Penn House Renovation - Summer 2017

We did it! We survived a "kitchen" (aka most of the house) renovation with 2 young kids!

We knew when we moved into this house that at some point we'd want to adjust the kitchen so that the refrigerator was in the same room as the rest of the appliances. Fast forward 2 quick years, and the renovation is done! Can't say it was easy or fun (I guess a few things were kind of fun, but spending your own money on this stuff = stressful, which tends to trump fun), but we now have a beautiful new space that functions so well for us. 

Jenni Egger Designs did the layout design and cabinetry work (she has her own line of cabinets and they're wonderful) and managed the project, and Becky Morrison of Lynn and Campell worked with us on finishes and interior styling. Becky has helped us on 5 separate occasions now, and we just love her work. We've created a good team. I weigh in, but I've learned to just trust her.

Tony had a ton to do with the vision, layout and day-to-day of managing the project. I just tried my best to stay out of the way and keep the boys alive (I spent 6 of the 13 weeks out of town visiting my family or on other trips, which was the only reason I survived).

I'll try to outline what we did between the before and after in these pictures because it's not easy to tell in some of them. I'm really amateur at blogging, but I'll try to give some sources if I can remember them. Wayfair was my BFF during this project! I also had a lot of success on Build.com and good old Amazon.

 

 The first photo was a photo from the original listing when we bought the house. We knocked out the breakfast bar and extended the interior by 7 ft, losing an exterior door and some deck space, but gaining space in the kitchen. The kitchen used to end where the dishwasher currently is. Since our house is a ranch, we lucked out and were able to pitch the ceiling up to the roof. The new ceiling is one of our favorite details. 

Cabinet color is Sherwin Williams Repose Gray.  It looks different in all lighting and especially in photos, but it's a lighter gray tone. From the small sample I thought they were going to look white, which is funny now because they don't at all in person. Ceiling color and all trim is Sherwin Williams Pure White. I was pretty set on the geometric shaped backsplash, and I'm happy we went with it, althought the tile guy said it was some of the hardest tile he's laid in a while. It's from Wayfair. 

The first is another picture from the original listing. The refrigerator wasn't even technically in the kitchen, which we hated (can't tell you how many times we knocked an unsuspecting toddler head with that door). This part is so completely different that the "before" and "after" don't even seem like they belong together. The basement stairs used to go down to the left behind the double ovens, now they are 90 degrees turned and go down through the laundry room. Really hard to show this in one photo. 

The countertops are sueded granite, River White is the specific granite. I LOVE THESE COUNTERTOPS SO MUCH! The sueded finish is matte but also has texture, it's not completely smooth. The maintenance is the same as polished granite. We had the edge mitered to 2.5" thick on the island, but didn't do this on the perimeter.  Island pendants are the Dunmore Pendant from Wayfair. The old sliding door was in the garage at our old 1920s house, and Tony thought to bring it with us when we came here. We had it repainted with a fresh coat of Pure White (it was pretty yellowed from many years of garage sitting), and we LOVE it. So glad he had the foresight to grab it before we moved! The track for the barn door is from Amazon.

Wall paint in the main space is Sherwin Williams Dorian Gray, which is a few shades darker than the cabinets (Repose Gray).  Island pendants are HUGE. Love them (although maintenance on glass pendants isn't easy. They get dusty quickly!).White dining chairs are also from Wayfair. Drawer and cabinet pulls are these 9" chrome pulls that we got at Richelieu. And sidenote I LOVE all of the lower drawers instead of cabinets. That is working out so well storage-wise for us.

The right side of the entryway into the sunroom didn't change, so that corner is the same in both photos. I think this picture does a good job of showing all of the kitchen walls that were knocked down. (It's clearly not professionally taken like the others, but illustrates the changes very well.)

 

This photo is confusing since we completely changed the location of the stairs. Back down the hallway to the right of the stairs where the powder room used to be is where the landing for the basement stairs is now located.

