Inspiring DIY Ranch Remodel

Remember when I shared about my visit with my friend, Vicki, and her adventures in remodeling that I promised to share with you? Today’s the day and are you ever in for an inspiring, diy treat! The best part about this is that everything she’s done to update her 50s-era rancher are do-able things any of us could do, too. Unlike many DIY blogs or TV shows, she’s not a designer, carpenter, or any type of professional (like me and probably you, I’m guessing!). And yet harnessing the power of the internet (and yes, Pinterest), home stores and her own ingenuity she has created a warm, welcoming home with designer touches by herself and on a budget.

First, a little background: Brian has been friends with Vicki and her brothers since high school and I came to know her when Brian and I were dating and she was dating her now husband (okay, that’s hard to try and write to make sense – lets just say we’ve known each other a long time!). Anyway, she and her husband (and the 5 children that came along) lived in Europe for most of their married life, most recently in Greece where we were happily able to visit them before they moved back to the states. In all those years, Vicki’s family always rented apartments and she was able to make them homey with paint, fabric and decor items.

So, basically, when she moved back to the states and they bought a house, she hadn’t done any type of home improvement that involved wood, tools, or caulk. And since her husband is super busy, anything she did want to do to the house would be up to her. But that didn’t stop her – just take a look at all she’s done in the last year and a half with the help of Pinterest, You Tube, and home improvement stores (who cut her lumber and gave advice) to create a real DIY ranch remodel and bring her 50s home a little cottage charm!

Entry Updates:

• All the 50s mapley-brown trim was given a coat of crisp white paint.
• Small decorative molding was added to the coat closet door to give it the look of a panel door – yes, Vicki mastered the miter cut with a hand saw and miter box!
• A new glass knob was added to the closet door.
• The walls were painted a warm yellow.

I love that these small touches are the first things you see, setting the tone for the rest of the house.

Living Room Updates:

• Painted all the 50s paneling and walls a warm yellow.
• Added all the molding to the fireplace, caulked and painted it, creating a completely updated, classic mantle in place of the dated previous one.

See what I mean about inspiring – and why I couldn’t wait to share with you? Wait ’til you see the dining room…

Dining Room Updates:

• More of the unifying warm yellow paint.
• Added ‘faux’ board-and-batten on the lower walls (meaning the wood pieces were applied on top of the wallboard to make it look like an all-wood wainscoting, similar to what Brian and I did in our bedroom), applying all the molding, caulking and painting it all on her own. What a fabulous way to make this pass-through type of dining room have a presence and decoration to set it apart!

Kitchen Updates:

• The kitchen had been recently remodeled, but Vicki put her decorative stamp on it by painting it a green that goes with the yellow in the adjoining rooms, but gives the kitchen it’s own look (green and yellow are one of my favorite color combinations).
• Added a green glass tile backsplash – again, on her own, never having tiled before. Yeah, girl-power! It adds such a fun detail to the kitchen, right?

Hallway Updates:

• Hallways, being notoriously dark, really brighten up with paint and Vicki’s is a great example – the walls received a coat of light green to bring in the color from the kitchen. She’s very good at unifying the connecting rooms with paint, isn’t she?
• The wood hallway built-ins where transformed with white paint and glass pulls. Amazing update, really, with just paint – gotta love the power of paint.

Basement Updates:

• Though hard to photograph, I think you can all get the idea that it’s a much brighter and cheery space than typical basements, accomplished by painting the lower wood walls and all the dark trim around the mantel a warm white.
• Painted the upper walls a light blue.
• Added fun accent lighting with white string lights, which seem like the perfect happy lighting for a basement family gathering space.

As you might guess, my friend is wonderful at hospitality, so this home sees many visitors cross it’s threshold, and I’m so glad she agreed to let me share all her hard work with you all – virtual visitors to her beautiful home! So, no excuses, right? Be inspired to make the changes you want to your home, no matter what your experience with DIY projects is – it can be done! (um, but no guilt, either – do what you can in the season you are in to create a home for your family, even if it’s just making sure it’s clean!)