Living and Dining Room Before and After Makeover | The 1987 Fixer Upper

I’m excited to show you the living and dining room before and after makeover today!  I hope you are enjoying these room reveals.  There are lots more fun ones to come!

Of all the rooms in the living and dining rooms probably changed the least…or close to it.  The shape of the rooms stayed mostly the same, and aside from a few cosmetic changes, this part of the house was torn up the least.  When you first enter the house the living room is directly to your left.  As I mentioned in prior weeks, the entire house got new windows, so in these rooms it made a big difference since there are several large picture windows and the bay looks SO much better with new windows!  As part of the entry way makeover, the header into the living room from the entry way was lifted and that also helped make the living room seem more open.

When I first walked in the house it felt natural to me to have a focal point of some sort on the large wall, in between two windows that faced the front door.  The living room (like all the other rooms in the house) is long and narrow, so breaking it up with something interesting on the wall I thought, was important.  Also, with the bay window in that room, right in the front of the house, I envisioned a Christmas tree sitting pretty in there, which would naturally mean you needed a place to hang stockings in that same room, right?  So, I put in a fireplace.  Everything was dark and closed off and just needed to be opened up and freshened up.

The living and dining room are a connected space, about 40 feet or so in length…LONG!  The previous owner had them divided with a set of french doors.  Not only did it chop the two rooms in half, but it made the ceilings feel lower because the french doors had a 6’8″ header, which brought the ceiling WAY down.  A simple fix was to open up the french door opening by moving the header up, removing the french doors and making that opening wider.  Those few simple changes made a huge difference to these rooms.  Take a look:

Before

1980s living room remodel

1980s living room remodel

1980s living room remodel

1980s living room remodel

1980s living room remodel

1980s living room remodel

1980s living room remodel

1980s living room remodel

1980s living room remodel

1980s living room remodel

During

Dr 3

1980s dining room remodel

1980s dining room remodel

1980s dining room remodel

Another thing we did in the dining room was to widen the entry way between the kitchen and dining room.  It had been a really narrow entrance, so we made it more open.  All of the holes were cut in the ceilings not just for new electrical, but also because we added spray insulation in between each of the floors in the house.  One thing that I’m not a fan of with having a house with a basement is how loud things are.  The main floor is not a solid foundation and noise seems to travel like crazy.  By insulating each floor we made the house much more energy efficient and reduced the noise significantly.

1980s dining room remodel

1980s dining room remodel

1980s dining room remodel

Do you love the roller blading track that we spray painted throughout the house?  Yep, by this time I had completely lost my marbles and was doing anything to keep the kids happy. 😉 lol!

1980s dining room remodel

1980s dining room remodel

1980s dining room remodel

1980s dining room remodel

After

1980s living room makeover

1980s living room remodel

1980s living room remodel

1980s living room remodel

1980s living room remodel

1980s living room remodel

1980s living room remodel

1980s living room remodel

1980s living room remodel

A pretty big difference, right?  What do you think? For those of you that love the nitty gritty, here are all the details for you. 🙂

PRODUCT SOURCES

Wood: Oasis Hardwood Carmel Collection Marina

Wood for Trim: FJP Building Supply

White Marble Herringbone Mosaic Tile for Fireplace: Floor and Decor

Chandelier in Dining Room

PAINT COLORS

Walls: Repose Gray by Sherwin Williams at 25%

Trim and Ceilings: High Reflective White by Sherwin WIlliams

THE DETAILS

New Electrical (wiring, switches and plates, added can lights and chandeliers throughout)

New Drywall Throughout

New Insulation

Added all New Trim

Added a New Fireplace

New Paint

New Flooring

New Lights

New Windows

Removed French Doors

Changed Headers

Here are a few things I learned with this portion of the remodel and my best cost guide/price ranges found for some of these services in our area for this project:

FIREPLACE- It was surprisingly easy to add a gas fireplace!  I thought it was going to be a huge, difficult process, but it was much less expensive than I thought it would be.  Yes, the installation itself was one thing and then I had to bring in a carpenter and a tile guy, but it was overall much less painful than I envisioned.  We paid about $1800 for this fireplace (not including the tile guy/tile and carpenter).  In my opinion, it added so much to this room the cost was well worth it.

That’s about it for this installment of the 1987 Before and After.  I’ll be back next week with another room reveal.  Until then, be sure to check out all of the other Before and After reveals here.

I’d love to have you join me on social media where I love to share more of my favorite things, design inspiration and ideas every day! You can find me here…

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Have a great day!
Tammy

Tammy

Creative Director at Pink Peppermint Design
Tammy Mitchell is the founder and creative director of lifestyle blog pinkpeppermintdesign.com. Along with being a homeschooling mom of two kiddos, she is also an in-demand prop and event stylist, photographer, interior and graphic designer. On Pink Peppermint Design, she shares creative DIY projects, easy entertaining and gift ideas, inspiring interiors and events. She lives in Southern California, with her husband and two children.

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