Our Home: Before & Afters
Friends! I am so excited to finally share before & afters of the work we’ve done on our new home!! We moved in a few months ago, and have put a lot of love into making the house feel like home.
After we moved in and felt settled, we sat down and dreamed a little bit about what we want to use this house for, how we hope our lives change and our family grows while we live here, and why we’re so thankful to have a house of our own. We wrote out a prayer for our home, and had my friend Carole calligraph it for us (you’ll see it hanging on our wall in one of the photos!). As you look through these photos, if you feel like praying this prayer over our home or over your own home, we’d love it!
Lord, we thank you for the gift of this house and pray that it will be a peaceful and secure place of rest. We ask that we would use this home to glorify Your name, that you would remind us to be thankful, and that we would care well for this house. May it be a space for worship that feels like home and belongs to You.
Please build and grow our family in this home, give us children here, help us invest in our marriage, and make joyful memories. Help us be hospitable, and have open hearts and an open door. Allow everyone who enters our house to feel loved and welcomed, and let it be a safe space for good conversation, meals, and growing relationships.
Protect our house and keep our family safe and secure. Fortify the walls of our home and help us trust in You and not be anxious. Help us bless, serve, and encourage our neighbors, build friendships in our neighborhood, and invest in our East Dallas community and church. Make our home a place of rest, rejuvenation and joy. Use our home to proclaim the gospel and bring glory to Your name.
“My people will live in peaceful dwelling places, in secure homes, in undisturbed places of rest.” – Isaiah 32:18
Our House
Before & After
This is our house! Yay! We haven’t changed much to the outside of the house (yet), except painting the shutters and garage door. We wanted to keep the original blue but go a little bit darker/deeper, so we opted for Sherwin-Williams’ Sea Serpent. It’s a bit hard to tell the color in the picture, but if you click the link, you’ll see the color a little better 🙂
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Dining Room
Before
After
We updated the paint color (we used Sherwin-Williams 50% Repose Gray for the entire house, and their Extra White for trim & ceilings), got a new light fixture, and added a white china cabinet (so I can finally get to our wedding china easier!). I also love our simple new dining room table, which is expandable so it can seat 8 people.
Right now, I have the candlesticks out that we used on the sweetheart table at our wedding (I love details like that!!), and next to that photo, you’ll see the framed prayer that Carole calligraphed for us!
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Guest Bathroom
Before
After
The biggest transformation of them all!! The guest bathroom was oh. so. painful. Salmon pink and covered completely in tile, we gutted the entire bathroom down to the studs, redid all the plumbing, new subfloor, cabinets, tub, tile, & everything brand new! This was my first stab at designing something brand new, and I’m really happy with how it turned out. I wanted something clean and simple that wouldn’t be too trendy, but that could be easily updated as the styles change. Gray walls, white cabinets, white tile, and light gray grout hopefully achieved that! I used the same white octagon tile that’s in the master bathroom for some cohesion, and white subway tile in the shower (with a pretty little niche for shampoo & soap!). I love the brass sconces, the faucet, and the hardware on the cabinets.
The bathroom mirror was my great-grandmother’s, and I wanted to keep the countertops clear, so I simply put out a jar of bath bombs, a pretty bowl with washcloths, and a mini cake stand with soap & a yummy smelling candle. I hope it makes our guests feel pampered!
Office
Before
After
My favorite room in the house, I could be in my office all. day. long. Which is probably good, because most days, I am! We painted the walls and the built-ins, put up curtains, and hung my giant dry erase calendar from Lindsay Letters (I’m obsessed!). I had so much fun creating a space that is functional for client meetings, light & bright for editing, and cheerful and inspiring as I work. The biggest transformation was painting the built-ins white – it really makes the space feel bigger and happier!
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Master Bedroom
Before
We didn’t change too much in the master bedroom besides a fresh coat of paint, but I love how it looks with the lighter color! We made a little reading nook for Matt, hung some of our favorite wedding photos, and put up the wedding vows that Matt had painted for our first anniversary (by the amazing Simply Jessica Marie).
After
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Master Bathroom
We didn’t change the master bathroom too much, either. We repainted, got a new countertop and faucet and new hardware on the cabinets, and hung shelves so I have easy access to the things I use every morning!
Before
After
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Guest Room
Before
Again, just updated paint in here! I found cute bedding at Target, fun throw pillows at Pottery Barn, and a cute lamp at Homegoods to make our guests feel welcome! I added a frame that has our WiFi information and a pretty guest book so we can document the memories we make with our guests. We’ve already had a few friends stay with us – will you be next?!
After
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Kitchen
Before
In our kitchen, we updated the light fixture over the sink (hello, pretty recessed can light!), repainted, and added magnetic closures to the cabinets so the doors would stay shut. We LOVE how much natural light there is in the kitchen, and sitting in our new chairs at our sweet kitchen table in the morning with a cup of coffee and looking into our backyard is so relaxing. I especially love the builtins in the corner of our kitchen for storing & displaying cookbooks!
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Living Room
Before
In our living room, we updated the paint color and added recessed can lights in the ceiling for added brightness (you know I’m all about things being light and bright!!). We used furniture we already had, and added two pretty chairs from Birch Lane and a new media console from All Modern. We love some of the things we displayed in our living room, like the painting of our house from our amazing realty team. We also hung part of the aisle runner from our wedding (scroll down to see photos of it at our wedding!), which had the lyrics to In Christ Alone on it, beautifully painted by Kelly Lee.
After:
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Home Sweet Home
I hope you liked seeing our home! If you have any questions about the process or goodies that we found along the way, just let me know. Here are a few photos of the front of our house and backyard (which is really lovely and has a sweet little pond, but needs some love, so I’m not sharing too much of that yet ;)).
