today’s before and afters are all about portland, oregon! in addition to the whopper of a makeover posted at 11:30, today we’re sharing this beautiful home makeover created by lois mackenzie and pamela hill. designers by day and home renovators in their spare time, lois and pamela like to create a ‘color story’ throughout their interior projects. this home’s color story is all about grey, yellow and white. in addition to focusing on colors, lois and pamela like to use a mix of furnishings and accessories from a variety of retail and vintage venues (thrift shops, boutiques, department stores, IKEA). their husbands are crafty too (what a catch!) so their interiors also features paintings and salvaged wood furniture from them. a big thank you to lois and pamela for sharing this beautiful home. for additional and larger-sized photos of lois and pamela’s pdx beach home makeover click here. [all "after" photographs were taken by photographer jeffrey cross]
[image above: living room before]
[image above: living room after]
My business partner Pam and I are obsessed with houses at the beach. This is actually how we launched our side business – we both love to transform homes and we both love to spend time at the beach with our families. So, we spend a lot of time in Arch Cape, Oregon (located between Cannon Beach and Manzanita – for anyone familiar with the area). We are trying to build a business model where we purchase homes that need TLC, renovate them with a focus on design and budget, furnish them like a boutique hotel, place them on the rental market, and sell them when we find the next house to obsess about.
The living room was a challenge to furnish. We ended up with a long couch from a second hand store that we had a linen slipcover made for – and 2 chaise lounges from Macy’s (of all places). The coffee table is from IKEA. The rug, pillows and bowl are from Anthropologie. The driftwood above the fireplace had been with the house for as long as the previous owner lived here – we loved the idea of keeping something original from the house. The stump is my favorite piece from my husband’s stump collection. He is the owner of Overlook Tree Preservation (www.overlooktree.com) – and saves many stumps (too many!) from his jobs to carve. And Max and Rosie are part of Pam’s clan.
[image above: kitchen before]
[image above: kitchen after]
The kitchen was dark and felt small. We decided to move the large fridge into a utility room and remove all upper cabinets to allow airiness to the room. The cabinets were custom, but to minimize the costs – we eliminated any unnecessary doors (they charge a lot to make doors)! The island is from a restaurant supply company. The open shelf with all the white dishware is from IKEA. The decorative trays are from Relish. The yellow painting is one of mine – having just taken an encaustic painting class at a local art college.
[image above: dining room before]
[image above: dining room after]
The dining room table was oriented so that everyone had a good seat to take in the views. The table and chairs are from IKEA. And the citrus-y chandelier is from Anthropologie. Pam is a die-hard bargain hunter – and found the chandelier highly discounted because it was missing one glass disc – which we eventually replaced. Since the kitchen, living and dining area flow into one another and face the ocean, we chose a linen color for the walls that the painter accidentally also placed on the ceiling – but it turned out to be a wonderful mistake as there is an amazing glow inside even when it is grey outside.
[image above: bathroom before]
[image above: bathroom after]
The bathrooms were a big transformation. Simple carrera marble tiles with painted wainscoting work well with the subway tile. We went for clean, modern and simple lines in here. The artwork in the bathroom is also from Mike.
We are currently working on another beach house – its color story is red, all shades of grey and white with dark wood……looking forward to sharing that one when it is completed this summer!
71 Comments
I’d love to rent a beach house like that. It looks like a breath of fresh air. Beautiful.
You know what I love about this place… it’s beachy without being beachy! It’s clean and doesn’t have shells everywhere. Great job… can I move in?
Wow, that is a gorgeous makeover. I love those colours too.
I love how in the living room they have the two chairs facing in toward each other, under the big bright window. What a great idea! Usually you see them facing toward the sofa.
I absolutely love the tiling in the bathroom…I had a place in Saratoga Springs (NY) with a fabulous huge detailed victorian bathroom complete with similar (subway?) tiles and a ginormous tub I could actually float in…sigh, those were the days
Gorgeous!! Very nicely done. Who’s the realtor?
Too, too much!!! Enough with the makeovers… I think my head is going to explode! This, too, is a lovely transformation. Love the kitchen…
I love the light fixture in the kitchen. Do you know where it was purchased? I’m really struggling to find stylishly simple (affordable too) lighting.
Once again…an amazing transformation! They’ve turned a dark and dismal space into what a beach house should be: light, airy and fresh! Bravo! Thanks so much for sharing.
wow. what a great hobby/business. and i love seeing such beautiful makeovers, with a budget in mind (so it’s ok that i buy most of my furniture at IKEA, right?!).
when can I move in?
Wow- so impressive, what a dynamically different feel the new rooms have. Flawless.
I Oregon. Thanks for sharing two great makeovers from the great Northwest!
PS do Lois & Pamela have a business website? I’d love to know when their houses come up for sale.
