Welcome home!
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Well, not exactly. This historic home on Monte Vista in the Phoenix Willo Historic Neighborhood used to be part business, part home, before the new owner and I took over to restore it.

In fact, the home’s living room was an office waiting room. So during the redesign of the home, we had to make that space more welcoming to attract buyers who wanted the house to live in, not conduct business in.

From softening lines and encouraging more natural light with a neutral color palette, here are four techniques we used to transform the old waiting room office space into a warm and inviting living room. 

The old glass doors in the waiting room area separated the office space from the rest of the house. To create continuity and flow, we removed the glass doors and added archways. These archways were in the same original curved design that was found in other parts of the home. The design unified the space while respecting the historic home design.
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Removing the glass doors also brought a whole lot more natural light into the room and throughout the space. Today, the living room looks cohesive with the rest of the house.

Museum baseboards, sometimes called flush recessed baseboards, create a minimalist and elegant effect. They’re a flooring style that’s flush with the wall, which prevents dirt and debris from accumulating on the floor.
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For these baseboards, we used the stone tile from the rest of the house. Again, this technique created continuity into the living room from the rest of the home. Using these museum baseboards also blended a sleek modern style with the historic home design. 

As I learned during my first historic home renovation, it’s so important to keep what gives a historic home its charm. In this case, the original windows provided character and were just as functional after the restoration.

Keeping them also saved money during the home restoration while adding value because of the historic touch. Some updated window treatments elevated the windows and let more light in.
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We also painted the windows dark to add contrast. This technique frames out the view better and enhances the natural light.

Finally, staging the space to feel like a living room really helped sell the space to buyers. To make the living room more of a place to gather and get rid of the waiting room vibe, we added a plush couch with lots of throw pillows and draped a blanket over the end chair. We deliberately used large furniture to fill the room, so that buyers would understand how much space the room offered.

I also love incorporating nature into my designs. We added a calming plant and natural wood centerpiece to make the living room more relaxing and serene – not at all like a stressful office waiting room.
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To encourage congregation and create a more inviting space, we aligned all the furniture to face each other and the fireplace. Lastly, to give purpose to the original track lighting, we created a gallery art wall. 

I really love the challenge of taking an old space and transforming it into something totally new and more functional for today’s homebuyers.
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You can see more of my Phoenix home renovation projects here. Click through the images to see how they changed. Shop the same products I used for each project to create your own transformation. 

​Seven years ago, my renovation strategy started to change. It all began with the first historic home project I did in the Phoenix Fairview Place Historic District. This project helped me find my passion for historic homes and small spaces. I learned a ton of lessons I’ve taken with me since then.
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If you’re thinking about revamping your home or want advice for flipping a house, take these nuggets of wisdom from me. They’ll help you cut costs and add value to a home. Plus, they make a space more functional and a whole lot more appealing. 

If you’re getting rid of materials from one part of a house, think about how they might work somewhere else.

For example, to save money when I was renovating this historic home, I moved the cabinets from the main house into the guest house and used the leftover countertop remnants, as well. These were only small pieces, but they worked for a secondary space like this.

You can really get creative during the renovation process. Some ideas:

• Take discarded tiles from a floor or ceiling and use them for a statement wall.
• Break down an old wooden door and turn it into rustic upcycled cabinet doors.
• Give an old dresser a new paint job and install it in a bathroom as a vanity.

Also, carefully think about elements in a room that could still work or be improved with a simple upgrade. For example, I kept the industrial concrete floors in the guest house, because they have benefits like:

• They’re low-maintenance.
• They’re durable.
• They can easily be enhanced to look more luxurious with a simple surface treatment, like an acid stain or concrete floor paint.

​Moving home elements from one room to another, or transforming them for a whole new function, is an easy way to elevate a space without having to spend on new materials. 

A huge way to add value to a home is to make it more functional. Especially with historic and older homes, the way they were designed back then doesn’t always fit how we live today.

With this guest house, I moved the center door over to the left to make the kitchen more functional. That door on the right? That became a window.

These simple tweaks made a big impact, creating a seamless flow in the kitchen, providing more space for a sink and countertops, and letting in a whole lot more light.

Wondering how to make a home more functional as you renovate? Here are some tips.

• Open up a floor plan. If a wall just doesn’t make sense where it is, open it. You can turn an older home into one that instantly feels more spacious by creating larger openings that make sense and still look period-appropriate for the home. For example, archways are one of my favorites!
• Look for opportunities to add shelving and storage. Wherever there’s unused space, think about how it can be more functional. In this guest house kitchen, we didn’t have enough upper cabinets, so we used opened shelves to fill those gaps.
• Add a bench. If there’s a part of your house that’s an unused corner, add a storage bench. You’ve now created seating and storage that’s uncluttered.

​In kitchens, you can add a kitchen island or add cabinetry to an existing kitchen island. Floor-to-ceiling cabinets are a great way to make space more functional, too.

Here’s a tip you might not expect from me, a Phoenix real estate agent: don’t always listen to real estate agents.

With this house, the agent I was working with said, “New windows sell houses.” So, I replaced all the windows.

At the time, I didn’t understand the value of architecture. Now, I realize replacing the windows was a mistake. The original windows had given the home a lot of character. Retaining them could have also saved a lot of money.

Always respect the home and keep its true charm intact. Many homebuyers will pay for features with a vintage look or real vintage touches.

