Shortly after I bought my home I decided I would draw it up, add some design to it and send it out in my Christmas cards saying "We have a new addition to the family - meet my home!" But alas, I was just done with the floor plan and my laptop died on me, locking the files in. As I processed my grief of loosing a laptop - you know, denial, anger, sadness, and finally acceptance, much time had passed. I finally came got took it to a repair place that got me all the files and took the laptop carcass away.
Today I want to share with you those plans. Keep in mind this was when I first moved in and as you know I have changed the plans a bit, I have additional things (such as a husband) and although some of the design ideas are there, my home is not exactly like this today. Enjoy!
Here we have the first floor plan. Most of the units in our complex have this same floor plan. The living room is pretty straight forward, with the balcony off of it. The kitchen/dining room lead right into it, making it the open plan that is very popular now, yet wasn't as popular in the 80's when this place was built. We have two bedrooms, two bathrooms, two closets, and a laundry/mechanical room that would not be to any sort of code now a days. The furniture layout may be slightly unconventional, but I had reasons for it all. The living room is all focused on the fireplace, as it should be. The master bedroom has a headboard of a window, because it is so lovely outside. And the balcony actually has furniture, unlike many of our neighbors.
Here is the loft plan. Now, only the top floor units came with a loft. It is like instead of putting in an attic, they put in a loft, giving tons more space with very little effort. We do that here in Utah with basements as well, just dig down a few more feet and you get a whole extra floor. My loft had an other 'bedroom' in it. I use that term loosely because it has openings into the master bedroom, and not any egress windows, so it can't be considered a bedroom. But there is a closet in it, so I assume someone was using it as a bedroom. I do also have a library. When looking for a house I needed a place for my books and that backwall was the perfect place! There was hardly any furniture up here to start with, but the wonderful desk in the library that over looked the river. That's right, I can see the river from upstairs to.
Here we have the flooring that is throughout the living room, kitchen, dining and hallway. I never thought I would want wood and/or laminate in my but since the rooms are all connected, one flooring was the only option in my mind.
As you may or may not know, I love this flooring. As I was wondering what kind of flooring I wanted I couldn't decide black or white (or even light or dark). But when I found this, I literally spent like 10 minutes at the store staring at it. I would walk away, then come back, over and over. Talk to it, tell it that is was twice the price I wanted to pay (I'm not gonna tell you if it talked back, that would make me sound crazy). But man, I knew I had to have it, it was designed just for me. If you can't tell, it has like a million little floor and other plans draw on it. It looks like a scattering of plans on the floor. I love it! And oddly enough most people don't even notice it, you would think they would think it is obnoxious, but they don't notice it until they have been staring at the floor for awhile.
The kitchen of course got a makeover. I didn't want 80's stock cabinet wood look in my home. I also didn't want to be able to see the kitchen at all (I really hate open concept living - who wants to see/smell a messy kitchen when they first walk into a home?) So I got to work and painted the cabinets black. The plan was to keep the lights off and you wouldn't be able to tell it was there much. My cook of a husband however is now in there all the time with the lights on. I had lots of fun painting the cabinets, and although they aren't a typical color, people seem to love it when they come over. I also got new hardware, it is a little hard to see here since they blend nicely, which was the point, but they are a copper tone.
Now for the dining room light. Oh man do I love this light. My whole life my mother has had this odd little cabinet in our basement that held boxes on top of it. I never knew it opened or was for anything in particular. But one day while cleaning out she pulled this light out of it. It had been her old apartment before she even met my father and had been sitting collecting dust for over 35 years. She asked if I wanted it and I was surprised at her even letting it go. I loved it so much and knew it needed a place in my home. Since the dining room was in the view of the living room and all guest that would be coming in it received the place of honor above the dining room table. (Side note: this has since broke, and although I still have it hanging I would like to replace it. I haven't found one for sale, all of them online say they are sold out. Let me know if you see one.)
Here we have the dining room table. I love this table. It has lived many lives with me. It started as a dark wood coffee table with lots of decoration. It then was a white coffee table that I took the decoration off of. But it is currently a black and white dining table. It still needs help like a protective coat, but it is working. The chairs are currently, um, purple and maple wood, but are suppose to be black and one day I will get to doing them.
As I was designing my home I decided I wanted a black and white color scene, but with an accent color in each room. Well, blue has become a very popular color in our home. This couch is what dictates the color of the living room. It is from my Grandmother's home. We use to visit her and sit on it, and she said we were the only ones that ever did. So when she passed away it was the one thing I wanted from her home. It now holds a prized position in our home. It originally had wheels on it, but now has some nice short black legs on it.
Now we move to the guest bathroom. This room originally (like from the 80's) had light pink linoleum tile floor and a light pink counter top. I had a flamingo mirror from my Grandmother from before she passed away and planned to put it in the bathroom. So, I decided to just go with it and flamingo theme the bathroom. These are some vinyl flamingos for the walls.
I also have these lovely towels in the guest room. I always want to keep the guest bathroom clean, well designed, welcoming and full of things that may be needed by my guests.
Now onto the bedroom (full makeover here). I knew that although I wanted new carpet throughout the house, some maybe light, some dark. I hadn't made up my mind when I was carpet shopping. As I looked at all the many options I just didn't know which way to go. So, the sales lady took me to the back to wander and explore what options they had on the remnants. When I found this one it was game over. I just kept looking at it, loving it, and wanting it. It had been imported from Italy (or somewhere like that) and has a pretty thick weave. However, it wasn't the right size. But, after talking to the sales lady and looking at it a lot, she decided there was enough to piece it together and make it work, and boy did the installer work magic. You can't even see where the seam is and I had enough left over for a rug in my living room.
To go along with the black and white in the house, I knew the bedspread needed to be white and thought the bed frame would look great accented black. See here to find out what really happened.
I got the bed frame from Ikea. I originally had one picked out slightly different, but the only real difference is less wood slats at the back. I figured it would be fine because my first idea was to not have a headboard at all, but when we put it together my then fiance conveniently forgot I wanted that gone and now we have a headboard.
As for the counter-top in the master bedroom (and I possibly would like this in the kitchen as well.) I wanted a white marble look to them. I got some sticky paper off of amazon and put it on. This is easier said then done, maybe one day I will share my adventures with that. But, it looks so much nicer, fresher and cleaner. I am so happy with it.
Upstairs we have a library. Oh how I love having a library. I grew up with one in my home and it took a long time before I knew that this wasn't normal. My mother worked for Deseret Book before I was born and had a large collection of books. I have since also developed the same habit of collecting books and knew I would need space for them. While still at my parents house I use to keep books in their library, my closet, my downstairs study room and my craft room. (Not to mention my now husband is a lover of books and has a case just for himself as well.) It was a lot of crazy stashes I knew would need a home. I had also been collecting Jesus Christ statues and wanted a safe home for them. So when I was given the idea of having a loft space I knew what I would do with it and a wall of books was the answer. Now, the wall is about 20' tall, and the plan is to expand up to the ceiling, but as for now we just have five white and two black standard Ikea shelves built in. And yes, we are outgrowing it.
So that is the design. Things have ebbed and flowed, things have not been finished yet, but I love the design and am excited on making it better.