OK, not gonna lie. This is seriously about my favorite post ever. I’m obsessed with seeing spaces transform – before and after pictures are my jam. So I was positively giddy finding photos to share with you today.
Today marks exactly 11 years that we’ve owned and lived in this home. There is still a lot of emotion that comes up when I think about that. I do not take the fact that we get to live here lightly, it is a dream come true. It’s not a perfect house (nor do I want it to be) but it is home and we love it.
I was just a baby in my (ahem, cough) late 20’s when we moved in and ever since I’ve been making it more our style. My style has changed quite a bit through the years though, like it does for many of us. Now that I’m (ahem, cough) older, I’ve got a pretty good grasp on what I love, so our home is really starting to transform into what we both really like and feel comfortable in.
And my goodness, there is still so much I want to do. I think about what will happen when I’m done with this house and then I laugh because I doubt I’ll ever be done. It is my canvas!
So here you go – some of the legit worst before photos you’ve ever seen. I get so frustrated when the befores are so dark and horribly taken and the afters are perfect, but it cannot be avoided this time. I wasn’t thinking about blogs or perfect pics when I took any of these so many years ago. :)
Our living room was filled with handed down furniture from my Dad, some drapes I hemmed myself and two fat cats:
I shared this photo of that same room on Instagram yesterday:
Remember when we had our walls painted and I was telling you how pink our old wall color looked? That before photo is a great example of that. I lived with those pink walls for eight years! (And yes, I picked out that color for about half of our house. Cry.)
Here’s another shot showing the difference trim makes. And non-pink walls:
A cookie if you find the cat.
Our stairs have undergone big transformations too. The basement stairs looked like this up till a few years ago:
And now they look like this with a $50 planked wall and some carpet:
Carpet helps. :)
But sometimes carpet doesn’t help – our main stairs were getting nasty and I dreamed of pulling all of that up: 
Because I knew what was underneath:
Again, one of my thriftiest projects ever at $50 for wood for the landing and stain (I had the paint).
Our basement sure looks a lot different too. We used it for years even in it’s unfinished state:
We had it finished over about six months and saved a ton that way (and I did a lot of the work too):
Here’s our old basement family room (we had a ton of our son’s big play stuff down here too):
And here’s that same view now:
This new space has been so wonderful!
I know I share the dining room turned library a lot but I can’t do a before and after without it. I mean, come on.
Here’s the dining room we never used about five years after moving in:
And here it is in all of it’s “library” glory now. It took a couple (three?) years to get it to this point but we use it soooo much more now:
One of my favorite transformations was the one that happened last year. We knocked down a wall that separated our family room and my old office. This is what my office looked like about nine years ago:
I was going for a brick red color and twice got orange instead. OK.
Here’s that same spot more recently:
One thing I thought would be AWESOME(!!) was the corner fireplace. And I hated it about three days after moving in:
We did various things over the years to change it up but when the wall came down I was a happy girl: 
The wall coming down made a much bigger difference in the kitchen than we anticipated too. This was our bay window in the kitchen a few years after moving in:
And here’s that same view now:
My dream has always been to have a window seat and I absolutely adore it.
Upstairs the horribly-taken before photos continue with our loft. Before the Bub we used it as a hang out space:
Then it turned into a playroom for years (sniff!) and now it’s more of a craft space:
I didn’t have an exact same view of that one but it gives you an idea. It’s a pit right now or I would take a new one for you. ;)
My stepdaughter’s room was so special because she picked out all of the colors and we decided on the design together. I taped off the wall and then her and her girlfriends painted it. I still remember the paint fight that night:
:)
Now it’s a little more sophisticated:
I’ve been working on this room lately and it looks SO GOOD. I’ll be sharing the updates soon!
And finally, the master bedroom. See – my love for symmetry is deep. Told you!:
This is another special one because my late father-in-law helped to retile the surround:
I finished painting the room too, that helped. ;) This corner fireplace has never bothered me – I’m sure because it’s larger and not tucked into the actual corner like our old family room one was.
I always say I’m not one to knock my style through the years – it was right at the time and our home has always felt warm and cozy to us, no matter what the paint color. I look back with fondness at our home through the years but at the same time am really proud of what it’s become.
I share these not only because it’s fun to look back and compare the spaces, but to remind you that it takes time to get things the way you want them. And then you’ll get it right and your style may change and you’ll want to paint a wall for the third time. It’s all good. :) I remember when we moved in that I wanted to fill every room so quickly to have it “done” – now I’ve learned the value in patience and waiting it out to see how the spaces work before putting money into them.
Hope you enjoyed this eleven year before and after. I wonder what it will look like by next year! You never know what I’ll do! :) Thanks for joining in with me along the way!
Major props – she did those all on her own! That’s some big time talent and patience. :) 