Some older home features you should consider keeping include:

• Ceiling medallions
• Crown and radius moldings
• Exposed brick
• Mosaic floor tile
• Pedestal sinks
• Roofing tiles
• Original wood doors
• Small plank wood floors

And, finally, windows! You can give older windows a makeover by adding exterior shutters, installing indoor window treatments, upgrading the landscaping around the windows or adding flower boxes underneath them. If the windows are old or damaged, repairing them to good-as-new condition can also be a lot less expensive than replacing them altogether.
Before You Replace: Repurpose, Restore & RepairYou don’t have to give a home a complete makeover to upgrade it. To save money and add value during a home flip or remodel:

1. Repurpose materials where you can. If something like the flooring is serving the house perfectly, there’s no need to spend money to replace it just because.
2. Think about how you can make your space more functional with what you have to work with. A small shift, like moving the access to a room, can make a big impact.
3. Keep what gives a home its charm. Repair or restore wherever possible.

Want to see more examples of how I took those lessons from my first home renovation into future ones? Check out some of my recent home renovation projects, where you can shop the same items I used in designing the homes.
 
 

The kitchen: it’s one of the most-used rooms in the house, where families congregate, where memories are made and where you provide fuel for your household.

When I’m working on home renovations, I always prioritize kitchen improvements. Kitchens are such a focal point of a home, they can make or break a home sale and add (or take away) lots of value.
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When I renovated my first historic home in the Phoenix Fairview Historic District seven years ago, I learned a ton about how to effectively upgrade kitchens. Working on kitchens in both the main house and guest house of the first historic home I renovated, here are five tips I learned.  

With my first home renovation, this was a small-space, ‘90s style kitchen. I wanted to bring in the color palette of the rest of the home to create more flow and cohesion. But doing all-black or all-gray cabinets would close in the space.

I opted for two-tone cabinets, which made the space look bigger while still unifying the overall style of the home. When you’re considering color for a kitchen, a two-tone design can motivate the eye to wander. That provides the illusion of a bigger space.
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Using classic colors like these also gave the kitchen a sleek look, while making it fit right in with the rest of the home. 

This tip is especially important for older and historic homes: maintain a consistent style in your kitchen. The hood I was working with in this kitchen was in complete style conflict with the historic architecture. It was way too modern and looked really out of place. That’s not a good vibe to have when you’re whipping up something tasty in your kitchen.

I switched out the hood for a more classic range hood style. You can see what a huge impact this simple change made to make the kitchen look more cohesive.
Try to keep a consistent style throughout all the appliances and fixtures. Create cohesion in your kitchen by:

• Choosing a color palette and sticking to it
• Selecting a “vibe” and using fixtures and appliances that match that mood
• Identifying a common thread, like geometrics or lines, that unite all the details

​Your design aesthetic may be all over the map, but to add value to the kitchen, you want to make sure it looks united as a room in itself, and that it also makes sense within the context of the entire house.

With small-to-medium spaces like kitchens, details are super-important and can really make a kitchen shine. When it comes to hardware, this is your opportunity to make a unique statement. Have fun with it!

In this renovation, I have to admit, the hardware was a little basic. If I were redoing this kitchen today, I would upgrade cabinet hardware to be more attention-grabbing. Some styles I love:

• Cool pulls, in styles from drop handles and ring pulls,
• Classic finishes like oil-rubbed bronze, brushed nickel and matte black
• Modern finish styles, like copper, granite and quartz

​Whatever your aesthetic, there are endless ways to customize kitchen hardware and hinges. Since you likely use your kitchen several times a day, you deserve to love all the elements in it, right down to the hardware.

I learned a lot about installing backsplash in this first Phoenix historic home renovation. A couple major tips when it comes to kitchen backsplash:

1. Always stop backsplash in the corner of the wall. Never have it wrap around to the edge. As you can see here, the end piece looks like it’s floating. Lesson learned: I should have stopped in the corner and painted the entire side wall gray. I will never make this mistake again!
2. Always go countertop to ceiling. By “ceiling,” I mean where the backsplash meets the cabinetry, kitchen window, etc. To get it right, before you install backsplash, hold the tiles against the wall so you can see what pattern you want to use and what type of tile you’ll want to start or end with. Usually, you’ll need a partial tile, like a quarter-tile or half tile, to fit the top or bottom so you’re not left with a thin, unsightly sliver of space.

Backsplash is another kitchen detail you can get really creative with. But if it’s not installed correctly, it can throw off the whole kitchen design. 

Finally, embrace your creative side when renovating a kitchen! In this historic home, I had an issue with needing to hide mechanical equipment in the laundry room that could be seen from the kitchen. My solution? A saloon door!

Saloon doors are so functional. They make it easy to move between rooms while also creating a separation when you need one. I gave the saloon door in this home a modern look by painting it teal to really make it pop against the classic colors of the rest of the kitchen.

Why saloon doors in a kitchen? They let natural light through and provide privacy. Compare that to a regular door that blocks light or a door with windows that would expose anything you don’t want seen on the other side.

Some other ideas for unique solutions in kitchens:

• Need extra storage space? Add some to an island or install a drawer in the wall underneath the hood.
• Hate the current lighting? Install a custom light fixture for big design impact. Or add lights below, above and inside cabinets to illuminate the exact spots you want.
• Want the option of seating in your kitchen? An island with a bar provides room for chairs underneath. Bring chairs in when you want, and add extra space the rest of the time.

Want to see more kitchens I found unique solutions for? Check out my Phoenix home design projects, where you can shop the exact products I used in the many renovations over the last 10 years.

​If you enjoyed this blog, share it! Happy designing!