Our Big New DIY Project

Mike and I recently purchased our first home.  It's a two-bedroom garden apartment in a 100+ year-old building.  

On the broker's website the apartment looked like this:

But once we got in and started work we found many things like this:

And this:

One of the first things we did was paint.  We used Benjamin Moore Aura paint on our last apartment and I hated it.  It was hard to apply, I had problems with sagging, and it wasn't any easier to clean than other paints I've used in the past.  

This time we went with Home Depot Behr Premium Plus.  For the hallway, dining area and living room we chose Silky Bamboo. 

After we painted the walls we put down new molding that I'd painted bright white.  We also painted the odd, previously-black, strip of half-round molding near the ceiling bright white.  

It was a lot of work but it was worth it. The Silky Bamboo has just the right amount of contrast with the white molding.  The place looks bright, fresh and clean.  I haven't been this happy with a paint color in years.

Another thing we did before moving in was tear out the existing closets and build in new closets.  The old closets stopped two thirds of the way up and had cheesy sliding doors.  

Here's the old bedroom closet:

 

And here's the beautiful new floor-to-ceiling bedroom closet built by Mike and his friend Buddy.  This closet has 8-foot bi-fold doors and is big enough to hold all of our hanging clothes, our dresser, blankets, towels, boxes, you name it.

Here's the office closet before:

and after:

Mike and Buddy made the office closet a little narrower to give us more floor space.  What we lost in width we more than gained in height as this closet also now goes to the ceiling.  

In these photos you can see the bedroom and office paint colors (bedroom - Whitened Sage, office - Summer Moon) and the new doors Mike and Buddy hung to replace the cheesy (there's that word again) hollow core doors.

After finishing the painting, the molding and the closets the place was looking pretty good but it was still missing one important thing.

The fish tank!!!

Now that the fish tank is here it feels like home.

Comments

[Claudine]

Looks great Kara! I can't wait to see it with my own eyes!

[Kara]

I can't wait to show it to you Claudine! But maybe we should wait until we haul away the 27 contractor bags full of broken glass and dirt (from the garden) that are currently situated in the middle of the living room.

[Dee]

I like looking at the before and after photos. Great job!

[Kara]

Thanks Dee! I'll keep those before and after photos coming. Take care!! Kara

[Marry Digg]

The aquarium just did everything right! It put justice in your apartment. Great job!

[Kara]

Thanks Mary! We've had this fish tank for over 10 years. We talked briefly about shutting it down before we moved - because it's such a pain in the butt to move - but we couldn't imagine life without our fish!! It turned out that the move went smoothly. It took about 10 hours and took a separate moving truck, but we got it done.

[Brendan Amorose]

I much prefer starting with a blank, or relatively blank, canvas when redecorating a home, to be honest! I think your first few makeover tasks went great! I love the new color of the walls in the hallway, dining, and living rooms. The cabinets that your husband and his friend made are a huge improvement on the previous ones. And I love that fish tank! It looks amazing! Have you posted pictures of the entire apartment after you were done? I’d love to see what it looks like now! Congratulations on your move to the new apartment!

[Ofelia Bertrand]

Ooh… It really looked like every room in the house was a mess before you moved in. Well, it doesn’t matter now since your house looks really beautiful. And the fish tank? All I can say is “WOW!”. I also love the closets. Do you have a lot of things to keep? It seems that your space is large enough for your stuff! :) Nice!