Loft Renovation

When we bought our house, we didn't buy it because it's updated or done nicely, or styled the way we wanted it. It had "good bones" as my mother would say. You can fix anything, but location and the "bones" of the house.

The house sat on almost 8 acres. SCORE!

The house is almost 3,000 sq. ft. SCORE!

The house has a full, 13 course, walk out basement SCORE!

The house has 4 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms (including master bath) SCORE!

The house has a loft upstairs as a bonus room. We opted to make this a playroom for our kids (who at the time of purchase was 2.5 and 7months in-utero). Once Ava came along and became mobile (or at least when she showed interest in playing with toys) we decided to re-do it to be a real playroom.

I bought a new ABC rug. I put "playroom" decor up on the walls. I made a DIY reading nook with rain gutters and pillows. We put all the kids' toys up there. It was great! For almost 4 years it's been a great space for our girls.

As they got older, they spent less time in the loft. It hadn't "grown with them." They played in it, but not so much that I felt bad taking it away. They each have their own bedrooms (both being bigger rooms than I had growing up). There's also the guest room that they play in sometimes. And the downstairs area (still has their kitchen and the bins have been downgraded and moved behind a wall). They still have their crafts and crayons/markers all downstairs.

I loved having a separate play space for the kids. But, I also found that they spent a lot of time in their bedrooms/downstairs and when I worked from home, I didn't have a good place to work.

My job is awesome and flexible that if I need to work from home, I usually can. This is if I have appointments, kids have appointments, weather is bad, I'm not feeling well, my kids are sick, etc. Or if deliveries are coming to my house, or whatever. I have been propping myself up on the couch, using the coffee table as my desk. No bueno. I'm hunched over, leaning over my laptop (and I prop my laptop up with books and whatnot to make it taller!) but then the couch is soft and I end up slumping anyway.

Or,

I can go into the dining room and sit at the table there. But then the kitchen is right there, it's not overly comfortable for working and snacks are calling my name. So while I make it work, it's no where near ideal. I get distracted very easily.

Last fall, there was a potential opportunity that would've caused me to work from home a lot more. That kind of got us thinking that the loft space could be better utilized. During Christmas break (my work decided to close its doors between Christmas and New Years - that never happens in my industry!) we'd get started on it. I sold almost everything that was in there. The decor, the rug, I donated tons of toys and books. TONS. It felt amazing to get rid of so much STUFF. I was surprised that I wasn't as sad as I thought I would be, getting rid of a lot of BABY stuff. Hm.

We started with the disgusting floors. Let me point out that all the floors in this house are disgusting. There's linoleum in the kitchen. Like, linoleum from the 1960's. Our house was built in 2003, using fixtures from the 60's and 70's. I don't get it (we actually think the original owner ran out of money as he completed the house). The floor in the loft was (I think) original carpet.

We pulled that up and put down beautiful vinyl plank flooring. We went with a dark oak color.

We painted the walls gray (it's similar to Sherwin Williams's Seattle) and painted the trim bright white. What a difference already!

We replaced two ceiling lights with these from Amazon. I LOVE them!

Next, for a desk, I wanted something rustic, but nice. Steve decided to build me a desk. He wanted to make it like butcher block, but taking 2 x 4's and gluing them together. It's gorgeous and obviously fits into the space perfectly. We used the rod iron look for the table legs. It's been stained a beautiful dark color, and then finished off with wax.

We bought a beautiful white rug to balance the dark floors and gray walls. It's this one.

I wanted a nice desk chair, but not one that you'd find at Staples. I wanted some color, too. We ended up with this one. I didn't want a rustic looking chair, since everything else we have is rustic/farmhouse, so I liked how this color and fabric is bringing balance.

Then, because we need some more storage and I have a bunch of books that I need to put somewhere, we went with this shelving unit. This will go on the left side of the desk, along the short wall. We have already moved our filing storage unit upstairs and the bigger drawers we've been using to house all the girls school papers.

Here is the loft before (updated with pic!):

The reading nook was located behind that pink tent/castle thing. Opposite of the railing 

(there's plastic affixed to it so kids and toys cannot go through!) was the huge dollhouse, toy box etc. 

And, the after! 

I'm borrowing Mila's lamp. Still need to find one. 

I got some of the decor second-hand. Remember, my goal is not to spend all my money on DIY renovations. 

I'm also going to move that cabinet you see right in front. I don't like the placement. 

We still need to place the can lights in the ceiling.

It's so cozy! I love my new space. 

Eventually, the girls will be able to use this space for homework, reading, computer time. We're looking at getting a cheap desktop here. It just feels like it needs one. I will be getting a larger monitor to keep here so I can have a two-monitor set up like I do at work.

And here's the view from my chair, down the hall to the girls' rooms. Fresh paint on the railings, walls, ceiling and trim. We still need to put the shoe molding down. (Any bets to see how long it'll take Steve to do that finishing work?)

We are slowly but surely getting there. Now that the upstairs is almost done...we need to focus on the downstairs. The ENTIRE downstairs. Ugh. So overwhelming to think about. Thank goodness we will never move.