Before & After: The Living Room and Dining Room

When people see this house for the first time, they have a hard time believing how much its changed. Maybe that's because the finished design seems like such a logical layout for the space.  So before I show you any photos, let's start with the changes to the floor plan.

Before

The original plan had the front door entering into a narrow living room.  By moving the staircase from the back bedroom to the front of the house, we were able to move the front door to a more logical location off of the front porch.  The change provides a lot more living space and creates a much more open floor plan.

During

After

From the photo above, you can see other changes that we made.  We widened the opening between the Living Room and Dining Room, to make it more open and give us the opportunity to install Craftsman style colonnades (see here for more info).  It was a challenging project that didn't go exactly as planned, but we're very happy with the result!

One of the biggest projects in the house was building a new staircase to the second floor.  It's a true work of art that took weeks to complete and really shows off the skills of the team from Waterhouse Builders.  And there's a secret closet under the stairs, cleverly hidden behind the wainscoting.  Click here to see the whole project!

And to integrate the old flooring with the new, we created this inset floor on the staircase landing.

The custom woodwork continues in the Dining Room with the plate rail and wainscoting.  And we replaced the closet and bifold door with a built in cabinet, complete with recessed lighting and a USB outlet.  And of course beautiful Craftsman style hardware on the drawers.

I couldn't finish this space without adding some pretty special lighting.   This Visual Comfort chandelier has a compass rose canopy, that I accented with directional pointers.

But my favorite fixture?  Is this tall tubular fixture with seeded glass that glows when it's lit!  It's from Hubbardton Forge, hand forged in Vermont, and really makes a statement in the stairwell.  It's got Craftsman style, with a bit of a contemporary twist.

So what do you think?  We tried to take a bland, boring set of rooms and give them character and style with custom finishes.  Did we succeed?

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