today’s final before & after (stay tuned for a new “we like it wild” post at 1pm!) comes from melanie freeland. melanie and her husband are architects and purchased a beautiful craftsman home in los angeles a few years ago. looking to update their space, they’ve slowly been making renovations on their own to give the living room and kitchen a fresh look (which hadn’t been updated since the home was built in 1923).
to start, melanie and her husband started by unearthing and refinishing the original douglas fir flooring in the home. that was followed by updates in the living room, which included restoring the wooden mantle and secretary desk, which was done over the course of “many, many” weekend. the ceilings were scraped and bright orange accents were added, along with a custom fireplace screen made by a friend.
in the kitchen melanie and her husband revealed and refinished the doug fir floors, stripped and repainted the built-in hutch and added new hardware, paint, lighting and shelving. now the entire space as a bright and airy feel. two thumbs up for all of their hard work and the great results. i can’t wait to see more as the project continues. thanks, melanie!
[have a before & after you'd like to share on d*s? just shoot me an email right here with your images (low res, please).]
80 Comments
love the lime … in fact i want to make my kitchen look exactly like that one … you think the hubby would notice?
the floors look great, obviously a lot of work went in to them and it has paid off….and of course the colours are fabulous :)
Love the kitchen redo! Would love to see even more pictures of it, just to really see all the little details. Just awesome.
I love the bright accents! It really makes the simple features POP! So fun… I would love to live here…
Also: can we find out what the green paint colour is?
I LOVE the green!
Love this make over! Normally painted fireplaces never look quite right but this is definitely an improvement especially since they removed the paint on the built-ins. The whole kitchen is fab too, I want a hutch like that and the new hardware looks perfect!
Love the living room — the painted fireplace and orange fire screen are great. Not feeling the kitchen, though. A little too match-y and contrived.
o.m.g. I just loooove looking at all the befores and afters at your site!
The green kitchen is so fresh and makes me want to switch out my cabinet doors to the glass ones and paint the inside!
So incredibly fresh — what a great result! I love the punches of color and reorganization of storage. The new light fixtures, furnishings, and hardware are fabulous. Way to go!
I love the kitchen and would love to know what material they used for the sink and counter top.
that looks EXCELLENT. and i think i spy a fellow jonathan adler fan…
Wow this is so amazing! I love how the redid the bookshelves in wood tones and painted the fireplace white! I would have never thought to do that. I love all the green in the kitchen. Very cool.
I love how they made this home chic and modern while preserving the period details.
Wow… what an amazing transformation. Loved the green accents to the kitchen. It makes the room fresh and clean.
How Sweet ! ( Esp. the pooch ) So nice to see someone honoring the original designs and not doing a complete gut . If I hear another snotty housewife demand a “great room” and granite kitchen surfaceswith stainless steel appliances I’ll vomit !
a-mazing. I love the green, the freshness…it feels so light and crisp and I just want to come over for lemonade!
Oooo I like the Jonathan Adler / Parker influence! Very cheerful remod!
Can we find out the source of the table, chairs, and light fixture in the kitchen?
I like the arrangement on the fireplace mantle – it’s such instinct for people to hang a single large piece like in the “before” image. The unusual grouping is a nice change of pace!
I want to go to there!
I love that kitchen! Amazing!
Gorgeous “after” shots! I really love how cheery and spunky the revamped kitchen looks. Well done!
Lime-great! It’s always the unexpected that makes a room amazing! I always ask myself what color would be the one I least would use with this? Then I use it. Life is more fun that way.
Hi everyone!
Thank you for the wonderful comments.
The chairs in the kitchen are green DSR eames with the eiffel base.
The table is a knock off of the knoll saarinen. we got it from a flea market.
The light is a Poulsen PH-5, another flea market find.
And lastly the paint color is lime burst. I believe it’s either Olympic or Valspar.
love the citrus-colored kitchen! brilliant!
