Home Tour Before & After

I started my Instagram account @tablefor5please 3 years ago to have a way to share with friends how I was updating my home. I am so humbled and honored that so many people follow along with me as we continue to make our house into our forever home. I thought it would only be fitting to share some before and afters with you guys and how my home has changed over these past few years.

When we bought our house 11 years ago dark everything was the rage.  We had all dark brown cabinets, black granite, bought dark furniture, and even painted most rooms in our house warm colors. Back then, that is what we loved. Over time, we started wanting our home to be lighter and brighter.  We started with paint, then décor, and eventually even replaced our light carpet with dark wood tile floors (go figure).

The desire to brighten everything came when I saw one of my local friends paint her dark stained kitchen cabinets a creamy white color. I wanted to do it so badly and we waited a year or so before we decided to take the plunge. That decision caused a ripple effect in our entire home, but one that was well worth it I think.

KITCHEN BEFORE & AFTER

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Even simple things like adding new lighting in the kitchen and breakfast area in addition to a barn door really transformed the space on a much smaller budget.

BREAKFAST AREA BEFORE & AFTER

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 After brightening up the kitchen so much, our living room looked completely out of place.  We started by replacing our brown couches with a light tan sectional (I had wanted a sectional forever)!  That helped but we eventually had the cabinet painter come back and paint our mantel and master bath cabinetry.  That looked so great, we ended up painting the walls back to the original paint color (a very light tan) – hahaha! We eventually added shiplap to our living room nooks and a feature wall in our bedroom.

LIVING ROOM BEFORE & AFTER

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In the bedroom I wanted to go for a more beachy retreat type of feel, so I went with Sherwin Williams Alabaster white.  Talk about changing the feel of a room!  We questioned why we had been living in a cave for all these years!  We kept our dark furniture in the bedroom (mostly for cost reasons), but I ended up really liking the contrast against the white walls. I finally talked my husband into selling our lazy boy recliner and replacing it with some brighter chairs.  I think after seeing all the changes we had made so far, he had started to trust me more and was on board. Yay!

BEDROOM BEFORE & AFTER

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Our master bath hasn’t changed that much except for the décor and a new light fixture, but the cabinet painting made it feel completely different.

BATHROOM BEFORE & AFTER

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The last rooms to get a makeover were the rooms we used the least but the first thing you see when you walk in our front door – our dining room and “formal” living room. Over the years I had switched out décor to try and bring a different feel to these rooms, but adding new flooring, new lighting, and furniture definitely had the biggest impacts. Hard to spend the money but so glad we finally did!

FORMAL LIVING BEFORE & AFTER

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DINING ROOM BEFORE & AFTER

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Like I mentioned earlier, I started this journey 3 years ago so all of these changes happened slowly over time, in bits and pieces. Nothing got a major overhaul all at the same time.  If I had it my way I would have redone the whole house all at one time, but I think more thought goes into it the longer it takes. We took breaks in between for monetary reasons and sometimes the time helped us stew things over and decide what we really wanted.  There is so much inspiration out there on Instagram and Pinterest, so if you are thinking about changing things but don’t have the money just yet, start saving pics for when you do.  I think it helps men to see a pic and show them how you want to change things vs telling them too (if you have an opinionated husband like me).

Hope you enjoyed seeing our home from where it started to now. Thanks for being here!