Before and After, Twelve Years Later!

Alright my friends -- this is my favorite post of the year so be warned…there are a ton of photos. Twelve years ago tomorrow we closed on our home and I know I say it every year, but I cannot believe I've had the privilege of living in a home I love this much for so long. We moved a lot when I was young and times got pretty rough. It is truly a dream come true to have this house and to be settled for so long. 

Before and after photos are my favorite ever so I just love this kind of post. It makes me giddy. I did the same thing last year (check that post out for different views and to see how these spaces have changed since!) -- I love to see how our house changes over the years. Every year I "finish" a room and slow but sure our house has become exactly what we want and love. 

Let's start the tour, shall we? Our living room has always stumped me because of super high ceilings. I used to decorate up and quickly decided it didn't work: 

Don't you love the pink walls? Yeah I picked that out myself. It was a taupe color but honest to goodness PINK when I look back at it. I always went with brown and red to work with it because nothing else would: 

Obviously my photography skills have improved over the years but so has the room: 

Funny how placing that sofa there and pulling it away from the wall makes the space feel bigger, right?  

Here's another view of this space: 

This view was from later but really shows off those pink walls! Oh yeah!: 

If you look to the right where the chair is, that's the area where I built a bookcase on that half wall: 

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm not one to knock my old style. (OK, I'm totally knocking the pink walls.) Our home has always been warm and comfy to us. Even though my style has changed over the years I'm no less proud of what I did along the way. :)

A few years after we moved in we had laminate floors put down and it made a huge difference in our family room and kitchen. But it made it much darker then before: 

Here's that same view now:  

I'm SO glad we paid extra to bump out that little bay window area. We barely had enough room around the table even with that there. As you can see most of our furniture was hand-me-downs for quite some time: 

Here's the same window area now: 

I finished up the kitchen last year and it is truly a dream space for me. I absolutely love it. 

Here's a view through the family room and kitchen: 

Here's that same part of the kitchen now:

That dishwasher is still kickin'! It hardly washes the dishes and we've repaired it a good seven times, but it's working. :) 

One day I thought it would be a great idea to paint my office/playroom an orange color -- and not just the walls but the ceiling too. I am throwing some shade at myself of that decision. Ha! I was going for a brick red and it went wrong: 

That corner is now one of my favorite spots in the house and is where I sit and write to you all: 

As you can see, I am a little obsessed with trim on the walls: 

It certainly has brightened up our house! I don't think I could ever go all white -- I love having the contrast of some color with the white trim.

That orange office is now gone because that area is open to our family room. Years ago we took down this wall:

And now the family room is almost double the size: 

One of my all time favorite transformations was our dining room: 

Pink! :) 

Whats' better than pink? Dark chocolate brown...everywhere!: 

Gosh I LOVED this room all dramatic like this. It made a statement for sure. I think dining rooms can handle some drama.

But we never used that room…ever. I got a crazy idea one day and decided to change it into a library/lounging space I knew we'd actually use. The bookcases were my first project:

It only took me about five years to finish it but it's done and I am so happy we don't have a dining room anymore.  :) (Although it could easily turn into one again!)

Our basement was unfinished up till a few years ago. We still used it though: 

That same area looks like this now: 

Check below for a link to the rest of this space. We love it!

My stepdaughter picked out all of the colors for her tween/early teen room all those years ago and she and her friends helped me paint it. That evening was a great memory: 

I'm almost finished with this redo and couldn't' be happier with this fresh, bright room now: 

Our master bedroom has had a few looks over the years. I started the painting forever ago with just the fireplace wall: 

Here's that same area now (I eventually finished up that dark green and it stayed for more than ten years):

 Another big wall on that room always stumped me:

And I recently finished up that mammoth wall and added some art: 

Our master bath hasn't seen any updates at all over the years but I just finished up a quick redo in my son's bathroom. I painted it before he was born and it stayed "baby" till he turned nine: 

I was a little busy with other projects. ;) 

All I did was paint the walls and change out some accessories. It's one of my favorite projects ever because those simple changes made such a big difference: 

Another one of my favorite projects is our powder room. This little space saw a lot of changes over the years too. The first look was a two toned one: 

Now it's white and bright with fun pops of color that I love: 

The planked walls are so fresh and pretty! I love this room.

Whew! There you go -- a mini tour of the house and I didn't even have to clean! ;) 

I share these because I'm proud of them, but even more so because I think it's important to remind you that it has taken me a loooong time to figure out exactly what I want our home to look like. I've had some hiccups along the way for sure. Over the past few years I feel like I finally feel like I've identified what I love and want for our spaces. 

There's still so much I want to do to this house! It still excites me to dream up ideas and plan them out. Someday I'll be close to done…but that day won't be for a few more years. I'll always tweak and find ways to make our spaces work best for us. It is my passion and I'm so thankful I can share that with you! :) 

Here's links to posts on all the rooms I included here! 

Powder room

Bub's bathroom 

Master bedroom

Guest room

Basement

Dining room/library

Family room

Kitchen

Living room

You can find all of our paint colors here. If you have questions about anything in these photos, let me know!