The Condo Project - Before Photos & Plan

Dear friends of ours bought a condo, just before the pandemic kicked in last year.  It was BORING, but was in a fabulous location......and you know the old real estate adage - location, location, location.  They asked me to help with the renovation - promising I could make ALL the design decisions.  How could I say no?

How would you like this view from your kitchen window? 

So let's start with the location.  This place has water views.  Pretty gorgeous water views and access to a private beach.  Does it get any better than that?  But for some weird reason, the existing layout hid the views from sight, until you got into the not-so-exciting kitchen.  Obviously, we needed to change that.

The former owners really, really liked ceiling fans.  There were 5 of them - in a 2 bedroom condo.  And while it's nice to push air around a bit, they just screamed 1980's. 

See - no view as you walk in the door - but it's right behind that wall!

The floor was some sort of Pergo like laminate, which wasn't very exciting and had seen better days.

The kitchen was pretty dated with lights that didn't work - and another ceiling fan and my favorite, a boob light 😂😂!

A ceiling fan and a boob light - jackpot!!!  

And the bathroom?  Well, utilitarian might be the right term!

And the stained carpet and ceiling tiles???  Yeah, they had to go!

So we set out to update everything and make it a much more livable floor plan.  First step, coming up with a design.  We wanted to open up the view to the water, from the moment you walked in the door.  It's a condo, so we couldn't make any exterior changes (like bigger windows) or plumbing changes, but we could highlight what was there.

We needed to keep the utility closet in the kitchen.  It housed the electrical panel and hot water heater, so it's pretty important.  And it's so nice to have a washer/dryer in the unit, they stayed in the same location (because water and vent exhaust were already there!).  But we changed the rest of the layout, creating clear sight lines from the front door to the water views and enlarging the kitchen.  The owners do a lot of entertaining and wanted a lot of space for cooking and dining with friends (when we can do that again! Does anyone remember what it's like to have a party???). 

First step was opening up the wall between the kitchen and dining room (thankfully not a load bearing wall) and removing the cabinetry from the kitchen and bath.  The difference was amazing!  The old entrance to the kitchen will provide space for the refrigerator to be recessed.



 

Suddenly you have great sight lines as you walk in the front door - and the place feels twice as big.  They also decided to install soundproofing insulation in the ceiling.  A really smart move in a condo, that doesn't have a huge price tag.

The owners wanted to reduce the size of their bedroom a bit, to create room for a walk in closet (because with condo living, you can't have too much storage space!)

And the bathtub was replaced with this beautiful new shower featuring glass tile and a Carrara marble bath floor.

I'll be sharing some of the key projects we did and the 'after' photos soon, but doesn't it look better already?  Farewell ceiling fans, stained carpet and boob light!  😂😂

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