Hi all. Thanks for all the lovely comments! It is still fun for me to see the before and after shots…..this house has already sold (sniff sniff). We were trying to devise a way to keep it – but aside from having a load of cash dumped into our laps…..we could not afford to keep it. We have a great realtor at the beach that we work with. His name is Mark Piscitelli at Duane Johnson Real Estate. And the light fixture is from http://www.schoolhouseelectric.com, a company that started in Portland that has amazing light fixtures.
@Bridget: HAH! That seriously made me LOL.
@d*S: WOW! This is really amazing. I love the kitchen and the bathroom. It’s nice to see a transformed beach house that isn’t a cliche too. Nice.
Amazing.
The first before and after was something else given the condition of the house, but I am IN LOVE with this beach house. The color palette is one of my favorites. Yellow really pops when mixed with gray and white. I think the kitchen looks fantastic, and I love those dining room chairs.
The setting couldn’t be more perfect, either. The Oregon coast is hands down the most beautiful coast in the US…dare I say in the world?
this is GORGEOUS!
i love the vertical subway tile…
Holy wow! Everything about this is fabulous. It’s so clean and bright – the white is fresh but not stark.
The before pictures are so daunting; I’m uber impressed that they saw such potential and went for it – congrats!
the rug! i have that rug!
i especially love the kitchen, and how a small out-of-the-box tweak such as ‘no upper cabinets’ really elevates a common makeover into something extraordinary.
but the rug – ‘coqo’ from anthropologie – that’s where it’s at. ;)
Two great renovations today. I agree, the vertical subway tiles in the bathroom are ingenious. Thanks Grace for keeping up this amazing blog.
I love seeing these renovations! Thanks for posting them.
Wow! This house is amazing on so many levels, great job! I love everything about it, especially the colors. It just looks so cozy!
Pamela and Lois — a fantastic do-up at the beach — i really love how you kept the beachy/casual feel without going to over the top – it soooo important to keep the light in mind on the Oregon coast — your work is a great inspiration to me right now as my husband and i are just starting a beach make-over to a 1964 ‘house’ just down 1o1 in Lincoln City:) Thank you for sharing your work and to design*sponge for keeping the left coast on the radar screen!
holy cow that’s awesome.
Love it! Does anyone know where to find the awesome bathroom sink?
Love it… great job Lois + Pam. Can’t wait to see the next one.
I am awe-struck. The talent you have in your pinky…you get the idea.
wow, that ikea dining table looks fab! what style is it?
I don’t think theres anything that I DON’T like about this place! It’s so amazing how much they changed it and made it look so incredible!
ditto to the raves above – and i especially love that the pop of yellow in the bathroom is rubber ducks.
Beautiful. Can you tell me about the kitchen countertops? What are they made of (tile?) and if you have exact names and sources, that would be great. I am re-doing my beach house now and looking to do white/grey in the kitchen as well!
what a lovely get-away from it all place! so simple and yet cozy and warm.
i´m currently struggling with one of those all wood, floor to ceiling kitchens, -it´s like having a hudge brown closet that takes up an entire room! i love the idea of eliminating everything above the countertop!
question: what material is the kitchen countertop?
Being from the Pacific Northwest, grey is such a tricky choice for me. I love the elegance of it but fear the doldrums with the amount of grey that we get outside! This is SUCH the right note! Bravisimo!
Can’t wait to see the next project!
WOW I love it!!
Terrific!!!
I’m an artist, my day is filled with color, I love love the serenity here!
WOW!!! absolutly gorgeous transformation!! I just love the soft, chalky colour scheme with the accents of yelloe/chartruese. Fantastic!!
Ahhh, I’m breathless and speechless!
But I can still say that they did a fabulous job. Love the verticle subway tile in the bathroom. Very clever:)
WOW…beautiful! It’s incredible how light and airy the place is compared to the before shots. The living room feels so calm & serene. Amazing job!
I have rented a few scary houses in Arch Cape. I would love to rent this one. So beautiful. Love the Oregon Coast!
NO WAY is that the same house! Breath-taking!
i love the living room.
anyone have the link for the relish store where those trays in the kitchen come from? googling “relish home” and “relish trays” is NOT working.
That is a seriously rocking before/after.
Amazing!
Can I move in?
amazing. completely captured what i would want to feel when staying at a beach house! what is the paint brand/color used throughout the house. such a lovely *glow* thanks for sharing
Simply astonishing and inspiring! Thank you for sharing. The future renters or owners should consider themselves quite lucky you guys got your hands on this house.
I’ve seen that bathroom sink before too and love it but can’t find it now! Any idea who it’s by?
Looks incredible! So refreshing. I wish I was there right now.
Love what you did with the Marimekko trays in the kitchen!
Way to go, Lois and Pam! I’m lucky enough to have seen this house in person, and it’s even more gorgeous than the photos, if that’s possible. You guys are amazing!
-Rebecca
Absolutely fantastic! Love the use of gray & yellow in such an unexpected way!