That is the happiest kitchen I’ve ever seen! I LOOOOOVE the citrus-y lime. This is definitely a home I’d want to spend time in. :)
What vision!
I love that little pull-down desk in the living room! And that orange paint is the perfect color to make the room feel cozy & modern all at once.
This is wonderful! I love the renovation! The fireplace transformation is remarkable!
Beautiful citrus colors combined with natural wood and white. I love it. But I’m really loving that collection of glassware on the mantle. One of my favorite things to collect!
beautiful build-ins!! I love the pull down desk and the color of the kitchen. The kitchen looks lke a freshly squeezed lime. Love it!
Great job! I’m loving both rooms, but especially the living room. The orange is awesome, and what a useful space.
what a refreshingly dose of color! I love that it was kept clean, modern and simple yet so uplifting. I am doing the same to my kitchen and this really puts me in the right place and motivates me to do it up! love love love all the before and afters!
Where is the sink from? Love the whole makeover…
Simply adore that kitchen! It’s bright and airy, and the best color ever- lime! Nice makeover!
the kitchen is stunning and i’m loving the coloured glass vase collection!
the lime green seriously blows my mind. I can’t tell you!
maybe not for my kitchen, but i LOVE, love it.
can you tell me where you found the bench under the window in the living room (if that’s indeed what it is)? i’m looking for something similar to the nelson bench w/o the price tag…
I totally agree about the lime green – it is FAB! I’d like to know what the white kitchen countertops are – it looks continuous into the sink.
Wow, what a kitchen, the bright splash of green makes a world of difference. It looks so clean and modern now!
LOVE the kitchen so much! That green is my favorite color and it really looks fantastic in the kitchen!
I LOVE the kitchen!!
LUV the colors! And how did you get the dog to pose like that?! lol
That colourful glassware collection. That green kitchen!!!! Love x 1000.
this gives me hope! whenever i do buy a home it’s sure to be a fixer upper – love the result. can’t imagine how many hours of labor and love went into their lovely home.
Really like the living room. I can’t get onboard with the kitchen because I would have stayed closer to its “1932 Craftman roots”. It not often that someone gets to renovate a house that hasn’t been touched in nearly 80 years. I would of stayed more traditional. Just one person’s opinion.
Love the green… brings a lot of life to it!
Love what they’ve done!
…except… I really hate that they tore out the original kitchen cabinets. Old House Lovers (like myself, do I need to say it? LOL) would kill to have original cabinets in our kitchens! I’m pleased that they kept the large built-in, though, and I love the fun, vibrant touches, though. Very cool!
oh my i totally love all of these before and afters! they are so inspiring!
~Morgan
The sink and countertop are both corian in arctic white. They are welded and sanded smooth so they appear as one continuous counter. We love it.
andrea – the bench /long coffee table came from ebay, i think from seller simple mod.
Living Room: Excellent. The only thing I’d change is finding a really nice painting or really unique mirror to hang over the fireplace instead of displaying the (very beautiful) glassware. Your hard work to refinish the wood trim and mantle will pay you back every day.
Kitchen: Hmmm…it’s a little “Ikead” up. But just a little. At first glance I was all “Oh No, they pulled out all that good original retro vintage goodness!” (I wonder if the new sink cab. will last as long as what was removed). But upon further reflection, I’m divided. The before looks somewhat dysfunctional, like maybe a wall to the right of the sink area had been sorta taken out. Oh, and that gnarly flooring, yikes. So yes, the new layout looks better, cleaner. But, now you have (to me) the jarring contrast of traditional craftsman home details and trim around the windows and doors against the sleek contemporary lines of the sink cab, sink, tulip table and Eames style chairs. Then there’s the shelves vs. upper cabs. I’ve worked in restaurants (where this is normal) and for the home it’s just not my thing. It’s like cooking in the garage. IMHO, the upper cabs should have been left. They might have tied that area nicely to the built in area. And the green stripe. I love the boldness of the color and the idea, but the placement is weird. It kinda looks like there is wainscoting 5 ft. up the wall or something and I’m not sure that continuing it over the trim works either. But that’s just my opinion, I don’t have to live with it. I don’t consider myself a purist but on the whole, the kitchen is better but doesn’t fit the original character of a craftsman house.
