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Our Johnson Home Renovation

In 2014, Chris and I bought our first home together just outside of Atlanta, Ga.  To Chris, it was his “Dream Home”. For me…not so much.

The house was sold to us by an investment company out of Los Angeles. To say they didn’t care about the house or the finished product they put their name on, was an understatement. Our house definitely was no HGTV flip! With close to 3,000 sq feet of updates to do and furniture to purchase, we had to figure out how to make this house our home without breaking the bank!

To furnish our home, I decided to turn to garage sales and second-hand stores and was determined to learn how to upcycle those pieces to make our home beautiful and unique no matter what. Chris put his hands to work and started building custom furniture from scrap wood we found around town. To restore our home, we learned the ins and outs of renovating, diy projects and creative home “hacks”. That passion for making our house a home developed into a true love for furniture and all around home renovations. We love it all!

We decided to start with the entire main floor of our home.  It was time to shake this 1970’s home up…and move it into modern day times! Open Concept baby…here we go!

 

 

Our Closed off “Factory Grade” Kitchen…

Our Boring Dining Room…

Our tiny Blah Living Room…

So we decided to tear down some walls!!!

and tear up some floors….

With all of the walls removed our kitchen was starting to feel larger already.  We decided to keep the sink area intact, but would definitely be painting those existing cabinets, adding new backsplash, a bar serving and seating area, and an exposed beam directly in the center of the room to help keep those walls up and add a pop of reclaimed love to the middle of our home.

Before we could do all that, we needed to pull all three of these rooms together by installing hardwood floors in the kitchen and living room to match the house’s original hardwood floors in the dining room.

 

Our son, Caleb, even got in on the action. 🙂

Once the floors were installed it was time to conquer the “slight issues” we discovered while tearing down our walls.  It appeared as if every single piece of electrical wiring in our entire house ran through the wall we tore out between the kitchen and the living room.  Go figure right!

It set us back a little time wise, but we were eventually able to rewire everything and clear out that space for the huge beam we would be installing down the middle of our home.

With the electrical issues taken care of and the temporary wall holding up our entire house, it was time to call in “back up” to help install our two 18 feet, extremely heavy, exposed beams.

Once the beams were installed we also drywalled our future serving bar/sitting area to get it ready for granite install.

Now it was time to build us some cabinetry!  We could have easily contacted one of our local cabinet wholesalers, but because we wanted a specific look and we wanted to save some money, Chris decided to bite the bullet and build an entire wall of cabinets.  That wall included a new pantry, a space for a built-in refrigerator and built-in double microwave/oven combo, some open shelving and of course a cute little coffee nook to feed my habit. 🙂

As if he wasn’t busy enough, I also managed to persuade him to think of a unique way to build the perfect kitchen island to fit just right in the center of our new kitchen.

We then installed a new cooktop & island range hood to go with all of our other new stainless steel appliances we bought earlier in the renovation.  Of course every appliance purchase I made was a deal.  We paid just over $2000 for $7850 worth of appliances!

Our son Caleb jumped in and helped finish our framed out pantry with wood planks.

I knew I wanted to go with a fun brick look for our kitchen backsplash as well as touches of the same brick around the entire kitchen and living room to pull the two rooms together.  Not only did it give our kitchen a fresh unique look, but it was inexpensive and very simple to do.

Instead of replacing the granite counter tops we already had in the sink area of our kitchen, we decided to save a few dollars by simply installing new matching granite to the rest of the kitchen from the bar to the coffee nook.  We painted the brick backsplash around the kitchen a bright white to give a nice contrast to the warm earth tones in the granite.

To pull the rooms together, we added recessed lighting throughout the Kitchen and Dining Room to match the lighting in the Living Room.

With all the cabinets installed, the island built and the drywall and mudding done, finally it was time to paint the cabinets and walls!  We went with Sherwin Williams “Pure White” for the cabinets and Sherwin Williams “Sculptor Clay” for the walls.

As the project was finishing up…we decided we still wanted a few more touches of “us” in our new renovation.  We LOVE reclaimed wood and using different materials though out a home to add a touch of uniqueness.  So we didn’t stop with a typical renovation, we made sure to add a few more “pops of us”…from another brick wall in the living room…

to transforming the wood exposed beam into an “industrial metal” beam statement piece in the middle of our home.

We even covered our living room ceiling with cedar planks and more exposed beams…

Which we painted white to keep with the fresh, bright, airy vibe we had established throughout the open concept main floor.

With all the DIY projects, little home renovation “hacks”, reclaimed wood pieces, crazy craigslist finds and all the love, sweat and a few tears we put into this baby…we simply LOVE our new open concept renovation!

FINALLY!!! THE “AFTER”

On to our next renovation!  See you soon!

Creatively Yours…

“Custom…Reclaimed…Restored…Remodeled. We do it all! Send us a note.”

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