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It’s Finished! A Complete Tour of The Curbly House

by on Oct 2, 2014

This house tour is a long time coming. We’ve officially been in our “finished” house for one year, and we thought we’d celebrate with a big old fashioned house tour. So we’re going to show you the super-clean, polished, sparkly version of The Curbly House…which looked like this exactly once, before we, you know, started living in it again!

Of course, no tour would be complete without a nod to one’s roots, so we’re posting the ‘before’ photos of every room, because it’s important to acknowledge the past and – in our case – never repeat it. Here we go!

The Living Room

Before: Oh, sad, dark, dreary Edward Hopper-esque room, you were depressing and needed to lighten up a little.

Curbly House Tour // Living Room - Before
Photo: Bruno Bornsztein

 

After: Hello, gorgeous, feather-light room! You are so lovely and inviting; our very own watercolor.

We were fortunate to work with the super-fun, super-talented, queen of design, Ms. Emily Henderson, on this room and several others (namely: the master bedroom, sunroom, and dining room). Many hugs and high-fives go out to this gorgeous gal!

Curbly House Tour // Living Room - After
Photo: Melissa Oholendt
Curbly House Tour // Living Room - After
Photo: Melissa Oholendt

 

 

A room having white walls and windows with wooden table and chair situated near the window.
Photo: Melissa Oholendt
A grey couch and a chair are shown near the windows.
Photo: Melissa Oholendt

 

Living Room Resource List:

 

 

The Sun Room

Before: This was the room of 99 problems; falling ceiling tiles and chewed mullion windows were among them. But, ample natural light wasn’t.

Curbly House Tour // Sun Room - Before
Photo: Bruno Bornsztein

 

After: New windows, new paint, new ceiling, new walls, new bench, and a reconfigured space completely transformed this sunny nook.

Curbly House Tour // Sun Room - After
Photo: Melissa Oholendt
 

 

Curbly House Tour // Sun Room - After
Photo: Melissa Oholendt

 

A white wall has three pieces of artwork on it.
Photo: Melissa Oholendt
A shelf has children’s decorations on top of it.
Photo: Melissa Oholendt
A white window seat with a pale gray through and a gray patterned pillow.
Photo: Melissa Oholendt
Two tiles with pictures arranged near flowers.
Photo: Melissa Oholendt

Sun Room Resource List:

 

 

Dining Room

Before: This tiny cramped room was begging to be opened up so that it could breathe a little bit.

Curbly House Tour // Dining Room - Before
Photo: Bruno Bornsztein

After: We now eat dinner in this room almost every night. It’s a family space. The gallery wall of family photos is the heart of the room, and the entire downstairs.

Also, because we get asked about the practicality of a rug underneath a table where small children eat, the truth is: it’s great! The wool is still kickin’.

Curbly House Tour // Dining Room - After
Photo: Melissa Oholendt
 
Curbly House Tour // Dining Room - After
Photo: Melissa Oholendt

 

Room featuring dining table with foliage in a pitcher, under a modern four-pronged light fixture.
Photo: Melissa Oholendt
Pastel, watercolor-look artwork on a white wall above candlesticks and other items on a wood furniture piece.
Photo: Melissa Oholendt
A wall having many different size images of a child.
Photo: Melissa Oholendt
Dining Room Resource List:

Kitchen

Before: I get a little teary thinking about this old, decrepit kitchen. And, not for sentimental reasons. I loathed this room for its lack of appliances (no oven, no stove, and one 10amp outlet that required a trip to the fuse box every time we ran the microwave). I don’t miss its color and mysterious animal smells either.

Curbly House Tour // Kitchen - Before
Photo: Bruno Bornsztein

After: This is the room in the house that makes me pinch myself every time I walk into it. It’s a kitchen, a family room, the place homework is done after school, and the place our friends congregate during dinner parties. It’s the most used and most loved room in our house.

