On the (main) level
Monday, July 12, 2010 at 08:18AM Yep, the August issue of House & Home is finally out (with our place in it), so I thought it was high time to finally share the heinous 'before' and the lovely 'after' of the main floor of our house! So you can get your bearings, that first pic is me standing pretty much where the coffee table is now, looking back towards where the kitchen ended up, and all before the walls came down to finally open the space up. For more scary before shots click here.
Here are the deets on those glossy after shots, photographed by Angus Fergusson -
In the living room the sofa, chairs, tables and ceiling fixture are all vintage. The ottoman is from Bev Hisey, a couple of the pillows on the sofa are from The Rug Company, the Montigo fireplace is from Odyssey Fireplaces, and the rug is from Sears. Spot looks awfully cute in this next shot, against the brill Manderley wallpaper from Graham & Brown. That's a Besta cabinet from Ikea (crammed with records), topped with a turntable, a Tivoli radio and a vintage lamp. I made the dining table out of scaffolding planks and a vintage table base, and all the chairs were super-cheapy vintage finds refinished by Beresford's and, all the doors and windows in the house are Jeld Wen. The KraftMaid kitchen cabinets, Corian countertop, glass tiles and Quality Craft bamboo flooring are all Home Depot, oh, and the stools are vintage. The fantastic stainless steel slide-in gas range with downdraft (no need for a range hood!), dishwasher and French door fridge are from Jenn Air. In the powder room, the wallpaper was dragged home from BHV in Paris, and the teensy sink is from American Standard. And finally, a major shout out to our contractors, Cera Stone!
Reader Comments (21)
So so beautiful. Love it all. So jealous of the fireplace. Oh and the kitchen! Oh just everything. Ha!
Love the pops of juicy color and interesting pattern!
Gorgeous!!! Spot is such a superstar!
It's gorgeous Arren! Did you find a spot for your Best Made Axe?
Awesome! That dining room kills me!
I was just reading my H&H this weekend and loved your home. It's different. That's what I like about it. Unique and fun and artsy. I particularly love the blue chairs and your dining room table and chairs.
Beautiful job!! I love all the wallpaper you used, and the dining table you made is amazing. Can't wait to see more!
I just love how it all turned out!! Arren, did you have to reroute duct-work when you opened up the space? This is something that has prevented us from doing the same thing. We found it hard to find a contractor that was willing to do it. They seemed to disappear when we mentioned it. :-)
Hey Shanna, Got the Best Made Axe after the shoot, so sadly it wasn't included, and I'm still figuring out a cool spot to hang it!
Hi Lee, There was major re-routing! Ductwork went behind the glass tile wall in the kitchen (it's stepped forward from the exterior wall), and the cold air return ended up in the wall of the powder room, oh, and the duct for the Jenn Air range is actually in the floor, between the joists! And, when the steel beams went in to support the second floor, we lost a couple of inches of ceiling height. All in all it was totally worth it, though!
i can see all the love that went in. oh my, industrial arm chairs slathered in blue velvet! brilliant work, sir.!
So beautiful. I love how the jewel tones of the sofa and arm chairs pop against the neutrals. Stunning!
tam-sam.com
I cannot believe that you were able to transform the outside of your house to this gorgeous work of art! Your neighbours must be thrilled!!!!!! I adore the colour, but then William walked me through some of the other changes. Wow. The windows and flashings are fantastic! So stylish! Congrats my dear. Great work (as always). S
It looks amazing. Love the splashes of bright colour.
simply stunning.
Love the Blue chairs and the Dining table .....Beautiful.
I hope fridge was delivered faster than my fridge, but it was worth the wait! I really like the power room bath. Such a perfect little space.
Love it! Arren, I'm curious how large the footprint of your house is. I'm downsizing and am trying to figure out the smallest footprint that would translate into a functional space if opened up. Yours looks just about perfect - smallish, but not too small, and not an inch wasted. Also, how much of the space planning was your contractor involved in, or did you handle all of it?
Hi Maggie, Each floor is about 400 square feet, we worked in concert with our fantastic contractors on the project - We planned out the space, and then we worked closely with them to make it all happen!
Cheers, Arren
Superb transformation, Arren! We also bought some Besta storage units to put in our living room. I like that you can do many configurations to suit your needs and design.
Wonderful share of modern design I love it. Living here on the ranch one appreciates sleek and clean.
Your whippet looks like a border collie!