New Project Series: First Floor Refresh

I’ve been so focused on flooring, I forgot to introduce this new project series! (In fact this post has been sitting for 6 months. Yeesh!) But now, I’ve got a new flooring company and a working budget in place, so I’m ready to talk more about where this first floor home refresh came from and what I plan to do.

Why am I doing this?

Like most people during the pandemic, I’ve been looking at my house a lot. I’ve looked at the inside of it, the outside of it, and the future of it (or rather how long I’m going to be here).

In most of my almost two decades at my house, I’ve done very little in the way of renovations. A coat of paint here, a furniture upcycle there. Outside of replacing or fixing something that’s broken, I have not done a major renovation. My home office renovation was done in pieces over 2 years and involved mostly painting and upcycling furniture. A lot of the construction and interior is still builder-grade original.

But unlike my other endeavors, with this project, I’ll be somewhat hands off, taking after the HGTV designers in the shows we love and sticking to design, shopping, and decision making (and like most owners in those shows, paying).

What am I refreshing?

My first floor refresh will include:

• Redoing the floor
• Repainting all the walls
• Changing curtains
• adding wallpaper and removing wallpaper
• replacing lighting
• landscaping/repair existing fencing, and, if there’s money left, getting rid of some plant infestations so I can fence in my whole back yard.

In the future, I may also reface my kitchen cabinets, add more cabinets, and redo the kitchen counters and sink. But that requires money I don’t have at the moment.

Since this post is so old, what’s been done already?

Outside, I got rid of a few trees, and I cut back a couple others.

I’ve made new wallpaper selections and I’ve narrowed down the choices. (See my wallpaper choices on Instagram. You can also vote on your favorite!)

When I picked out my flooring the first time, I also bought the curtains, curtain rods, and lighting in the same trip or soon after (before I realized I would never see that floor installed). Cart before the horse, big time. The colors and feel worked well with the laminate. Now, I am not sure if they will work with the vinyl plank. The only way to tell is to see it together. They may be getting returned. Whatever the choices, however, I will post all of my selections here, so you can get the look, too!

What are you most interested to see in the refresh? What do you most want to know about? Comment below!