Curbly House Tour // Kitchen - After
Photo: Bruno Bornsztein

 

Curbly House Tour // Kitchen - After
Photo: Bruno Bornsztein

 

Curbly House Tour // Kitchen - After
Photo: Bruno Bornsztein

 

 

Mudroom & Bath

After: These two things are true about these two rooms:
1. There is nothing overrated about a mudroom.
2. Here’s a joke that’s no joke: We were really urine-ing for a half-bathroom on the first floor; now that we have one we feel a great sense of relief. 
Technically, there’s no ‘Before” here because the mudroom and half-bath were born out of our addition.

Apologies for the absence of ‘After’ photos of the half-bathroom; they are forthcoming once I decide which Rifle Paper Co. wallpaper to place on the walls. 

Curbly House Tour // Mud Room - After
Photo: Bruno Bornsztein
 

 

Curbly House Tour // Mudroom - After
Photo: Bruno Bornsztein
 

 

Curbly House Tour // Mudroom - After
Photo: Bruno Bornsztein

 

Mudroom & Laundry Resource List:

 

 

Master Bedroom

Before: Prior to being our bedroom, our master bedroom was a storage room. And by storage room, I mean, junk room. And, by junk room, I mean the room that could have landed us on an episode of Hoarders. Here’s the empty room the first time we walked through the house (please excuse the gritty phone picture):

Curbly House Tour // Master Bedroom Before

After: In my dreamiest of dreams, I never believed I would sleep in a bedroom so beautiful. And, there’s a chandelier! And, you know I sing Sia’s “Chandelier” every time I enter the room.

Curbly House Tour // Master Bedroom - After
Photo: Melissa Oholendt
 

 

Curbly House Tour // Master Bedroom - After
Photo: Melissa Oholendt
 

 

Curbly House Tour // Master Bedroom - After
Photo: Melissa Oholendt
 

 

Curbly House Tour // Master Bedroom
Photo: Melissa Oholendt

 

A bed with a blue material headboard sits in a white bedroom.
Photo: Melissa Oholendt
A golden hand with a gold bracelet hung on the thumb is in between two pink roses and a stack of three books.
Photo: Melissa Oholendt

Bedroom Resource List:

 

 

 

Little Boy’s room

Before: The day after we closed on the house two rows of acoustic ceiling tiles fell from the ceiling of this room. It was clearly begging for change.

Curbly House Tour // Nursery - Before
Photo: Bruno Bornsztein

After: We wanted to design a room that captured our son’s sense of adventure, while feeling grounded in classic design. Hence, the mountains with a hint of mid-century modern. 

Little Boy's Room Makeover
Photo: Bruno Bornsztein

 

Little Boy's Room Makeover
Photo: Bruno Bornsztein

 

Little Boy's Room Makeover: Reading Nook
Photo: Bruno Bornsztein

 

Little Boy's Room Makeover: Mountain Mural
Photo: Bruno Bornsztein

 

Little Boy's Room Makeover
Photo: Bruno Bornsztein

 

Little Girl’s room

Before: During our closing with the relator, the daughter of the woman who previously owned the house told us that she once sat in this room and cried because it was her birthday and none of the children she invited came to her party. She told us that, for her, the house was full of sad memories. I panicked and feared we were making a terrible mistake purchasing a house full of sorrow. I then bought sage smudge in bulk and paraded through the house like a boss. I also placed little bowls of sea salt in all the corners to absorb the sadness (this, admittedly was a little cray-cray). If you look closely, you can see one of my sadness-trapping bowls in the picture.

Curbly House Tour // Child's Room - Before
Photo: Bruno Bornsztein

After No. 1: This sweet, little bedroom is just like our daughter: joyful and bright. And, so far we’re batting 1000 for birthday parties.

Kid's bed along with pillow, dolls, mini cabinet and photo frames on the wall.
Photo: Alicia Lacy

 

 
 

After No. 2: As our girl grows, so does her style. In 2016, we gave her room a new look.  

Girl's Room Makeover - Wall Flowers
Photo: Bruno Bornsztein
 

Girl's Room Makeover - Shelving

 

 

 

Girl's Room Makeover - Desk

 Girl's Room Makeover - Modern and Magical

 

 

Storage Room

Before: This former bedroom was drab, bright yellow, and filled with thousands of bobby pins. Seriously, a truckload of bobby pins. They still mysteriously come up through the floorboards. 

