In January of this year I blindly agreed to put my Lancaster city row home on a home tour in May, even though my house looked like a total shanty inside. “How bad can new floors and paint be?” I thought. About 3 months later I would be cursing myself for agreeing to do this, and having daily mental breakdowns that I would never finish the work, but luckily it all got done, even if it was at 11 PM the night before the tour!
I have spent time living in both Baltimore and Washington DC and fell in love with all of the 1800s rowhomes that were completely renovated on the insides, while keeping some original character, as well as being transformed into a bright, open and contemporary spaces. This is the exact look I went for when I was designing my space.
Foyer
First impressions really do matter with houses, especially run-of-the-mill city homes, so the foyer was the room that I put the most effort into. I completely stripped and sanded the entire staircase- all trim, treads, risers and the railing. Trim, risers and railing spindles were repainted white to brighten up the space, and the stair treads were strained a natural color. The natural walnut railings were kept- but we polished them using a 600-grit sanding foam. Old, Lowes-quality dome lighting was replaced with LED recessed lights and I added a capiz-shell globe chandelier (westelm.com) in the entry way. I went with a natural-stained pre-finished oak flooring in a narrow width for the floors, and installed it in a chevron pattern to draw people in.
Before
After
Living Room
My living room was super easy, and most of the challenges in here was finding a way to add color to my drab, neutral room. I went to all gray tones in here, and hit a slam-dunk with a wall color called “Urban Sunrise.” The same floors were carried into the living room, but were switched back to a straight run. I opted out of window treatments, aside from my wide slat white blinds, so I could achieve a clean contemporary look. I chose an extra-long and modern tufted sofa (westelm.com) for the long, high side wall and finished the room off with a custom printed photo and a very industrial chandelier with Edison bulbs.
Before
After
Kitchen
Okay, I won’t lie, I actually did most of my kitchen renovation last year before I knew about the tour. But, it was the room I based the rest of the main floor design on. The original kitchen in the house was horrendous, and at the time my budget was very small (I actually renovated the kitchen 1 week after I closed on the house) so I had to get really creative with materials and repurposing. The cabinets got a full refinishing and were painted a dark charcoal color and new hardware was added. We added a thick, bold strip of trim above the wall cabinets to make them appear to be higher than they actually were. The old crusty-colored laminate counters were refinished in a high-gloss white and new lighting was added throughout, including this steal of a chandelier for $40 (ikea.com.) I picked up some new stainless steel appliances and continued the new flooring through the dining room and into the kitchen as well.
Before
After
In my opinion, the most important things to remember when trying to class up a dark main floor are:
• Stay consistent with your flooring choice. Make sure you use the same material on the entire level of the home.
• Also stay consistent with your paint choice, and stay neutral. Colors ALWAYS look lighter on the sample than they do on the wall. Pick the color you like and ask them to lighten it. Use the same color in every room on the floor.
• Lighting is really important. I can’t believe how much better my main floor looks just by switching out to new chandeliers and new recessed lights. It was a crazy-easy (and cheap) fix!
• Blinds. Don’t want to spend money on expensive window treatments? Go buy Levolor faux-wood blinds from Lowes. They are very inexpensive, but make the room look super classy.
