the Doors

It is amazing the impact new doors can make.  24th came with old, hollow, dark grained interior doors and a dilapidated front door.  We knew for certain we wanted something simple and clean and decided upon a single panel shaker for all the interior doors.  We also added a door from the kitchen to the hallway to help separate noise from the front to the back bedrooms.  

Dark and dingy, but the kid is cute

For the hardware, we went with satin nickel round door knobs from DirectDoorHardware.com, which had a great selection.  We considered using levers to match with the style of the house but decided with young children the harder to open knobs were a better selection and has since worked out well.  

Hallway

Separation Door

For the front door, we went with something more traditional. The goal was to let in as much light as possible while maintaining privacy (our front door opens directly into our living room, the only draw back of 24th).  We found a solid oak door with 6 small panel windows on sale from Caldwells in San Francisco.  To the dismay of our painters, we painted the outside but stained the interior.   I don't have a before picture of the exterior door but it was bad, a worse version of our previous interiors.  Here is is now.

Exterior Door

the Right Paint Color

New House, check. Tons of possible projects, check. No money, check. Where to begin....

First, we needed to free ourselves from the passion of pink, so our first move was to paint as much of the house as we could. Initially, I wanted a fresh slate and thought to just paint everything white but when my savvy husband convinced some painters we had used in the past to do a cheap day rate, I figured we should pick real colors if we were going to use the pros.

Before picking colors, a little bit about me. I love neutrals and tend to decorate in white, wood and metal. Since buying 24th St, my style has become a bit more modern but when I describe anything to my husband the word "rustic" comes out time and time again. I really can't get enough grey and tend to always gravitate towards that when picking a shade.

Back to the house, I had 3 days to pick my colors for the living room, bedroom and dining room. I had been obsessing over a picture in the now defunct (shed a tear) Domino Mag that highlighted muted metallic walls.  I was determined to do a shiny champagne in the bedroom but upon further research found that the metallic colors weren't as successful in real life especially with our textured walls (thanks Browner Brown).

(Image via Domino)

The Inspiration

Upon further digging, I discovered the room in the picture was actually that of editor Dara Caponigro (love!) and in another story she referenced that the room was painted in Benjamin Moore's Early Morning Mist. But our room faced west and without the direct sunlight the color looked too creamy.  I went with a similar color from Benjamin Moore called Light Pewter, which was slightly more grey and loved the results so much, I ended up doing all three rooms in the shade.  The bedroom was done in an eggshell to give a slight shimmer (it wasn't metallic but who was I kidding?)

(Image: Benjamin Moore: Early Morning Mist)

(Image: Benjamin Moore: Light Pewter

Before Living room (OK not pink but still needed help)

Living room in progress

Before Bedroom

Bedroom in progress

the Before

24th Street. We got her and moved in just a few days before Thanksgiving 2009 (note to self, provide wiggle room between when you think escrow will close and when you have renters moving into your current dwelling). We had just enough time to get our boxes in before heading back east for the holidays. And because we were delayed with the close, we had to move our stuff in the day BEFORE the painters came. Not ideal but I had to get rid of some of the pink that covered both the inside and outside of the house. See some highlights from the realtors original pictures of the house.

Living Room

Kitchen, got to love that yellow Formica

Dining room, or is it a bedroom? What you

can't see is that it has an open wall to the

kitchen but also a full closet.

Master Bedroom

2nd Bedroom

In-Law

the Find!

15 months. Yes, 15 months! That was the amount of time it took us to find our home in San Francisco. Of course, we were being picky and had quite the wish list...
Primarily: a fixer that had good bones that we could live in while remodeling piece by piece
3+Bed and 2+ Bath as our growing family was getting cramped in our current 2/1
Garage
A backyard
Specific neighborhood
Oh and it had to fit into our budget (did I mention we live in San Francisco?)

After countless let downs and a serious consideration to move north to Seattle where the houses were bigger and cheaper, I found it. 24th Street as we call her. As soon as I walked in, I knew it. It met all of our criteria, a sad little house with a lot of potential. "Let's put in an offer" I told my husband after I saw it. He was on the other side of the country on a business trip. "Can I see it first?"

This blog is dedicated to the trials and tribulations of remodeling our first fixer.