Remodel and decorating help with this old house that I inheritated
I thinking about combining these 2 rooms by knocking out wall that seperates them and putting hardwood floors in. These rooms are not level so in place of the wall I plan on exending the step all the way down replacing the wall. Open concept is what I am trying to achieve. I really like the dard hardwood with gray walls. What do you think? I am not sure about how the dark hardwood would look with these cabinets. I plan on new countertops and backsplash in kitchen but am having trouble picking everythig that will flow with an open concept, and that will also look good with this fireplace. Can not afford new furniture just yet so how can I make this old ugly furniture look new again and also how to arrange it in an open concept design. Slip covers, paint? HELP.
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If you have zero budget, then getting rid of all the decorative items, photos, pillows and so forth is the thing to do. Wash the windows after removing the window treatments. Change the light bulbs to brighter.
Pull the furniture to the center of the room. Rank them A, B, C and D. Get rid of the Cs and Ds unless they'd leave you with nothing to sit on. You may want to swap some pieces between the two living rooms.
You may be able to reuse sheer curtains if there are some, after cleaning them. Same thing with the striped panel parts of the heavy striped formal draperies: just get them cleaned and let them hang straight without tiebacks. Do they match one of the sofas?
Some examples to get you going:
1. pick a granite (ore other stone) countertop in a color similar or a bit lighter than the stone of your fireplace (this to me seems the best pick for this kitchen combined with the rest of the place)
2. backsplash also in this granite or matching color
3. get dark grey hardstone tiles (or the ceramic ones) for your kitchen floor, there will be a step, so no problem getting two types of flooring
4. get all stuff out and after your hardwoon floors are done, only put back the necessary (with or without slip covers)
5. make a decorating plan, style, budget, colors, find pictures, ideas, etcetera (maybe get some help by a designer)
6. go for it!
Extra thought: I wouldn't break away an entire wall if that meant there'd be a step along the entire room. I'd rather make the walls half height, with a bar on top and/or some cabinets. But that's mainly because I tend to trip over small steps (and will probably still do so when I'm 70 years old).
I agree with Jayme Hobbs. Bring some sample hardwood home for a few days. Postpone any other color decisions until you decide on the hardwood. As a practical note, very dark ( coal black) flooring shows every little bit of cat hair, dog hair and fluff. You might want something a bit lighter, more like dark chocolate.
One you have hardwood chosen, you can pick a countertop and backsplash, then paint for the cabinets. There are huge numbers of inspirational photos of painted cabinets with dark hardwood floors on Houzz. There are so many styles of cabinet hardware that you can find several great ones in whatever budget range you have.
You can get good quality budget panel curtains from Penney's, overstock.com, Target, and lots of other places. They also stock slipcovers. The current curtain style is floor to ceiling length (usually 96" instead of 84") and uses a decorative rod. Have fun shopping and making your ideabook.
Are you able to post any more photos? If you turn on all the lights first and take photos in daylight, they are likely to be crisper. I'd love to see the room without the curtains. It should be flooded with light from the huge window.
I hope you post "progress" photos to Houzz.
You could go with a countertop and backsplash that is the same or you could have a different backsplash. Your cabinets look fairly classic and a classic backsplash type to consider is ceramic subway tile. One possibility if working to tie together the gray of the fireplace with the existing cabinets would be a countertop that had gray that coordinated with the gray of the fireplace as ringreation noted, in whatever material you like, and a subway tile in an ivory, an off-white that has some cream in it, or even a cream, so it could work with the existing cabinets. Bring home any samples and check against the fireplace and against each other and the cabinets.
Decide on the countertop and the backsplash before deciding on the paint color. Then bring home paint samples and check it against the fireplace, the flooring stain, the countertops and backsplash and cabinets if keeping this color. As for cabinets, can add hardware in a gray to tie it into the wall color and fireplace. One thing to remember is that you can always paint the cabinets so that is an option as well.
Another choice for the window treatments in the kitchen would be to go with a roman shade or wood blinds. I would do that as well as the hardware after the contracting work is done, and you can take your time to find things to coordinate with what has been done. The same with the living room. It will help to have the new floor and paint color in to make decisions there which you can do later.
- - Just wanted to add - one of the major things to check with the flooring stain choice is how it works with the existing kitchen cabinet stain color. Sometimes it works less well if there is a large difference in the stain color shade in terms of darkness of different woods in the same room. If it doesn't work well, in that case, if you want to go with the darker wood floor, it might be a good idea to paint the cabinets. Good luck!