Welcome to Sister House!

Here's the front of the house! We stayed pretty true to the original, as we didn't want to make any sweeping changes (like painting the brick white) that might be jarring to the sweet, quiet neighborhood. We have some landscaping to do and want to paint the front door a neat color. Any ideas?

This is the entrance to the house, and it's especially fun because this is a new doorway that wasn't there before! It was previously a coat closet, but we busted through and made this a walkway to the kitchen. There's so much more light than there was before!

We kept the fireplace and old built-ins the house already had, but added doors on the lower cabinets and gave the built-ins a fresh coat of paint. This'll be a nice, cozy room!

We had to replace the stair railing and went with the traditional look. There were lots of ways we could go here, including a contemporary black/iron railing...but we wanted to keep it homey and traditional. We have a pretty runner for the stairs. It's kinda pink!

We had this awkward space under the stairs that we considered turning into a hidden room, hidden dog room, or hidden wine cellar...but we don't need to hide, Betsy doesn't have a dog, and we aren't wine connoisseurs, ha! So we just added shelves for cookbooks and things.

On the other side of the stairs is the dining room, which used to be a living room! We added simple paneling to the walls and love the lightness and brightness of the soft white paint. Cortney McClure in Bartlesville, Oklahoma helped us with furnishings and fixtures, and I love these pendants!

We have a couple of glass-front cabinets in the kitchen, and these are the doors. I love the curved profile and the quarter-sawn oak. To me, quarter-sawn oak always looks older and more "vintage" than regular oak. It's also pricier, so we just used it for a few touches here and there.

This is probably my favorite room in the house. Cortney, Betsy, and I were all in agreement that the old (circa 1980) plaid carpet needed to stay, and Cortney suggested choosing a super dark navy to coordinate with the colors of the plaid. I absolutely love this room, which is off of Elliot's bedroom. Great place to hang and watch old 80's movies!

The secret to going with a dark, moody color like this is to go all in: walls, doors, trim, even ceiling! And can we talk about the great shape this old carpet is in? I think we should get it cleaned just in case, haha, but it was so well taken care of through the years.

This is the corresponding bunk space on the other side of the upstairs. We're keeping it bright and light, and Cortney had the idea of wallpapering the ceiling and upper part of the walls. Will keep you posted on that!

For one of the bathrooms upstairs, we went with white/grey marble and white cabinets. A little of a safe choice, but we like it a lot...and there are plenty of non-white spaces around the house to add some color and fun!