Fabulous! Wish I was married to an architect…
I love these colors! It would be cool if the placemats were lemon or lime slices!
B e l l i s s i m a !
A M A Z I N G ! !
Such wonderful before & afters!
This kitchen is a dream come true. I love this colour combination.
while I love the kitchen after, its too bad I saw the before. I really (REALLY) love the yellow & black counters and would have loved to see that color scheme used. I want to show my husband the fireplace wall, which would only require installing windows where there are none in our house!
I LOVE the bright green in the kitchen–so fun and fresh!!
I see all of the comments about the kitchen above and it makes me a little sad. This kitchen reflects YOU, not anyone else and you did a wonderful job at making your home represent you. That is what it is all about in my book. The fireplace, the fun pop of color in the kitchen…everything looks fresh and fabulous.
I adore these Before/After. And white color and that green are well inserted in the kitchen! wowowo!
Unearthing original hardwood is the best! I love it. Though, I’m crying that the built in sink/counter area and cupboards were removed from the kitchen and not replaced with a similar built in to suit the original character of the house.
I believe there is a way to keep the period integrity while still allowing for a contemporary living space {without the ‘mod’ look}. 21st century mod just doesn’t work for me, especially in this 20s home.
In response to the comment above, yes it is their home and they can do with it what they wish. However, this is a design blog and, though I’m not an architect, I feel the new kitchen could have been resolved in a more innovative way.
LOVE the kitchen. I have been looking at “fixer houses” and that is exactly what I want in the kitchen, down to the paint color and flooring!! Gorgeous!!
INCREDIBLE! That green….it’s fantastic. I never would have guessed it would look so good. Truly, a wonderful transformation.
Heidi
Love the kitchen! Very nice.
I saw this house on HGTV. It was on one of their shows which is when they did these makeovers.
I love this. Love the colors, love the mix of modern and retro (I find it cozy, not jarring at all). I bookmarked it for inspiration (and I don’t do that often).
hi guys
we were just informed that this home ran on both AT and HGTV last year.
my most sincere apologies. we were not told that it was run before and i never would have run it if i knew it had already received press on sites/shows that you all frequent.
my apologies, we’ll be sure we double and triple check things next time.
i try my hardest to make sure you’ll see things that are fresh and new here. sorry that we didn’t catch this one.
grace
Can you tell us anything about the sink/countertop all inclusive unit (or so it looks to be…) Thanks
can’t believe they replaced that lovely vintage yellow and black tile in the kitchen with, what is that -white corian?? ugh!
I love that shade of green!
I loved the original counter too but I am guessing the cabinets were not working well–I have some in my kitchen of a similar vintage and they are really on their last legs. I am glad they kept the built-in.
I love the lime but think the stripe going over the top window molding and around the corner looks really weird. Not sure what the inspiration was there.
Bette- please see my comment above- we were informed about this running elsewhere only after we ran this. The home owner did not tell us it had already run.
A beautiful home from beautiful people! And seeing it on television is nothing like seeing these stills.
This couldn’t have come at a better time! Last year I sold everything I owned and painted my whole house white. (I had a bit of a fit) The only thing I didn’t do over was my 1940′s kitchen. After seeing this … I’m once again inspired to do it! Right after I do my closets! And my basement. Ech … and maybe my bathroom.
I really like the look in the kitchen with no upper cabinets.
Love this kitchen! its so bright and cheerful!
It’s the way of your interior to achieve a wide and comfortable place.So better look ways on how you can achieve style to perfectly combine with your taste.
It’s amazing what a little color will do to liven up a room. The bright green decor definitely adds new life to the kitchen.
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