Main Floor Renovation in Dunwoody Club Forest

Main Floor Renovation in Dunwoody Club Forest

by | Jun 15, 2020 | Interior, Living

We are back on course with lovely home renovations for you to enjoy.  Personally I adore the house we are featuring today!  The Adkins family are some of our dear friends and I have loved getting to live vicariously through them and enjoy not only their beautiful house, but also their lovely pool and yard.  To be honest there really isn’t much to say about this house as the pictures speak for themselves.  Brandon and Kelly waited for the perfect house to come on the market for 5 years before purchasing this one.  They specifically wanted a walk-out back yard, a guest bedroom on the main floor, and a bonus room that could be turned into a craft room.  This house met all those needs!  Kelly and Brandon worked with a team of people to make this house as gorgeous as it is.  The three main rooms we thought we would show today are the family room, the mud room, and Kelly’s craft room.  So, without further ado check out the before pictures of their family room and sweet baby who also made the cut!

They worked with a designer to choose the colors and decor for this room.  I think one of the most unique features of this room to me is the wood that they put in the back of the built-in book cases.  Brandon went to a Otto North Carolina to find the wood for this project, and the effort certainly paid off.  The majority of the wall decor came from their travels around the world making it all the more meaningful for them as a family.  Kelly pointed out that many of their framed smaller pieces are actually nice postcards that they found along the way.  What a great idea!

When the Adkins purchased this house there was a formal dining room that they were able to turn into Kelly’s dream of having a craft room.  Having been honored to do a craft evening with Kelly, this room is certainly an absolute dream!  She worked with a designer, a cabinet designer and a contractor in order to make her own mini Hobby Lobby in her house! Here is what it looked like before:

And here is the most relaxing, most organized craft room that I have ever had the privilege of stepping foot in:

Next up is the mud room.  If you look back at the original photo of the family room you will see that there was a wet bar.  Brandon and Kelly removed the wet bar and opened up that area into a corridor/mud room with an external door to the driveway.  They removed the old laundry room (seen in the before picture below) to upstairs in order to create a large walkthrough mud room.  With three little boys in their family the mud room and sink were a great addition:

And here is the final product, perfectly organized in the most tasteful of ways:

I wish y’all could see this house in person as it truly is beautiful.  Brandon and Kelly, thank you for allowing us inside your home!  

Fireplace Facelift in Mill Glen

Fireplace Facelift in Mill Glen

by | May 4, 2020 | Interior, Living

As we head into week seven of our new normal a few people have asked for some DIY projects to be posted on the blog as many of us are entering into times of financial stress.  So today I thought I would do a short and sweet post on our fireplace which we did ourselves.  There is always a sense of achievement when we do something ourselves and I hope that this post inspires you to take the plunge and do a project in your home over the next few weeks while we are stuck at home.  Look out for our next post about outdoor projects while we enjoy this beautiful weather.

A coat of fresh paint can revitalize a room or an object.  As all my friends know, I almost always have a painting project on the go, whether it is refinishing a piece of furniture, painting bookshelves, window frames, or rooms, there is always something that can benefit from a new coat of paint.  When we moved into our house, we lived for years with our gray brick fireplace, and cabinets on either side that were somehow missing doors… literally one side had them and one side didn’t.  Where they went, we will never know!  So, as children’s lego covered the floor one night I decided I needed to replace the doors and hide the lego – there is always an ulterior motive when mom starts a project!  I then decided we needed to new mantel too and why not paint the brick white too to brighten the room?  What started as a simple project became bigger by the day, but the finished project has totally changed our living room and has become my favorite update in our home.  Here is what it looked like before (no judgment please!):

We don’t have any photos of it in progress so here is the finished product:

Steven was not completely convinced about painting the brick at first, and to be honest he had a point. The thing about painting brick is that there is not an easy way to undo it when it’s done. I’ll never forget putting the first bit of paint on and him saying, “there’s no going back now!” Way to instill confidence! I did slightly panic at that point, but he was right, I couldn’t turn back! We used Benjamin Moore Simply White for the paint color and bought replacement doors online.

Casey Libby had told me about a lumber yard up in Kennesaw that had great weathered wood and could potentially have mantels too, so one afternoon we took the kids on a little road trip to see…wood!  Funnily enough they actually had a good time climbing on it all, but I’m pretty sure the people working were pleased when we left! We took a look at the beautiful thick mantels they were selling, then saw the price and decided there had to be a cheaper way, so we looked around and Steven found the most beautiful piece of reclaimed wood. The funny part is that the random piece of wood that we found for the mantel is the thing that people seem to comment on most in our living room.  It was $80 verses almost $1000 for a specialty one, and we love its simplicity in the room.  Both Steven and I adore reading so, call us old fashioned, but we like to put books on our bookcases!  Steven had collected the majority of these old books from antique stores over the years and his grandmother gave him the collection on the upper shelves.  I knew that I could find a frame to match for my mom’s beautiful English countryside painting and voila fireplace makeover was complete. Oh and bonus, we all like it and love the white brick!

