#UPGRADINGBUILDERBORING
Melinda and Nikki from @foxandtimber recently reached out to me about joining them to start a new hashtag #upgradingbuilderboring. Upgrading a standard builder home is something I feel so strongly about that I was immediately on board (never mind that I know nothing about creating a new hashtag! LOL). So here's a little bit more about myself and how we upgraded our standard home!
We have been lucky enough to build 5 houses in the last 11 years and we have learned a lot along the way! Sometimes the cost of an upgrade is justified, and sometimes it just seems like highway robbery (cough tile backsplash). We have learned to spend the money upgrading things like flooring where it is a pain to upgrade later, and save on things like lighting which are an easy switch down the road. It also doesn't hurt to ask the price on things you like because the cost of the upgrade might surprise you once your builder discount is taken into account (this happened when I asked about some fancy pendants for the kitchen and they were LESS than the standard pendants! Or when my beautiful Amerock cabinet hardware actually fit into my allowance!) Another great tip is that when you are ready to upgrade something like a light fixture or finish your basement is to go back to the original supplier, more often than not they will extend the builder pricing to you which can save a lot in the long run!
So what happens when you don't have any room in the budget for upgrades or you buy a spec house? You have to get creative! As a bit of a personal challenge we agreed to NOT upgrade anything in our (now) rental house other than the laminate flooring! We were building the house with the plan to live there for a year then convert it to a rental, and typical builder upgrades do not net any more rent where we live. This challenge proved to be very difficult (haha).
We ended up staying in the house for longer than a year, and wanted to change a few things to reflect our own personal style. Here are a few changes we made to our house, #upgradingbuilderboring (This was done 3 years before I started this blog and didn't think to take a lot of photos!)
My kitchen before! I selected a espresso island to accent my white cabinets (for no extra charge) and originally had a standard arborite counter top and back splash. After awhile I bought my own white subway tile from Lowe's and hired a local tiler to install backsplash in both my suite and the basement suite....it came out for less than what I was quoted to install 8x8 tile in just my suite at the time of building! (8x8 tile was the builder spec for the kitchen backsplash)
Our kitchen AFTER adding super white granite! It was like a whole new kitchen!! Another easy tip for making your kitchen feel bigger is painting the wall behind the cabinets white. I really wanted to take the cabinets up to the ceiling which wasn't in my budget. By keeping everything on the wall white it tricks the eye into thinking the cabinets are taller than they are!
Now for the TV wall that started it all! This wall was originally grey like the rest of the living room. One day my husband showed up with a sheet of MDF and plans to wainscot the wall. We cut the MDF into strips and painted it using leftover paint we had on hand. I wish I had more pictures of this wall to show it off better!
Next up was our daughter's room! Here's a picture I shared on Instagram for #throwbackthursday. When we moved in the room was painted "Oyster" from the Sarah Richardson collection for PARA paints. (Most builders will allow 2 paint colours and anything beyond that is an upgrade!)
We installed wainscoting in a pattern to match the craftsman style 3 panel doors (the same price as a standard door - always ask for options!)
Once the wainscoting was done we painted out the bottom white to match the trim and doors and painted the upper half Cadillac Pink by Benjamin Moore. It is the most perfect pink, I was so sad when she didn't want to use it again in our new house.
It turned out SO CUTE....my only regret was the extra dusting I created, LOL. If you follow me on Instagram you might recognize that dresser...it's getting another makeover this weekend.
Next up our son's bedroom!
We installed the same wainscoting and painted the bottom half of the wall white, leaving the top half "Oyster".
And last but not least, the master bedroom!
What was once a small, cramped bedroom quickly became my favourite spot in the house! We added wainscoting including a full TV wall done in a pattern to match the TV wall in the living room. We switched out the light fixture and added black damask wallpaper, the pattern is too small and dark to appear in pictures but it's beautiful! We also upgraded out ensuite at the same time using a wallpaper from the same collection.
Our ensuite right before we started (you can see the new mirror sitting in the corner waiting!)
Our ensuite was originally painted Oyster, had a grey arborite counter top and builder basic lino! We installed a super white granite vanity top, repurposed a vintage mirror, pulled out the lino and replaced it with marble tile and installed wallpaper. It was ironic that going so dark actually made the walls look taller and the room feels bigger!
Finally we tackled the main bathroom! We actually spent 2 nights at my parents house and had both bathroom floors redone over a weekend. A quick before....
And......AFTER!
We replaced the standard vanity top with super white granite, and had a tiler install a subway tile backsplash around the entire bathroom, and up the entire wall behind the mirror. We were able to cut down the old mirror and buy a second one to create two very tall mirrors. We also took the original light fixture and installed in vertically between the mirrors. We ripped out the old linoleum and replaced it with marble tiles and an accent strip of stainless steel penny tiles. What a bright room now!!
I'm super excited to launch this new hashtag today and see all of the great projects out there that have been done to upgrade their builder boring house!