Many thanks for all the wonderful compliments…..! We are tickled to read the kind words. Some answers to the questions asked:
1. The sink is made by Duravit and the style is the Scola Washbasin.
2. The website for Relish is http://www.shoprelish.com
3. The tile is from Oregon Marble and Tile in Portland – and while I don’t recall the name of it – it is a porcelain tile with the color through the tiling so that it looks OK when you see the edge. It also comes in a charcoal black that looks a lot like soapstone – which I have used in my own kitchen. It has a great price point – somewhere around $4 per square foot.
4. I talked to our contractor about the paint color as we went around and around before deciding on the color – he is going to check his paint can tonight as he thinks that he had it color matched at Sherwin Williams. But he seems to think that the original paint color is Linen White from Pratt and Larson.
5. The dining table is from IKEA’s Stockholm series – we LOVE that series! The coffee table is also part of that family.
6. We don’t have a website yet – but are planning on it in the near future…..so keep an eye out for Otto Baat Group!
I love that kitchen! I’m in portland and would love to know what material those countertops are and who did them.
thank you!
Sorry about the confusion about the kitchen countertop. The countertop is tiled with porcelain tile from Oregon Marble and Tile (answer no. 3 above).
Please please put me in touch with Lori. I live in Seattle and would love to rent one of her beach houses as surprise for my boyfriend for our upcoming anniversary! And I’m currently renovating my condo (documented on cocokelley) and will take much inspiration from this goregous work. Brava!
Wow! This is absolutely beautiful…I would love to live here! Great post!
Question? Could you give me a ballpark idea as to how much you spent renovating the bathroom? I’m asking because, I live in a rent controlled unit with a bathroom that’s seen much better days. I’m toying with the idea of fixing the room…maybe I’m being unrealistic about the cost??? We’re talking retiling walls(some of them), floor & new sink fixure. Everything else stays. Thoughts?
my jaw just dropped. amazing that those are the same rooms. wonderful style, impeccable taste. beautiful work….and i love oregonians with ingenuity!
I actually liked the before pics, but I LOVE the after. This shows you with somebody with vision can accomplish.
T8
strangeclosets.com
Kitty, I was also wondering about a ballpark figure for this type of renovation. I am absolutely DROOLING over this house, have bookmarked it for future someday-I’ll-be-a-homeowner reference, and am wondering just how realistic something like this would be. This is without a doubt the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen on D*S, I am just in awe over this transformation.
Lois and Pam, this house is just stunning.
Lois -
My husband and I are already happy clients of Kevin’s (and Overlook residents – what a small world!), but this takes the cake! What an amazing transformation! Do you guys hire yourselves out to those of us who are design challenged…?
Thanks Grace for a great PDX day!
Lois and Pamela,
Seriously, can I hire you guys to do a makeover of my condo? Or at least give me some advice about what to do with it? I need help!
The makeover is amazing and those photos are beautiful. They have such goregeous light!
Would you mind sharing the name of the restaurant supply store where you found the island in the kitchen? It’s exactly what I’m looking for but I’m coming up empty in my search for it. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Which restaurant supply store did you purchase the prep table from in the kitchen? I’m trying to find one with the same rounded edges and live in the Portland area but am coming up blank. thanks!!!
Lois! It is all so amazing and seeing the before pictures really helps to understand all of the work you put in. Kev’s stump table is beautiful.
I can only imagine how nice your own house is!
xox
Absolutely breathtaking! I would love to have you see my house so i could hear your ideas! Great job!
xo
Lois & Pam, You two are amazing! What a change from start to finish. I love the soft colors, it puts you in the relaxed mode the minute you see it! The chase’s you bought from me at Macys looks great! Great idea. Can’t wait to see what you do next? I have a floating home on the columbia as a week- ender, my husband and i have had alot of fun making it look beachy. There are lots of possiblities in our morage for the two of you!! Love your work! Janie
I love what you did to the house. Years ago did you ever do a stucco house in Vancouver Wa. to flip. I saw a house 2 women did over to sell and I thought it might have been you. This house is fabulas, did you say it is for rent. I am interested. I love the furnature from Macys I always use Janie@ Lloyd Center for all our furnature needs too , she is awsome. Send rental information soon . We are very interested. Great Job !
Hello all, I have worked with Pam & Lois for 3 years now as their Arch Cape Realtor and continue to be in awe at what they are able to accomplish in the way of home makeovers.
They have recently just finished a new home in Arch Cape that is simply stunning with double the oceanfront exposure (100′). They are currently selling shares for $250,000. Perhaps Design Sponge will feature this new one as well but until then feel free to call me for pictures and info, 503-436-0451.
Very very good job
I love how you’ve used the brick tiles in the bathroom vertically instead of the usual horizontal – such a simple twist but looks super-effective against the wood panelling. Lovely job!
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