While it may seem arbitrary to start the massive full-house renovation of our new home – a 5-Acre Fixer – with a small, detached guest suite over the garage – I promise there is a method to our madness. I’m almost relieved to start in a smaller, confined space that is allowing us to dip our toes into the vibe that will encompass our (new to us) home. This is all going down in NOVEMBER (just 2 weeks away, yikes!) but as I start to make decisions and purchases for the space, I wanted to introduce not only the design direction and project list, but the WHY behind it all.
Timing is everything.
We are on track to be out of our current house around Thanksgiving (sad day) and will be homeless through the end of 2022. Don’t feel sorry for us, we will be bouncing around vacations and staying with family throughout December! But that said – we want a place in our new house that is inhabitable for a night or two in between. That can comfortably sleep and bathe our whole family, fill our bellies with some sort of crockpot delight, and give us a cozy place to sip our coffee in the morning. Because you just NEVER know what will happen – and we want to be covered (and save ourselves $$$$ in hotel / air bnb bills) just in case something pops up or falls through and we need a place to crash for a few days during the renovation. Since there is tons of demo, framing, new duct work, plumbing and electrical taking center stage in the main house throughout the end of the year, we figured we could work out in the guest suite to get things settled without interrupting the flow of major construction plans. Which means – yes. The guest suite revamp will almost exclusively be filled with DIYs!
Flooring + Layout Decisions
While I do envision an amazing wall-to-wall plaid carpet in this space SOMEDAY, we will be redo-ing the footprint of this space in 3-5 years to open up the dormer windows and reconfigure the bathroom space. So spending a ton on carpet and demo NOW just didn’t make sense. So yes – we are keeping the kitchenette. Officially. And no – I won’t be carpeting anything up here, but instead running LVP (exact color TBD, i’m working on it!) throughout the sleeping, kitchenette and bathroom spaces. Luckily Kenny is pretty handy and can tackle this install himself on a weekend. We will also be incorporating two twin sleeper sofas (more like oversized chairs to be honest!) under the dormer windows to sleep my kids or my sister’s kids in a pinch. I rounded up my favorite quick-ship options below! Now which one will I buy….
The Project List
Well, you didn’t think I’d let Kenny have ALL the fun, did you? Of course I have a ton of DIY projects to complete in this area, as well as a few we will hire out. The full project list will include:
- Carpet Removal (hired out – and this is actually already complete – see below!)
- Bathroom Vanity Removal
- Install New LVP
- “Soapstone” Countertop DIY in Kitchenette
- Remove upper cabinets in Kitchenette
- Peel + Stick Tile Backsplash in Kitchenette
- Floating shelves in Kitchenette
- New Wall Paint Throughout
- Cabinet Paint DIY
- New Vanity + plumbing fixture Installation (hire out)
- Tile over fiberglass shower insert (hire out)
The Design Direction
I’m prepping, designing and ordering as much as currently possible now, just so I can ensure I can hit the ground running as soon as November starts. This is technically 4 spaces – kitchenette, bathroom and sleeping and lounge areas – but I wanted to create an initial moodboard to guide the direction of the overall space since everything is so close together. Some items (like color scheme and my current guest bed!) might look familiar! Since I have leftover cabinet paint in “Vintage Vogue” by Benjamin Moore after painting the boys old bunk beds, i’m almost positive that will be the cabinet color in the kitchenette. I mean, it’s one of my FAVORITE colors! If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it – right? Phew! It’s going to be a hectic month getting all of this done and also packing up our current home – but I know we can do it! Stay tuned for more on the DIYs listed above and more design direction for each individual space!
