Project Name: Grandma's House
We had the honor of updating our client's grandparents country farmhouse into a cozy, vintage inspired BnB. Let's be honest, it was already filled with vintage charm, but we made sure whatever upgrades we made to it played right into the original feel of the home.
This BnB sleeps 12 guests, has all the amenities a home has, plus an outdoor area, and country views. You can book your stay here.
The Exterior:
The number one thing on the exterior that our client wanted to address was the several different types of siding that were on the home. She wanted to swap it out to one cohesive siding. We went with Diamond Kote LP Siding in a similar color to the original to keep the feel of the home.
The front porch also had some damage and wear and tear to the original, ornate posts and the underside of the roof. We traced the posts and sent the drawings off to American Porch, LLC where they made replicas of the original to again preserve the charm of the home. We also changed out the damaged tongue and groove underside for new T&G.
The back deck had seen better days, so we replaced it with a new one. We went back with a cedar deck paired with cedar railing and steps. We made the deck smaller to give it a cozier feel and our client knew she wanted to do a patio for the Airbnb guests.
To give the crisp, new feeling we power washed and scraped (very carefully I might add) the red scallops and trim of the home and gave them a new coat of paint.
We had to doctor up the window awning of the North window because it's scalloped shakes were so brittle and the original framing wasn't in great shape. We used LP shakes as a replacement and now the window awning breathes new life to withstand many more years to come.
Maintenance Tip:
Keep plants and water retaining landscaping (like mulch) off of your siding to prolong it's life and keep water damage possibilities low
Interior:
The inside goal was to make it feel like Grandma's House, but spruced up. All the carpet and laminate flooring got tore up and all the wallpaper, besides the dining room, got removed. Both bathrooms got a makeover to make them more functional and new engineered hardwoods were installed throughout.
We went back and forth whether or not we wanted to paint the dark wood paneling, and ultimately ended up keeping it the same. The color grew on me and I didn't think it would paint well because it had texture that I was afraid wouldn't look right with a coat of paint over it. So since we were keeping the paneling, I took that and the kitchen cabinets into consideration when choosing the flooring.
Since this is a country farmhouse, we chose a flooring that had natural knots throughout. I also liked the fact that the dark knots went with the dark paneling and provided that extra bit of character.
Engineered Hardwoods:
We recommend using engineered hardwoods because they have a thin layer of wood on top that is sandable if scratches occur.
Since you could see the primary bedroom off of the dining room, we decided to go with green on the walls to pull in the green from the vines on the wallpaper. We switched out the mirror closet doors to paneled doors that closely matched the original doors of the home.
The original primary bathroom had an interesting layout. It had two doors so you could get in through the bedroom or the laundry room. Having that walkway made getting to the bathtub a bit wonky. We also knew we wanted to switch out the tub for a shower. So we went ahead and changed the layout to make the walkway to the shower much easier. We removed the second door from the laundry and put the vanity there. Making a straight path from the bedroom to the shower.
The guest bath had a small shower with a storage cabinet behind the door. There was another small storage cabinet in the laundry room area that went behind the shower in the guest bath. We decided to remove both of those storage cabinets in order to get a standard size shower in the guest bath. Onyx surrounds were used in both bathrooms because they are so easy to clean and since this will be an Airbnb, we wanted to make cleaning a breeze.
We moved the sink in the laundry room to the same wall as the washer and dryer to create better walkways and a more cohesive feel. A light above the sink was added because there was only one overhead light in this room, so adding another helps for obvious reasons. We also moved the washer and dryer down toward the bathroom wall because the dryer was vented out into a shed under the carport. Moving it down allowed for the vent to be directly outside.
The rest of the home got that updated feel by not only having the new flooring, but a fresh coat of paint once the wallpaper was removed.
When you get upstairs you are encased in a beautiful wood paneling. The ceiling had an acoustic ceiling look to it. Our original plan was to remove that and put sheetrock up. However, when we started taking it off we found the original tongue and groove ceiling that was in decent shape. There was one spot that needed patched from an old leak, but other than that it looked pretty good! We decided to keep that and paint it to bring in even more character to this home.
The second bedroom we found original hardwoods, so the carpet was removed and we added some base shoe to cover the gap from the old carpet to the original hardwood floors.
Grandma's House took us about 2.5 months to complete the outside and inside projects once we got started. However, planning started taking place about 3 months prior. Part of planning is starting the mood board and getting a vision of what you want the spaces to look like. Luckily for this project, we had a good idea based on the original how we wanted it to look and feel when it was done.
We had such a fun time leaning into the original vintage feel of this home. You can now book a stay at the BnB at Reinhardt Farm here and stop by and see it in person at their open house and picnic on Saturday September 7th from 4-7pm.
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