Considering purchasing a fixer-upper home? You’ll want to check out these before and after pictures first! We purchased our second home in the Summer of 2014 and took these before and after pictures just four years later. Check out these 12 Before & After Pictures That’ll Inspire You to Buy a Fixer Upper!

Why buy a home that needs work?

Maybe you like old homes with character, but for me, I prefer to add my personal touch and style to our home. I’d rather buy a home that needs work than one that has been flipped because I want to pick the countertops, the flooring, and the cabinets.

This is the second home that we’ve updated and sold within four years of owning. You can see pictures of our first home here.

The “after” pictures below were taken by a home-listing photographer and the rooms are staged to sell. It was not always this clean and minimal! But the staging, paint colors, and updates helped sell this home fast!

I hope you enjoy these pictures and the details that we added to make our house beautiful again!

What order do you renovate a house?

In my opinion, the order that you update or renovate a house depends on its current condition, your budget, and personal preference. I detail below which areas of the home we updated first and why.

Small home improvements that make a big difference

Sometimes it’s the little things that make the biggest impact when updating your home. Changing out the hardware on your kitchen cabinets, for example. Renovating a home can come with a high price tag if you’re not budgeting and deciding which small improvements bring the biggest return.

For more tips on small home updates that make the biggest differece, read 10 Cheap Home Hacks That’ll Make Your House Look So Much Better.

Floors

We updated the floors right away because the old floors in the kitchen area were linoleum and were peeling up everywhere. The floor in the rest of the living spaces was carpet and was also very worn so we replaced the entire main level with hardwood. We choose these 4″ hand-scraped (real) hickory hardwood floors and had them professionally installed before moving in. I love these hardwood floors and would happily install them in my next home. We get so many compliments on the color and the fact that they are hand-scraped so you can’t see scratches.

Lighting

To keep the lighting minimal effort, we choose to install recessed lights in the kitchen, entryway, and main level hallways. I chose this light for the kitchen breakfast table (the small), this chandelier for the stairwell, and this similar chandelier for the dining room.

Window Coverings

The kitchen window blinds were missing when we bought the house so I made some quick burlap curtains until I decided on blinds. We ended up going with bamboo blinds from this store.  We choose white wooden blinds for the upstairs windows and a standard pull-down blind for the main living level. The curtains for all windows except the kitchen are all white and this style.

Before and After Kitchen Photos

If you are planning to purchase a home that needs work in the kitchen, this will probably bring the most return on investment. However, the cost to redo an entire kitchen can add up, that’s why we took our time with updates over a four-year period.

During the first year that we lived in this house, we replaced all of the appliances with high-end stainless steel GE Cafe-edition appliances. The new appliances were installed right away and over the next four years, we slowly updated the rest of the kitchen.

We painted the kitchen cabinets (you can see what color in this post) and added hardware two years after we bought the house.

It wasn’t until three (3) years after owning this home that we had granite countertops installed. So you can see that each update was overtime so we didn’t have to spend a huge chunk of money at one time.

Living Room/Family Room

In the family room, I whitewashed the fireplace, painted the walls, and added curtains. What a difference that made!

The wood floors in the formal living room make it look more formal.

Bathrooms

We updated the half bath right away because the toilet was in bad condition and I dislike pedestal sinks. We bought and returned two different vanities before finding one that would actually fit in the space so the door would close! Although we took measurements, we didn’t take the floor molding behind the vanity into consideration, lol. You can see the paint color in this bathroom in this post. We updated the mirror with a thrift store find and the lighting is from here. 

The hall bathroom (our kid’s use this bathroom) was updated about a year after purchasing the home. You can read how we updated the hall bathroom in this post.

We updated our master bathroom about three years after owning the home. We painted the cabinets Sherwin Williams Repose Gray, added hardware, new faucets, new lighting, new tile floors, and a new shower door.

Master Bedroom

We painted one wall a different color in the master bedroom and you can read more about the paint colors in this post. 

Office/Craft Room

You can see how we updated the Office over the years in this post and the Craft room updates in this post.

The craft room is actually a closet! It has a window, an HVAC vent, and electrical outlet but it’s still considered a closet, go figure!

Mudroom

We converted a second pantry closet into a mudroom when we first bought the house. The mudroom is in a hallway that connects the kitchen and dining room and in the entryway from the garage. We only use the garage door when entering the house so it just made sense to turn the closet into an open-concept mudroom.

We built a floating shelf, added hooks and a bench with storage baskets. The closet is much more functional since we live in an area with all 4-seasons of weather and during WInter have boots, coats, hats, and gloves that need to be stored away in the mudroom.

These large galvanized bins are very durable for shoe storage! I added handmade chalkboard labels to the large bins and these small bins for smaller items.

Stairwell

The chandelier in the stairwell was updated with this light fixture and we painted the walls with Sherwin Williams Perfect Greige.

How to pick the right paint colors

Have you ever had trouble picking the right paint colors for your home? Choosing the right paint colors for your home can be overwhelming. There are so many different “whites” and “grays” these days, how can anyone know they are making the right paint color choice?

That’s why I put together the best tips on How to Choose Interior Paint Colors in this post.

Every home is different… the entryway in our first home was much different than the entryway in our second home, and both of those were very different from the entryway in our third home! So I chose a different paint color for each entryway in all three of our homes. Not to mention, from the time that we bought our first home, to the time that we bought our third home, home paint color trends changed drastically. The colors that I used back then were no longer a trendy color and well, I just didn’t like the brown-ish tan that was in our first home, haha.

So if you need help choosing paint colors for the rest of your home, head on over to this post to see my paint-picking tips and what has worked for me in all three of our homes 🙂 My post with how to choose paint colors for your home is one of my most popular posts and readers have benefited from reading it before heading to the store to buy paint that ends up not working out.

I also have some ideas for choosing paint color combinations for bedrooms (with themes!)

Paint Versus Peel & Stick Wallpaper

Peel and stick wallpaper has become very popular recently since not everyone has access to tools to build their own Shiplap walls (thanks Chip and Joanna) or wants to tile an entire wall with subway tile. I love tiling but if I could slap up some wallpaper and call it a day, that would make me, the hubby, and my wallet happy!

You can find peel and stick wallpaper online at Target, Amazon, Home Depot, and more! I’ve linked my favorite peel and stick wallpaper and the ones I’ve used personally below.

Cheap Home Hacks that’ll Increase Value

Renovating a home can come with a high price tag if you’re not budgeting and deciding which updates bring the best return on investment. After selling our updated first home in just 4 years, we bought an even bigger house that needed a lot of updating. We sold our second home after 4 years while doing the much-needed work to produce a profit by following the same strategies we did in our first home.

If you enjoy updating your home, want to increase your home value or just want your home to look better, you should check out thee 10 Cheap Home Hacks That’ll Make Your House Look So Much Better.

Tour Our Homes

–>Tour our First Home here????

–>Tour our Second Home here????

–>Tour our Third Home here????

I hope these before and after pictures inspired you to update your home 🙂

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