Before and After at La Chum

Here’s a peek at some work I’m doing for myself. Yesterday I wrote about the new bathroom floors we put in at our beach house, Chum Bucket. Today, I’m focusing on the main living area. The kitchen hasn’t been painted yet, but the living and dining areas are ready for view. So here are some fun Before and After photos.

Living Area – Before

Here’s what we started with. The interesting thing about some vacation homes is that they are sold with all the furnishings. The owners lock the doors, leaving everything behind – even the scented candles. I think the previous owners thought they’d bought a cabin in the woods. They had an interesting idea on space planning, with the dining table against a wall and covering a door. To be fair, the house was owned by a plastics company, so I don’t think much thought went into anything. So, here’s what I did and how I did it.

Living Room – Before

I started with the space planning. The original had more living area than was necessary and I needed to move the dining table into the center of the room. So I divided things into 3 sections: living, dining and kitchen. Then I focused on the bones. The house is a rental property, so everything in it has to be durable and can’t include anything you’d cry about if it breaks. I tore out the forest green carpet and installed a dark, floating laminate floor that was on sale at iFloor. It’s in the entire house. That’s covered with a super inexpensive, yet durable sisal carpet bought from Prosource. When it gets too badly stained I can throw it out. The walls were painted a light blue-grey. The rest of the house will be painted the same color.

Living Room – After

Almost all the furniture came from IKEA. We rented a U-Haul, went to the IKEA in Washington, D.C. and filled the trailer with stuff. I drafted the house on AutoCad and chose the furniture beforehand so I knew what would fit.

The wicker chair cushion is now covered in the
same stripe and a toss pillow in the matching Matisse drapery print

Why white sofas in a rental? IKEA’s Ektorp sofa was only $400. I bought an extra slip cover for $45. It’s machine washable and can be bleached. I’ve used these on other jobs and they wash beautifully. If the slip cover gets trashed it can be washed and if the sofa breaks it was only $400! Who cares?

I splurged on the fabric for the doors and toss pillows. The window treatment is a discontinued fabric from Clarence House. I bought it for half price and the showroom gave me their sample – about 3 yards. The stripe is also from Clarence House and is indoor/outdoor, so it can take a beating. The red pillows are from IKEA. I was going to cover these in a different fabric, but the red tied in so well with the Daniel Stewart painting that I kept them and added a red throw.

Cocktail table with shells

I made a liner for the tray in the Liatorp cocktail table with fabric from Walmart and topped it with shells. Some are from the beach, some from the local gift store. The curtain rod and capiz shell lamp are from West Elm; the other floor and table lamp are from IKEA.

Dining – Before

The original dining table was shoved against the wall, hiding a closet with a forest painting. (Again, were the previous owners wishing they were in the woods, or did those plastic fumes go to their heads?) Anyway, I moved it into the room and installed 2 Liatorp bookshelves. The backs were green; I painted them a bright blue. In a small house like this, storage is very important. These will eventually be filled with books. The closet in the middle is our “private closet” filled with our sheets, etc. I’m thinking about hiding it with a mirror (saw it at IKEA). The fake plants came with the house. We need to get rid of those, but I like the azalea.

Dining and shelves – after

The dining table can be extended to seat 10 people. The chairs have blue seats. I was going to hang a pendant lamp with the striped Clarence House fabric as the shade. But it was to expensive to make the shade ($300) and I decided I wanted a more open look, so I stuck with what we had.

And finally, the artwork. As I mentioned, the original painting is by Detroit artist, Daniel Stewart. We’ll definitely take that with us if and when we sell the house. The art over the sofa are enlarged photos of Sunset Beach taken by my husband. I super-saturated the images on Photoshop and printed them out on a glossy paper using a plotter. The prints were free. The Ribba frames are from (where else?) IKEA.

Did I miss anything? If so, just ask. I know there are some who will say that a house done up with one-stop-shopping has no soul, but I think I managed to achieve a bright, modern, beachy cottage look with its own personality. And all for a song. I also think the renters will appreciate the after part of the before and after.