in, but it’s still a ways from being done. Here’s the incredibly dull and ugly before shot:
And here’s what it looks like now:
So much better! Across the hall is another room we haven’t touched – the guest bathroom. It doesn’t get used often because we don’t have a lot of overnight guests (most of our dinner guests just use the powder room downstairs), so we haven’t really felt compelled to do anything to it. One day, of course, it will end up with a big makeover just like all of the other rooms in our house, but this is probably the lowest room on the totem pole, so it’s gonna look like this for a while. I’m not even going to show you the “last year” photos, because, um, they look exactly the same.
And, last but not least, our bedroom. You’ve seen tons of photos of it lately, but just for the sake of keeping everything in one place, I’ll go ahead and include a few more here. Here’s the before:
And the “still-in-progress,” one year later shots:
And, of course, the master bathroom. It’s still horribly ugly thanks to the brown walls and outdated fixtures, but someday it’ll be fabulous when we finally get around to giving it some love. It’s another room that I won’t even bother sharing a “before” of, because aside from the new antler jewelry organization, nothing has changed in here!
In the master bathroom we also have everyone’s favorite feature of our house – the toilet spotlight.
So, so strange.
And, on that note, we’ve reached the end of our one-year house tour. I seriously have a hard time believing we’ve been here for an entire year, but I also feel pretty proud of all we’ve accomplished in such a relatively short amount of time. Of course, we’re always doing more, though, so even since I took these photos for the tour there are several things that have changed (and one relatively large project that we’re gearing up to work on this week!) so the whole house will be a constantly evolving project as we keep adding to it and making it even better!
How long have you lived in your home? When it comes to home renovations, do you like to tackle things all at once, or are you more the type to take it slow?
Wow – the light fixture in your dining room is amazing! Want want want…. 😉
Looks fabulous!! I hope our house looks as great in a year.
Your house looks great! I love what you’ve done in the guest room (that brass bed – LOVE) and I like how colorful your living room is 🙂
We’ve been in our house about 2 and a half years, and we’ve pretty much done nothing in that time. In fact looking at your photos makes me feel a bit like a failure. Ha! But we are getting married in just a month, so hopefully once we’re past the wedding I can start doing a little more on the house itself.
I love all the changes you’ve made. Your personalities really show in how you’ve decorated and the house is looking beautiful!
How are you guys going to do a new color on the house?? You’re not actually going to paint brick are you? That would be sooo sad. 🙁
I love so many of the house changes though. That dining fixture is amazing!
Nope, the entire back side of the house (and some places on the front, like the entry) are siding – that’s what we plan to paint. 🙂
I’m definitely impressed with the progress you guys have made in a year. Things are really looking awesome 🙂
You’ve made so much progress, I’m so impressed! I especially love your living room.
Your house is absolutely lovely! 🙂
I love seeing all of your before and afters in one place. The house is really coming along nicely!
Great job on the house! My husband and I are moving into our first house next month – so I am super excited to start decorating.
Can I make a suggestion? The light switches down stairs in your grey living room – a pop of yellow paint would look awesome and go a long way. Just a suggestion/thought that came to me 🙂
That’s definitely a fun idea! 🙂 We actually have plans to replace all of our light plates and switches with white down the road – we like a nice, crisp white look!
Wow! Your house looks amazing! I love the curtains in the living room and the brass bed in the guest room is awesome. I also love the light fixture in the dining room. Love it!!!
SO much fun seeing a tour of your house! I love how your windows are so low in the living room that the dog can look out while laying down. That would be Tassy’s dream, haha.
Great work! Can’t believe it has only been a year, you have gotten so much done!
Have you mentioned where you got those two greenish/goldish canvases from your guest bedroom? I am majorly crushing on them.
Thanks! They are from HomeGoods!
Fun to see all the changes in one place. You have done so much and everything looks fantastic.