The corner of a yellow room with dark brown window frames and dark brown floors and floor boards.
 

After: Our ‘Bonus Room’ (that acted as a catch-all reservoir for far too long), finally became our cozy family den.

Cozy Den Makeover
Photo: M.E. Gray

 

Cozy Family Room Makeover - Basket Wall
Photo: M.E. Gray

 

Cozy Family Room Makeover - Trunk Storage
Photo: M.E. Gray

Den Resource List:

 

Kid’s Bathroom

Before: This bathroom was full of problems, and they were all hidden beneath the raised floor that we tripped over every single time we entered the room.

Curbly House Tour // Bathroom - Before
Photo: Bruno Bornsztein
 
Curbly House Tour // Bathroom (Step) - Before
Photo: Bruno Bornsztein

After: Every single wall, floor, pipe, tile, chimney stack, etc. was removed from the old bathroom to make way for the new one!

Curbly House Tour // Bathroom - After
Photo: Bruno Bornsztein
 
Curbly House Tour // Bathroom - After
Photo: Bruno Bornsztein

 

Bathroom Resource List:

 

 

 

 

Thanks for sticking with us this far. If you have questions about products, designs, or DIYs, please let me know in the comments! For more on the process of re-doing our house, check out the entire Curbly House Section!

A tremendous bouquet of thanks goes out to the wonderful, stunningly-talented photographer, Melissa Oholendt, who makes magic with her camera. 

 

 

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31 Comments

  1. Nerissa

    Do you have a source for the great backsplash tiles in the kitchen? They look like keystone marble or something like that… So great!

  2. Lin

    It’s beautiful…I hope you don’t mind if I copy your choice of paints.  Lovely, lovely!  Job well done!

  3. Annie

    It’s really something. How did you choose paint colors? In your pictures they all seem to work together. Do you have a trick. Well done, you guys!

  4. Araceli

    I just found your house on Pinterest. I love it! It’s amazing to see all the work you put into it – beautiful!

  5. Gale

    Absolutely gorgeous! It is amazing how the dark colors made everything feel gloomy and old and just paint in those wonderful colors brought new life to this old home. Love, love, love it! Your designer is the best!

  6. Anonymous

    I love your house, what you’ve done is so impressive!

    I recently moved and am redecorating my living room and having a bit of trouble balancing the television. I’m wondering where you’ve placed your television since it isn’t shown in pictures.

  7. Alicia Lacy

    Oh, the difficult decision of where to place the tele! We ended up putting it in the sun room (on top of the low, white storage credenza). Additionally, we added a small sofa on the other side of the play table.

  8. Anonymous

    Love what you have done here! We also just bought an old craftsman house that is full of that dark dreary wood trim everywhere, we are in the middle of painting it all out white and can’t wait to see the end result. Hope it looks as good as your house

  9. Anonymous

    Hmmm. While I applaud your effort, your decorationing skills need serious help. Sorry but the furniture choices you made were almost all so dang cheap looking. Lone exceptions was the headboard of your master bed. But then you got such cheap looking bedside tables and other furniture that it was just pitiful looking. Expensive, classy furniture does NOT need to be costly$$. It just takes an eye for classy design. Please check out classsy websites as you need help.

  10. Lin

    Anonymous, it’s no wonder you didn’t sign your name.  Anyone with spelling and grammar that atrocious, not to mention rudeness, surely wouldn’t want to be identified!  Why would you ever write something so unkind and insensitive? 

  11. Ros

    Anonymous,

    You are rude. Please find within yourself the desire to refrain from trolling. Bullies are not cool.

    Dear Alicia,

    The effort put into this home is phenomenal. I would LOVE to live in a home so well designed. Well done! This looks fantastic.

  12. Alicia Lacy

    Hi Olivia, We used an eggshell finish on the living and master bedroom walls. We used a high gloss enamel on all of the trim work. Hope this helps!

  13. RCS

    Hi! Beautiful home!
    I really love the simple clean range hood your cabinet designer put together…so many are so fussy but yours is really lovely.
    What is the model of the ventilation hood insert you used? I didn’t see that listed. Thanks so much!