Whole House Makeover in Mill Glen

Whole House Makeover in Mill Glen

by | Mar 19, 2020 | Bathroom, Kitchen, Living

Well friends, we are almost through week one of our new normal and if, like me, you are struggling to keep a clean house, your kids are eating you out of house and home, and you are desperate for a few minutes of peace to get a grip on your house, then you might appreciate looking at a beautiful, clean kitchen and enjoying from afar.  So for a few minutes today, as you enjoy your glass of wine and do a virtual cheers with your friends that you survived another day, take a little minute to step out of reality and enjoy dream world over here!

Last week’s kitchen was an amazing example of reconfiguring of space, but this week’s shows that you don’t always need to remove walls to give your kitchen a new look.  The Burns’ family live up the street from us and they did a complete overhaul of their house before they moved in.  It made a stunning difference.  Steven and I always joke about my love of white… seriously if I could live in a house that is all white I would.  I’ll never let him live down the day we were registering for our wedding and he told me that I was boring as I kept choosing white things, but as the years have passed he too has grown to see how nice white can be!  Before I have even seen the Burns’ house I had heard from another neighbor that they had brightened the whole place up, so I was sure I would love it!  Their house shows just what a difference making a space lighter with some white update can make.  Take a look at how their kitchen looked before:

And here it is after, so much lighter and it appears much bigger too:

Sarah shared that the house they moved from had very little counter space so their vision was to maximize the space they had using the current footprint.  They desperately wanted functional counter space, a large oven for entertaining, and for the room to feel clean and fresh.  Their kitchen must haves included a place where they can eat breakfast, do art, sit and hang out.  A pantry was also a must as their previous house didn’t have one.  I’d say they did a pretty amazing job of meeting all these desires and it looks phenomenal!  I love the double glass doors into the sunroom too!

The hardest part for her in bringing it all to life was choosing the lights, door handles, and kitchen finishes.  The floor color was also something Sarah said she agonized over for months, and it turned out great.

Seeing as we could all use extra distraction this week, I figured I would go ahead and show you the other updates that the Burns’ did while they were renovating their house – they did what we all wish we could do and took care of it all at once!  Very smart!  Here are the before and after of their half bath:

Check out how they changed the look of their living room.  New floors, just a touch of paint and lightening up the room with their choice of furniture, paint color, and drapes, make it seem like a totally different room:

How they managed to think through all these updates and changes all at once and have them all look amazing, is beyond me!  I’m hoping that you, dear readers, can gain some serious inspiration from this house!

Our goal here is to eventually provide you with a directory of people who you can call on to help you with your house.  The Burns really like their plumber, so over the next few weeks if life gets turned upside down even more with a blocked toilet from toys being dropped in or, heaven forbid, too much toilet paper, now you know who to call… Tim Chen is an Atlanta area plumber and small business owner who has been doing mostly residential plumbing service work in metro Atlanta area since 1998.  He specializes in emergency services like water heater, water line and sewer line repair and replacement. Tim also does bathroom renovations with beautiful tile work.  Click here for his information on our directory.  The Burns’ have been happy with his work and hope that you will be too.

Here is the master bath renovation to round us out for the evening, and then, unfortunately, you have to go back to reality: children, kids, and school… good luck!  Thank you for letting us into your gorgeous home friends!

Living Room Refresh in Redfield

Living Room Refresh in Redfield

by | Feb 25, 2020 | Living

It was about a year ago that I chatted to Jaime about the idea for this blog.  I remember it vividly… we were out in the yard and she was picking up her son after he had come over for a play date (we do a lot of play dates around here!).  The boys were going crazy on the trampoline and as always us moms were nattering away (that’s English speak for chatting) then she mentioned that she was about to begin a big renovation on her basement.  I briefly mentioned to her the idea for this blog and she instantly jumped on board.  Seriously this girl has a gift for encouraging!  It still took me a year to actually put my idea into action, but you better believe that she was one of the first people I called to say “hey it’s happening!”

The Russo’s are still working on final touches for their basement renovation but they also redid their family room too so I thought we would go ahead and show that first.  To me the most amazing renovations are when people make the best use of the space available to them.  Whether that involves, removing walls or working within the existing floor plan one thing is for certain, what you put into the room, and colors used, can transform any room.

The Russo’s worked with Kelly Bressler with Resource Design & Build to help them make the space work.  Kelly shared that the great room at the Russo home was a lovely bright and airy addition that the previous owners had constructed.  However the furniture was not to scale and the overall tone of the space was a muted gold and brown that no longer worked with their vision for the interior. Here is what the room looked like before the renovation:

Kelly said that the biggest challenge was the huge area that they had to fill with large enough furniture while still maintaining a cozy space for the family to relax and entertain.  Take a look at what they came up with:

They selected an oversized medium grey sectional sofa and a fun deep accent chair to pop some cobalt blue into the newly painted space.  A huge coffee table and a custom bound rug anchor the room, while a long media console fills the large wall under the television set.   Cobalt and cream became their accent colors by adding accessories and fun pillows, while a fun overhead chandelier adds just a touch of rustic warmth with wood and iron.

Kelly Bressler is the owner and designed at Resource Design & Build which is a full service boutique renovation company dedicated to unique design, exemplary customer service and quality project coordination. They love to build your dream! Click here to see Kelly’s contact information in the directory.

Dunwoody Living Room to Exterior View
Dunwoody Living Room TV View
Dunwoody Living Room Coffee Table Arrangement
Dunwoody Living Room Square View To Exterior