Ooooooh baby. . . Check out all that brown trim! Can you see why my husband was cringing at this house? Eeeeeek.

Y’all we painted this house HEAD. TO. TOE.

Ceilings, walls, trim. . . even inside the closets. Thankfully we had about five weeks between closing on this house and when our lease was up at our apartment, so we (by “we” I mean my husband) painted the entire place during that time.

In the dining, kitchen, living room and hallways we did @holycitychic’s custom color they call “Stokes White.” It’s a very very light gray. Unfortunately I don’t love it in our space, maybe because the vaulted ceilings make it appear even lighter, BUT in her photos it looks lovely and I’d still recommend it for smaller spaces.

After we painted, I started searching for a table and chairs. I found the table on the Nextdoor app (random) and it’s from Pier 1. I LOVE the color and the legs! We sanded and coated with a couple coats of polyurethane.

As for chairs, I searched far and wide for six chairs that wouldn’t break the bank. I found these from Ashley Furniture for only $60 each! It was one of the lowest priced chairs I could find that had good reviews and were good quality. Also worth noting: these are super comfortable. I noticed they raised the price to $100 each (on sale right now for $85 each!) since I bought them, but I would still recommend these as a fairly low cost chair that is comfy and chic!

Shout out to my friend Taylor (@td_interiors) for giving me that light fixture when he was trading it out for a new one in his home. It’s from IKEA and to be expected, it’s a price point that won’t break the bank.

The art on the wall on the left side is local— by 42 Pressed and it was a 30th birthday gift from my friend Kim. It’s a copper foil map of Charleston. She has many other city maps, too.

Next I tackled that bar area. I have switched it up a lot since we moved in and I eventually bought the new bar that’s in the photo a few months back from Wayfair. It’s not meant to be a bar but it has worked for that purpose for us.

With just the bar in that corner, it was feeling a little naked and sad so I reached out to my friends at The Restored Board to make me some shelves. I ordered two 36” shelves in their “weathered oak” stain. Theirs come with industrial piping but I fell in love with these antique brackets from World Market so I went with those instead. I’m SO happy with how they turned out!

The prints on the shelves are photos by local Charleston photographer Abby Murphy.

Cocktail napkins are Emily Daws Textiles

Charleston oyster print is TW Designs

Can you tell I like to fill my home with things made by my Charleston people? This city is filled with so many talented folks.

Now here’s the “before and after” side by side you’ve been waiting for . . .

Outside of the decor and furniture, paint and a new light fixture have made a world of difference in this room and it wasn’t costly. I tell all my clients buying or viewing a home that needs some work, that paint TRULY is a game changer. Wouldn’t you agree?

Future visions for this room:

My fiddle leaf fig to GROW taller in that corner!

Paint the door to the outside

Some kind of window treatments: blinds and/or drapes

Stay tuned next week for the living room before & after reveal.

many photos in this blog post are by Dreampop Media