  14. Tami

    Hi Alicia! Thank you so much for sharing these pictures of your beautiful home. We are building a new home and chose SW Crushed Ice for the entire home except the laundry room and master bedroom before I saw your pictures. The laundry room will be Sherwin Williams Sea Salt and the master bedroom will be Sherwin Williams Pediment. We were agonizing over the trim color and thought we wanted Pure White. I was so excited to see you had posted the trim color as well as the wall colors. I can now confirm we picked the right colors and they look so beautiful. Thanks!

  15. Lin

    Alicia,
    Your home is lovely and an inspiration for those of us who are in the process of remodeling or redoing our homes. I am going to use one or two of you chosen paint colors in my home. Thank you for sharing and enjoy the fruits of your labors!

  16. Alicia Lacy

    Tami: Thank you! I’m feeling very excited about your color choices. They will look beautiful!

    Lin: Thank you for the kind feedback. I’m glad you’re going to use some of the same paint colors in your home; I think you’ll love them!

  17. lani

    beautiful home! well done, so great to see the differences. maybe it’s my browser but i can’t see the list for the girl’s bedroom, which i love, particularly the paint colours – could you tell me what they are?? congrats again on fantastic choices and work 🙂

  18. lani

    beautiful home! well done, so great to see the differences. maybe it’s my browser but i can’t see the list for the girl’s bedroom, which i love, particularly the paint colours – could you tell me what they are?? congrats again on fantastic choices and work 🙂

  19. Bruno Bornsztein

    @lani – thanks for the comment! We’ve fixed the resource section. The colors you’re interested in are: Blue (Sherwin Williams Rainwashed) and Pink (Sherwin Williams Lotus Flower)

  20. Amanda

    I’ve been thinking hard about how to say what desperately needs to be said without the appearance of “trolling” or “bullying.” There is no reason your family should care that I personally would choose about 90% of the BEFORE photos over the AFTER photos. But I think a large contingent of home-lovers would agree that you should have left that particular house to someone who would have appreciated all of the awesome craftsman details and rich original solid wood. Very few things deserve praise less than painting over quality, intact vintage woodwork. I hope at the very least that you salvaged the built in china cabinet and big old farm sink. It is good that you are happy with your surroundings now — if only you had just bought some dime-a-dozen place that was bland from the start, it wouldn’t have robbed the rest of us of a piece of architectural heritage.

  21. Alicia Lacy

    Hi, Amanda,

    I appreciate the fact that you took care to comment in a careful and sincere way. I realize painting the woodwork in our home was a controversial choice. But, let me assure you that we love our home, treasure its character, took great care in the decisions we made, and stand by them. Our spaces reflect the people we are and the things we love. Beauty really is in the eye of the beholder and I hope you love your home as much as we love ours.

  22. Lin

    Amanda, why would you feel the need to post such a snarky comment?! The remodeling that was done only added beauty to this home. Do you think Alicia and her family purchased this home for others to enjoy? No, I think Not! They purchased and breathed new life into it so THEY could enjoy it. My mother always said, “if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”

  23. Kelsey

    Hi Alicia – Your home redesign is stunning! I was curious to know what type of branch leaf you have in the white vase on top of your white and gold-trimmed chest in the living room. It’s beautiful and I’d love to find the tree myself!

    Thanks so much,
    Kelsey

  24. Amanda

    Hello, LOVE your home!! Is there any chance you can share whether you painted the ceiling in your master bedroom SW Crushed Ice as well, or is it Pure White like the trim, or something else? We are repainting our house and we, too, have a vaulted ceiling in the master bedroom and are painting a light neutral color. I can’t decide whether to do the ceiling Pure White (the color of our trim as well!) or the ceiling the same color as the walls. In some of your pictures, I think the ceiling is white, and in others I think it matches the walls. Whatever you guys did, it looks GREAT, and I would love to know! Thanks so much for opening your home to us. :). (I apologize for the double post–I accidentally posted this first under an entry of yours that had nothing to do with the master bedroom…)

  25. Bruno Bornsztein

    Hi Amanda! Thanks for the nice comment! Our ceilings are all SW Ceiling Bright White (SW 7007). Thanks and good luck with your project!