Before & After Home Tour

Hey guys! I am so honored to be guest posting today for Kristin. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Erica and I have an interior design and home improvement blog over at Designing Vibes . Today, I want to give you a little holiday tour of my fixer upper.

In February of 2015, my family and I moved into our very first fixer upper. In hopes of saving some money and pursuing my dreams of interior design, we traded our new construction cottage for an outdated rancher built in 1986. To read the full story on that transition, click here.

Two days after moving in, we started renovating our great room. Here is what it looked like when we first moved in.

It was dark, dingy, infested with ladybugs and it even smelt funky. After removing the popcorn ceilings, painting the walls and trim, replacing the light fixtures and making over the fireplace, we achieved some dramatic results.

Never underestimate the power of paint, my friends.

This Christmas will mark 10 months of living in our 1980’s rancher and I am very pleased with the progress we made in such little time with such a meager budget.

In case you couldn’t tell, I am not your traditional “red and green” type of girl, when it comes to holiday decor. While I think it looks beautiful in many homes, I think it distracts from the neutral aesthetic I try to exude.

I call my Christmas style “rustic glam” and it embodies the contradiction that is me- earthy with pops of glam. Heck…I even enjoy throwing in some coastal elements. What you will learn about me is that I am a bit of a rebel.

Let me show you another “before” photo.

And here is another “after”….

Let’s mosey along to the kitchen.

Here is what it looked like when we first moved in….

And here is a current photo of the space…

We painted the walls and cabinets, replaced some of the appliances and hardware, added height to the cabinets, built a DIY pantry door, and painted an existing door black.

Eventually I would like to replace the dirty tile floor with hardwood or stained concrete and replace the existing quartz counter-tops with Calcutta Marble, but our budget has halted any further progress.

I forgot to mention that we also replaced the backsplash with subway tile.

Let’s move on to the booze-induced buffet in the dining room.

Here is a “before” shot…

And here is what the dining room looks like after some fresh paint, a new light fixture and covering the popcorn ceiling with beadboard planking.

Please don’t judge my table-scape.

You see….we don’t do a formal, sit-down dinner for Christmas.

We gather with our close family and throw a cocktail party of sorts.

And instead of a formal gift exchange, for the adults, we all bring a nice bottle of wine or whiskey to exchange.

This really takes all of the stress out of the holidays.

I am so glad you got to stop by. Now, I am going to go “dream by the fire”.

Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas! Now get out there and design some good vibes! For more DIY tutorials and inspiration, please be sure to check my blog out over at Designing Vibes.

Thank you Erica for joining us today, it has been so fun to watch you transform your beautiful home!