Touraine Project | Great Room Reveal
Hey strangers! My blogging game has been weak lately, but now that we’re (semi) settled into our new house, I really want to get back in a groove with it. What better way to ease in than finally revealing our previous house, aka The Touraine Project?! I’ve shared plenty of glimpses of it over on Instagram (are you following us yet?!) but wanted to dive a little deeper and share it here on the blog too. First up is the biggest - some may even say greatest - room in the house…the Great Room! Which is the catchall term I’m using for our open concept kitchen, living, and dining room area.
Hey strangers! My blogging game has been weak lately, but now that we’re (semi) settled into our new house, I really want to get back in a groove with it. What better way to ease in than finally revealing our previous house, aka The Touraine Project?! I’ve shared plenty of glimpses of it over on Instagram (are you following us yet?!) but wanted to dive a little deeper and share it here on the blog too. First up is the biggest - some may even say greatest - room in the house…the Great Room! Which is the catchall term I’m using for our open concept kitchen, living, and dining room area.
Let me take you all the way back to the year… 2016. When Ryan and I first walked into this (not so) great room, here’s the magic that greeted us:
That may or may not be a pee-soaked mattress on the left there… charming right?!
As you can see, you walked right into a wall, which I’m pretty sure is universally frowned upon. Ready for some afters?!
I’m currently sitting in that chair up there writing this blog post. I got two of them off of Craigslist for 60 bucks, and Ryan HATED them. I think they’ve grown on him a bit though… they’ve obviously made the move with us and are #heretostay! ;) You can also see a blurry peak into the dining room, so let’s jump over to that area. Here are a few of the scary before photos…
We had a lot of walls, a lot of brown, and a LOT of extremely dusty ceiling fans on our hands. Ready for the afters?
I could not love this space more and am obsessed with how the photographs turned out, thanks to Sarah’s mad skills! I chose to mix a more farmhouse style dining room table with modern copper chairs for contrast. It’s one of my favorite things to do with design - it just adds so much interest! I added sheep skins to the chairs for texture and comfort. Although we sold both the table and chairs to the new homeowners, the sheep skins made the move with us, and are looking mighty fine draped over our new dining chairs.
Painting the brick on the fireplace and adding a distressed wood mantel really lightened things up in here.. We added shiplap on the walls next to the fireplace and after living with those walls painted white for a bit, ended up painting them Benjamin Moore Cheating Heart. I’m so glad we did! It was looking (dare I say) TOO white in there, and there’s nothing I love more than balancing bright and airy with moody! The dark walls accomplish that and ground the space.
And the room everyone really wants to see… the kitchen!
There was a huge wall dividing the kitchen from the dining area, making the kitchen into a tight, galley-style layout. The cabinets were falling apart and everything was dirty as all get out. After a few minor changes (ha!) here are the afters:
So much better without all those walls! We gained so much space in the kitchen, and got to add an 8 foot island that made me feel like I was on a cooking show when I stood behind it. My darling husband tiled that whole backsplash (and may or may not have wanted to kill me for making it go all the way to the ceiling…), installed the open shelving, and added the cabinet hardware. Talk about pressure - there’s really no room for error when you’re drilling into your brand new tile/cabinets.
When I look at the before photos of the kitchen remodel, I can hardly believe it’s the same space. It took a lot of blood, sweat, and tears (and, let’s be honest - money) to take this space from the before to the after, but it was well worth it. There’s not much that’s more satisfying as a designer - taking a space that’s rundown and scary and turning into something beautiful and functional.
Stay tuned for more Touraine Project reveals! And if you have your own Orlando renovation project to tackle, don’t hesitate to reach out - I’d love to help you design the space of your dreams!
Pssst - if you’re interested in sources for anything, you can now shop our house! I am slowly but surely getting everything possible up there - if it’s not on there, it’s probably from Craigslist or Homegoods! ;)
The Best bathroom accessories from Amazon
I don't know about you guys, but in our house we are total Amazon Prime junkies. Why get out of your pajamas and trudge to an actual store when you can get everything delivered to your house. For free. In two days. Amiright?!
Amazon isn't exactly the first source that springs to mind when I think of house-related purchases, but I realized that almost all of the accessories in both of our bathrooms came from Amazon! Not only do we absolutely love all of these products, but they were all super affordable too - can't beat that! Check out our favorites below.
I don't know about you guys, but in our house we are total Amazon Prime junkies. Why get out of your pajamas and trudge to an actual store when you can get everything delivered to your house. For free. In two days. Amiright?!
Amazon isn't exactly the first source that springs to mind when I think of house-related purchases, but I realized that almost all of the accessories in both of our bathrooms came from Amazon! Not only do we absolutely love all of these products, but they were all super affordable too - can't beat that! Check out our favorites below.
MASTER BATHROOM
We have this guy (x2) in our master bathroom and couldn't love it more. These faucets were easy to install, have held up fabulously over the last two years, and look pretty fantastic if I do say so myself. For just over 50 bucks, these are a definite winner! We also got the matching drains to go with them, and our vessel sinks. Whew!
The light fixtures in our master bath are also from - you guessed it - Amazon! I love the look of school house lights, but man can they get pricey. I found these two that together are under $100. It says they are oil rubbed bronze, but they really read as more of a matte black light fixture - which I prefer.
I wanted to find a matte black shower curtain rod, and ended up purchasing the same one for both our master and the guest bathroom because I liked it that much.
GUEST BATHROOM
Speaking of our guest bathroom...as I started writing this post I realized that the vast majority of stuff in there was also purchased on Amazon. Ha. Like our faucet, drain, sink, light fixture, shower curtain rod, toilet paper holder.... yeesh!
Have you purchased any bathroom accessories on Amazon? Are you as addicted to prime as we are in our house!? As always, if you need help pulling together the design of your space, don't hesitate to reach out! We offer both full service design and e-design, and would love to help you!
*Affiliate links were used in this post - as always, I only post about products I LOVE and think you will too. Thanks for your support, and helping us keep the lights on over here at Studio Gaspo! :)