 

 


 

These pictures show how we opened the "4-way intersection" that Tony hated so much. When you entered the mudroom previously, you had to choose to walk through the various entryways to entry the kitchen, great room, and skinny back hall (where the powder room was). Although the after pictures aren't taken from as far back, this is now what you see when you enter the mudroom. We opened it up just enough that it feels open, but not so open that you can see the entire house from the entryway. 

These pictures also do a great job of capturing the pitched ceiling and the simple coffering we chose. LOVE those details. Barstools were from Ashley Furniture ($50 per stool!) and were my biggest bargain find of the whole project. They're easy to wipe down and so far are standing up to the messes the kids have made.

The floors everywhere are 3" Mohawk Butternut Oak engineered hardwood. After living with them for a few months, I can't say the engineered floors are my favorite part of the renovation. I prefer solid wood like we had at our old house and like the former main living space before the reno, but we didn't have that option since we were laying the floors over 2 concrete slabs (the sunroom and mudroom). The butternut color we chose didn't seem too dark when we chose it, but in reality it seems to show a lot of crumbs/mess. Not sure if another color would show less, but I've noticed that maintenance on the floors is more than I thought it would be. Although that may just be life with 2 and 4 year old boys.

We freshened up the mudroom with white paint, and kept the lockers that we love so much. Everyone asks about the lockers. We got these when we first moved in from CORT but they have random inventory so they don't always have lockers in stock. They are the perfect solution for us since I would never be able to keep open lockers looking nice and organized. I also love that we kept the vertical planked walls instead of drywalling here. Art is from Home Goods, the rug is a Dash and Albert indoor outdoor rug (NOT smart to pick such a light color in a mudroom!), and the bench is from World Market. 

 

The new powder room is right off the of the mudroom in the spot where the old (before us) exterior window used to be. It's a small bathroom so it's hard to photograph, but we love the new location. The vanity (with marble top) is from Wayfair and we added these knobs (this is where Becky comes in...LOVE her choice on these), the faucet (which I love) is from either Wayfair or Build.com, this one is similar but not exactly the same. 

 

I loved the sunroom before and I love it even more now. I love that Becky encouraged me to go all white in here. The swivel chairs were a must for Tony and the rug is from my Grandfather's house. The dresser in the middle is from Wayfair and was the perfect finishing touch. We love sitting in here, and the morning light we get in this room is good for the soul.

(This is the best pic I could find of the old fireplace)

When Becky and I first met to talk about this project I wasn't planning on doing anything different to the old fireplace. It was one of her first suggestions, and I'm SO glad we made it bigger and updated the style. The herringbone marble tile is from The Tile Shop. We bought the leather couch from Wayfair, and the chairs and ottoman from Skyline Furniture through Becky's trade account. The art on the wall in from Jenny's Print Shop and framed by Framebridge (which was so easy and they had outstanding customer service). 

 
 

The front room used to be our dining room, but we gained a room by moving the dining table out into the main open space. This room is now my office and, surprise, I love it. The dark walls are Sherwin Williams Grays Harbor. Zebra art, pink chair and salt lamps are from Home Goods. The table/desk is from my grandfather, and the blue dresser is a piece Tony and I painted together when we moved into our first house. So glad it found a home in the new space. We added solid french doors to this room so it can be closed off from the living room/kitchen when we want and I love the doors (and especially the hardware on them...again wouldn't have known about this without Becky). 

I can't find a before picture of the awkward placement of our laundry (it was across from the fridge in that weird little space off of the kitchen), but it is now tucked in this cute little room above the basement stairs (the stairs go down below the window pictured). I wasn't sure I would like stacked washer and dryer, but I've been really happy with this new laundry room. You can't see them very well, but the pulls on the cabinets are really fun in here, again that's all Becky. 

 

And I think that's a wrap. We are so enjoying the new function of our home, and overall we don't have any regrets about doing the project. It was HARDDDDD and stressful and really terrible doing this with 2 little kids, but we are here enjoying it every day, so I do suppose we can now say it was worth it. (And if the number of times I typed LOVE in this post is any indication of how we/I feel, I'd say we're pretty satisfied!)