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Our New Home: Design Updates and Renovation Plans
I love the beauty, history, and details that come with an old home. They really don’t make them like they used to, so it’s no surprise that we chose an almost 100 year-old home. But old houses also need a lot of updates and work. I’ve gotten a lot of questions about what we’re renovating and how we knew where to start, so I want to share our short and long-term renovation plans for our new home.
Our New Home: Design Updates and Renovation Plans
What we’re selling/keeping in our current home and why
All of our current living/family room furniture is coming to the new house. The sofa will go in the sitting room off of the kitchen and the white chairs will go in the new living room. We ordered new sofas for the family room and a sofa for the living room. We’re keeping all the girls’ furniture except for Kate’s dresser because I finally caved and ordered the dresser I really wanted to get her when she was born. Always go with your gut. We are keeping all our art, the girls’ swing set, and everything else in our yard, too.
When Kate is ready to transition to a bed, she’ll get Margot’s bed since it has side rails, and we’ll do an upholstered headboard for Margot since Kate is getting wallpaper and Margot isn’t.
What we’re selling (or already sold) and why
Nothing from our kitchen/dining room is staying. I still love all of it, but there isn’t a spot for the black cabinets (which already sold) and the room really needs an antique walnut table. We purchased new dining chairs that aren’t on casters (linked below) which made more sense for a formal dining room. Our bedroom dresser is way too modern for our new house, so I sold it. We did not exclude lighting from our home sale, so the current owners (we already sold our home) will get all of our lighting fixtures.
What We’re Buying for the New House
The new house is about 2x bigger than our current one, so we need a lot of furniture. And there’s something so warm and inviting about this house, so a few things will be switched out. This is a “forever” home, so we’re investing in some custom window treatments. The good news is that the windows are so beautiful that we will need very few of them.
Paint / wallpaper plans
Shocker – we’re painting most of the rooms white. I think we landed on Benjamin Moore snowfall white. Will show you the colors we looked at on IG.
Renovation plans for before we move in
Refinish and stain hardwood floors.
Replace parquet in entry and family room.
Remove cans in family room. Add chandelier, sconces, and picture lights.
Replace all baseboards (they are too short and simple).
Bathroom updates: Remove wallpaper and mirrors, replace sliding glass doors with shower curtains, replace some hardware, and add window-treatments.
Remove chair rail in dining room. Replace chandelier.
Install crown molding upstairs.
Remove carpet.
The bedroom cornices have to go.
Expand and redo half bath since the current toilet is broken.
Replace AC units (they are dying).
Fix anything else that’s broken.
Have shades and curtains made for bedrooms.
Meet with kitchen/closet/laundry room designer to start working on a plan.
Projects we hope to do this year
We might start working on the basement. There’s paneling to remove and it the carpeting needs. to be replaced, too. It really depends on budget and how it feels not having a designated playroom for the girls. The family room is pretty big and I’m fine with toys being in there for a year, so we’ll see.
We also plan on redoing our closets this year. I’m so excited for that!
Projects we hope to do next year
Next year’s projects will be the kitchen and our bathroom. Can’t imagine taking on more than that in a year.
Long-term renovation plans
There’s a screened in sunroom/porch that isn’t insulated. We’ve talked about turning that into a gym or second office, but would need to add real windows and some type of AC/heat.
Redo the other bathrooms in our home. Maybe in 5+ years? They are fine enough, and we’re making some budget-friendly updates.
We’re hoping to landscape in the next few. It would be nice to add a second large patio at some point, but it doesn’t feel urgent. For now we’ll probably just remove a few Yews that are overgrown and start adding some hydrangea. LOTS of hydrangea.
New laundry room in the basement.
This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase something using my links, I may earn a small commission at no cost to you. I am also partnering with Annie Selke and Momeni, and will receive a discounted rate from Circa Lighting on lighting for our home.
