Our Chalet-style house!
Hi everybody! I've previously posted a couple of pictures in response to "show me your" requests, but haven't done an actual post of my house before. Our house is kind of a swiss chalet on the outside, but when we bought it last year the inside was pure, unadulterated 70s funk. I'm all for funk, but not the eyestabbingly bad orange shag variety that makes it impossible to relax. Our house was originally built as an equipment barn with huge beams and high ceilings, but the downstairs (which is on ground level) was "woefully suboptimized" as my husband put it - just garages and a rec room, and a bathroom.
The only kitchen was upstairs and had about 3 feet of useable workspace, and no eating space - at first we thought we would just remodel that room, but after realizing how limited the space was we realized how cool the downstairs could be if we had a big kitchen down there. It was always our dream to have a home where the kitchen was really the heart of the house - and now we do!
Here's our living room to kitchen view. More pictures below the cut!
We were going for a style in keeping with the chalet look on the outside, but with modern conveniences. Kind of a European country kitchen - a cozy, old, durable, and pieced-together-over-time look. But of course, I needed to have lots of space, dishwasher, smoothtop stove (gas wasn't an option because there are no gas lines here, and we didn't have the resources to put in propane). Here is a shot of the real "heart" of the kitchen. We still need a backsplash, but I'm not really missing it to be honest.
Here's the other side of the kitchen. It was really important to me to have a low workspace since I'm super short. We found a piece of reclaimed manmade marble that was exactly the size we needed to fit under the window! I love the plate shelf - it's right above the dishwasher (super handy). And I love having the glass front cabinets with lights - perfect place for stemware:
Here is our custom kitchen island. It didn't cost us too much because the island was built using Ikea cabinets as a base, and then we had it wrapped with stained pine. The other cabinets in the kitchen are all Ikea too - but covering this in non-ikea stuff really makes it look country to me. Like it just grew right up out of the floor.
Here's the view from the dining room looking toward the kitchen. You can kind of see the terra-cotta colored frottage faux-finished kitchen ceiling. The color and finish was inspired by a tile I found and fell in love with - that I may eventually use for the backsplash.
One of the dining room walls. That's a flower arrangement of things all from our garden. I did the colorwash faux finish on the walls with a pigment that's actually made to go in plaster. It gave it the space a really warm, aged kind of feel. And the round cabinet there was $5 at a garage sale down the street. There's an identical one in the living room! That was a major score.
Here's the dining room as seen from the living room. There's no wall between the two rooms at all. The dining set we scored for free off Craigslist. At first I hated the pink chairs, but they're kind of growing on me.
Here's the other side of the dining room. Just to give a sense of scale - those curtains covered our patio slider door at our old condo. The window is 6' tall and 7' wide.
The living room:
The other heart of the house - and our other favorite place, the piano corner!
And, to give a sense of how much the place has changed, here are before and after shots:
I have in-progress photos if anybody is interested, but I figured this is plenty for now. Thanks for letting me share!
The only kitchen was upstairs and had about 3 feet of useable workspace, and no eating space - at first we thought we would just remodel that room, but after realizing how limited the space was we realized how cool the downstairs could be if we had a big kitchen down there. It was always our dream to have a home where the kitchen was really the heart of the house - and now we do!
Here's our living room to kitchen view. More pictures below the cut!
We were going for a style in keeping with the chalet look on the outside, but with modern conveniences. Kind of a European country kitchen - a cozy, old, durable, and pieced-together-over-time look. But of course, I needed to have lots of space, dishwasher, smoothtop stove (gas wasn't an option because there are no gas lines here, and we didn't have the resources to put in propane). Here is a shot of the real "heart" of the kitchen. We still need a backsplash, but I'm not really missing it to be honest.
Here's the other side of the kitchen. It was really important to me to have a low workspace since I'm super short. We found a piece of reclaimed manmade marble that was exactly the size we needed to fit under the window! I love the plate shelf - it's right above the dishwasher (super handy). And I love having the glass front cabinets with lights - perfect place for stemware:
Here is our custom kitchen island. It didn't cost us too much because the island was built using Ikea cabinets as a base, and then we had it wrapped with stained pine. The other cabinets in the kitchen are all Ikea too - but covering this in non-ikea stuff really makes it look country to me. Like it just grew right up out of the floor.
Here's the view from the dining room looking toward the kitchen. You can kind of see the terra-cotta colored frottage faux-finished kitchen ceiling. The color and finish was inspired by a tile I found and fell in love with - that I may eventually use for the backsplash.
One of the dining room walls. That's a flower arrangement of things all from our garden. I did the colorwash faux finish on the walls with a pigment that's actually made to go in plaster. It gave it the space a really warm, aged kind of feel. And the round cabinet there was $5 at a garage sale down the street. There's an identical one in the living room! That was a major score.
Here's the dining room as seen from the living room. There's no wall between the two rooms at all. The dining set we scored for free off Craigslist. At first I hated the pink chairs, but they're kind of growing on me.
Here's the other side of the dining room. Just to give a sense of scale - those curtains covered our patio slider door at our old condo. The window is 6' tall and 7' wide.
The living room:
The other heart of the house - and our other favorite place, the piano corner!
And, to give a sense of how much the place has changed, here are before and after shots:
I have in-progress photos if anybody is interested, but I figured this is plenty for now. Thanks for letting me share!