Colonial style home tour in New York

  I was so excited and honored when my dear friend Debbie, whom I've known since our RMS days and who is also a big reason why I started my blog, asked if I would like to be part of her home tour edition. I immediately said yes and then worked like crazy getting this post together!
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Welcome to our home.....

     We bought our home in January  2003. When the realtor showed us this house we knew this was the one. The couple we purchased it from was a young Chinese couple with no children. 

They were moving to Pennsylvania to take care of the his parents.I guess a blue eyed baby boy is good luck in the Chinese culture and the couple was trying to have a baby for sometime. The women told our realtor she felt my son was going to bring them good luck. 

We found out a few months later the women was pregnant. That's our little story behind the purchase of our home!

Summer 2011

At the time my son was 8 months old and when we went inside to look around the young women went crazy over him and asked if she could hold him. She was very sweet so I let her. The next day our relator called us to let us know there was multiply offers on the house, we thought great now the bidding war starts! Well to our surprise that didn't happen, the couple excepted our offer and within a few weeks we closed on the house. The realtor then told us we have our son to thank!?!

Going down to the backyard and pool. We did all the landscaping ourselves accept for the stonework.

We put the pool in the Fall of 2007 and it was the best thing we ever did.  My kids all taught themselves how to swim. We spend a lot of  time out here in the summer months!

Come on in....

     Last year my husband and I added the picture molding in the hall and dining room. 

We are big DIY'ers. When you come through the front door to the left is our living room and to the right is a small sitting room(where you will usually find me blogging).

Our Living Room

I love to mix different pieces in a room. All the pieces that you see painted throughout the house have been painted by me. I walk around with a paint brush in my hand looking for the next victim(LOL)!

In our Dining Room along with painting we added the crown molding and picture molding.

 One of the first things we did in our kitchen when we moved in was add the granite counters and tile back splash. We also changed all the white appliances to stainless steal.

 Last year the hubby and I gave our plain builder basic kitchen island a makeover. We added bead board and decorative molding and painted and distressed it black. LOVE this change!

    Our kitchen opens up to our family room which I love since this is where we spend most of our time. This room was carpeted and a few years ago we added the hardwood.

In the bedrooms all we did was paint and the hubby added crown molding to them.

 This is my oldest daughters bedroom and bath. We painted and added the bead board to her bathroom last year. Every bedroom having there own full bath was a BIG plus when we looked at this house.

 I added the striped accent wall to my sons room.

 My youngest daughters room.

Thank you Debbie for letting me be part of your home tour edition, and thank you all for coming along on the tour!!

Thank you Martina for having us over.  I really enjoyed the tour and the story!

Northern nesting

This home tour is a day early. Wish me luck tomorrow with my move to word press.  Hoping for a smooth transition, and that I do not vanish into thin air:)

Colonial style home tour

Hi, I'm Judy from DIYbyDesign.
Welcome to our home.  We built our Colonial style house in 1999.

Since then most of the rooms have been transformed at least once.
When you come in the front door we have a two story entryway.

So what do you do with that extra space above the front door?
Well if you're me...you get up there on a ladder and decorate.

One of the most major changes happened about four years ago when we gutted the kitchen.  We were young when we built the house and we knew our tastes would change.  We were smart enough to opt for the builder's grade kitchen and did not upgrade anything in that room.  So when the dishwasher broke about five years ago, the wheels were set in motion for a total gut job.

I love our kitchen.  It is truly the heart of our home and where we spend most of our time.

One of my favorite things in the kitchen, and the one I receive the most e-mails on, is the chandelier over the kitchen island.  It is from ABC Crystal and is perfect for the island in it's design.  This chandelier was definitely a splurge, but so worth it as it is such a focal point of the kitchen.

In the old kitchen this area had a desk that was never used.  I designed this to wrap around two walls to form a bar area.  It is such a better use of the space and makes it feel part of the kitchen now.

We also have an eat in area in our kitchen.  I reupholstered the seats of those kitchen chairs after I was inspired by a fabric I saw in an Ethan Allen flyer. 

 I found just enough fabric on Ebay to complete the project.

Next room up is our living room.  The living room is our music room and reading room, and is also often used for after dinner conversation since it attaches to the dining room.

Here is our dining room.  

The dining room gets lots of natural light and has a gorgeous view of the backyard.

Here is one side of the dining room...

Here is the other.  The color on the wall is BM Tawny Port.  

I've been feeling the urge for a while now to lighten up the paint color,

 but haven't taken the plunge yet.

Next up is our family room which is also off the kitchen but on the other side.
The color on the wall is Benjamin Moore Arizona Tan.

The house is very open and I love how you can see all the way to the front door from here.

One of my favorite pieces in the room is a dresser we received after my husband's grandmother passed away.  It was in BAD shape.  It was my first major trash to treasure project.

The fireplace received a renovation a few years ago.  We removed the basic oak builders mantle and had this beautiful mantle made by the person who did all of our moulding work.

The mudroom was renovated last year.  It was my first time doing board and batten. 

 Our mudroom is also our laundry room.  

I just love this room now.  Makes me almost enjoy doing laundry...almost.

Heading upstairs the first room you see is my daughter's newly decorated room.  She is eleven and it was time for her room to get a more tween look.

I created this style tile board inspired by Pottery Barn Teen.  The letters were plain white and I found them on clearance at Target.  I covered them with the left over fabric.

Her desk is a Craigslist find that I painted using AS Chalk Paint.  The artwork I created as well.

Just down the hall is my 14 year old son's room.  He is a big sports fan.  

I made him the #5 pillow inspired by the Restoration Hardware Baby and Child pillow and the pillow to the right of the #5 pillow out of an old hockey jersey.

The guest room has probably gotten more updates than any room in our home (I don't know why except to say that I was never really satisfied with it).

The branches and birds look hand painted but are really vinyl decals.

The lamps were awesome Home Goods finds replicating Restoration Hardware lamps 

I had seen for 5x the cost.

The chair is a Craigslist find that I completely transformed using AS Chalk Paint 

and drop cloths to reupholster.  The drapes I made from fabric from

Calico Corners.  I used flat white sheets to line the pinch pleat drapes.

Our master bedroom was updated three years ago.  The color scheme is bronze, cream and robin's egg blue.  The colors are soothing and relaxing.

We have a tray ceiling and we painted it a robin's egg blue.  I wanted a chandelier but we needed a ceiling fan.  I found this perfect solution on lampsplus.com.

In creating an elegant design I mixed high with low.  The blue pillows I made using fabric that was $95/yard.  However, I mixed it with the bronze pillows from Target.  Mixed together you would never know the Target pillows were a bargain.  

We have five bathrooms...the master bathroom...

my daughter's bathroom...

my son's bathroom...

the powder room off the kitchen...

and the bathroom in our finished basement.

If you come over during the summer, you can be sure that there
will be pizza cooking in our outdoor pizza oven.

You can hang out by the pool...

or just relax in the shade on the patio.
Hope you enjoyed the tour of our home.
Thank you Judy for allowing us in your beautiful home, and giving us some great ideas that we can incorporate as well.

-Judy