These living room remodel before photo are yuck! However, it is satisfying to see how far we have come since these were taken when we first bought the house. The previous owner had issues with the fireplace, which caused the room to smoke and create soot on the walls. There was also an interior flood from a pipe bursting, which is why the oven and countertop are sitting in the living room as well as torn up floors.
We have come a long way in our living room remodel and it's rewarding to see the progress!
We have finished the living room renovation since this post, which you can see here!
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Living Room Before
Living Room Remodel Progress
Things We Did:
WALL WASH
As I mentioned before, the walls were covered in soot from the fireplace originally not working properly or getting proper cleanings. We took sponges to as much of the dirt and soot off of the walls as we could to remove the dirt and soot before painting.
OPENED DOORWAYS
The first construction project we took on for the living room remodel was opening up the standard-size doorway openings. We opened them up a bit more to bring in more light and give the room the feel of an open floor plan.
PAINTED CEILING TO WALLS
It goes without saying that we primed and painted the entire room from the ceiling to the walls with many coats of primer and paint. As you can see in the before photos, the house came with red painted trim, which was a huge no for us. We removed all of the trim instead of painting it with the exception of the fireplace mantel. We originally painted the walls with Incredible White paint and added trim with Snowbound, but we have since painted the walls again in Snowbound.
Things Left To Do:
FIREPLACE MANTEL
I do not want this style of the fireplace mantel, but I have to make a plan and brainstorm how to change the look and style working with the brick. This project is to be determined until I have a modern idea that we can execute to bring life into this fireplace.
FLOORING
To state the obvious, we have to put in our flooring in this room. I went with a dark espresso hand-scraped Birch which I now regret because it is SO dark and absorbs a lot of the little bit of light that we get in the house.
DECORATE
While I wish it was the first, decorating will be the last thing on the list. We have so much left to do around the entire house and a renovation budget only stretches so far. We are doing almost all of the work ourselves which helps, but decorating is another budget within itself.
