About Dogwood House
Built in 1965, our brick colonial style home is a classic four over four house with a central staircase. We adored the formality of this house and the traditionally divided rooms. It had great bones, but was in need of a total renovation. Every room had wallpaper borders and its own colored carpet.
We moved here in 2015, and set about transforming the house. Progress has been slow and steady. A major appliance wipe out saw our refrigerator, heating pump, stove, AC unit, and oven die within the first month. That was just wonderful and had us feeling like we were in that movie The Money Pit.
We've tackled new electrical wiring, a new roof, and just recently all new windows! Each room is slowly but surely being transformed to suit my Grandmillennial dreams. I believe in buying second hand, and I'm always shopping estate sales, auctions, and thrifts.
See how we are transforming Dogwood House below and suggested sources for similar decor and furnishings.
Why did I name our home Dogwood House? Read this!
The Living Room
BEFORE
Formal Living Room Transformation
Paint Color: SW Basalt Powder
The formal living room is an elegant but whimsical space where we love to enjoy a quiet Saturday morning latte as well as entertain guests for holidays and parties. The furnishings and decor are mostly sourced from estate sales, auctions, and my antiquing adventures, but I'll do my best to link to the sources or similar ones below.
Gone are the cream and burgundy tones, and in their place a classic green and white scheme reigns. We removed the wallpaper border and painted the walls basalt powder from Sherwin Williams.
The space is long and narrow with a gorgeous fireplace centered on the long outer wall. Flanked by two windows with a marble surround, the fireplace is the main focal point of the space and lends to the formal feeling of the room. For curtains, I ended up keeping the cornice boards, but having them cut down and re-upholstered. The textile on the cornices is a discontinued Waverly pattern called Fleuretta in the spring color way. The curtains are a budget friendly option in green and white gingham available here.
Our pair of chairs are an estate sale purchase from Carr & Company Furniture. The end tables on either side are simply white ikea garden tables covered in a custom celadon moiré fabric (check out the DIY here). The Federal style sideboard is an antique found at the Clinton Antique Mall, and our wicker daybed is another estate sale find.
The Neoclassical style bookcase was an auction buy, and the trellis rug is a Portuguese Arraiolos.
The Dining Room
BEFORE
The Dining Room Transformation
Paint Color: SW Interesting Aqua
The dining room is my favorite room in the house. It is bright and airy with two windows that face north west, so it gets the lovely evening sun.
S. and I have put a lot of work into transforming this space. We painted the top half of the walls interesting aqua from Sherwin Williams and added faux wainscoting to the bottom half. You can read our post about how to do this DIY here. S. also put up an elaborate crown molding that he designed and installed himself -- that DIY post is here. The moldings help create architectural drama and interest, making the space feel formal.
With our small budget and my love of vintage and antique furnishings, everything in this room is also by and large thrifted or sourced from auctions and estate sales. The custom curtains are a gorgeous silk called Surat by Schumacher in robin's egg plaid that I found thrifting. They were not the right size, so my lovely mother-in-law cut them down to fit our windows.
The mahogany Federal style table is an auction find from R.H. Lee Auctioneers out of S.C., and the white cane chairs I found at our local Karm store. The rattan bar cart is from Target, and I painted it a chic navy blue -- tutorial here.
The Family Room
BEFORE
The Family Room Transformation
Paint Color: SW Tradewind Blue
You can read all about the renovation of our family room in this post.
The Guest Bedroom
BEFORE
The Guest Room Transformation
Paint Color: BM Squish Squash
You can read all about the renovation of our guest bedroom in this post.
Hi Katherine – this is Diane, your Mom’s neighbor. What a great website. How did you put this all together? When you visit your Mom give me a call, I’d love to hear all about it.
Thanks Diane! Absolutely!