Before & After: See How Scandi Style Saves A Total Teardown

[Music] we love this neighborhood we love the mature trees it's a mature neighborhood but there's a lot going on still there's community centers being built parks being renovated this home was so perfect because nothing had been updated or done for over 50 years we actually made we're such losers we made a videotape of the stages of the house i think our parents were not very approving of us buying a dilapidated hundred-year-old home oh look at that look at all the bricks this is nike's room little scary scary room so instead of showing them in person we were just like we'll show them after what some of the changes were so yeah the kitchen area look at the stairs this is can you turn on this light or actually there isn't a light here because this house is 110 years old some things had not been changed probably like they had original floors which we wanted to maintain so badly but because things were not i guess taken care of with as much love we weren't able to maintain some of the like original features so it was an exciting time for us to use our creative design and our ideas of how we envision ourselves to live with our family and that's the main reason why we bought it me my partner definitely we would like to be modern but we also would like to be very simple we try to be minimal but i know that's really tough with two young kids we also love the scandinavian design so that's why we picked a lot of light woods bleach woods hits of black with our windows and then the drywall return was like an absolute must because i know that's a big scandinavian design but i think the two main things are scandinavian design and aspiring minimalists this is my partner and i's first home we've never renovated a home before so we reached out to a design build company they're called men at work they were fantastic they really helped us create our dream home there was way too many things we wanted in the kitchen we wanted a transom we wanted a big island we wanted open shelving and our layout is tough it's a really small footprint but i think the breakfast nook is our biggest proudest moment because to be honest we thought it was just going to be beautiful but then it ended up being where we eat every single meal not even our dinners we don't even come here for dinner we just love the view out of that backyard and it's just perfect for our family of four we definitely did a lot of highs and lows we splurged on some elements like the countertop and the walnut shelving which is real walnut but then we saved a lot of money with our backsplash our tiles being sort of the generic ones but we changed the grout on it hoping that that would make it a little bit more exciting and cheaper cabinetry from ikea but we really think they stand out the black and our hardware from school house we love the little knobs i think they look so sweet but yeah we just tried to mix in some highs and lows so that it was more affordable because this was a whole home renovation we had to be very cognizant of that in terms of the kitchen we have tons of space this entire island on one side are kids toys they're all kids toys and underneath the breakfast hook are all crafts so construction paper glue whatever you name it so my daughter can just sort of open that up and start some activities at the breakfast nook so we like this is why i said we're aspiring minimalists because we don't really have a lot of things in our cabinetry we tried to make sure we had one set of dishes that did both they were pretty enough to entertain but they were great for every day so that even though they're on open shelves we use them every day they don't collect dust we don't really need a lot of things so we think it works for us it's been perfect when we're allowed to have people in our home we love to host so we have a dining table that has two leaflets that insert on each side that allow for 10 people and you can probably see the hardware there that it just slides in um i will be honest during covid we use it as a ping pong table so we just moved the chairs we added the leaflets and we played ping pong it was actually pretty fun this is from cb2 i did add very expensive light bulbs to this because i think it made quite a difference to have sort of that opaque milky glass but it's so affordable we basically ran out of money for light fixtures we splurged on our restoration hardware ones and the breakfast nook and then we had no money for other ones and this was so affordable and i think it works our living room the piece that we're so happy with we hope to hand down to our children as they move into homes is our coffee table it's actually done by brothers dresslers they do a lot of custom work and that was one of the first furniture pieces we ever invested in and that was over 10 years ago it's all actually woods from toronto so like old schools old buildings and then we have our couches from design within reach we love their stuff very clean minimal i can't believe that you have kids and couches from we've had these we've had these couches for 10 years yeah but you know what i will be honest um first of all my kids never vomited i have a i'm serious my daughter's about to turn four she's never vomited in her life watching bob is today all over my couch but we didn't have super messy kids um and if we did if a kid came over that the parent told me this kid projectile vomits we just draped it with towels but it does clean well it's ducal wool so you can really scrub it and it won't ruin the sofa the fireplace we really wanted something above the ground we wanted a real fireplace but when we realized the bump out it's gonna be all fireplace so we just ended up doing a minimal bump out with a bit of a raised look with that scandinavian design in mind [Music] our bedroom there was a fireplace in there originally we added an ensuite we took out the fireplace we added ikea cabinetry running all the way pretty much entire floor upstairs has ikea cabinetry running all across which is so functional and wonderful for our family we have a lot of woods there again we tried to go very simple calming serene one thing very purposeful we didn't add artwork above our bed because the trees outside they cast this beautiful shadow in the evening and it kind of shifts and moves along our wall and i wish we could have artwork that was like that so we could see it all throughout the day but we just like the simplicity it makes it feel very calm we have a smaller bedroom which we use as a nursery right now we try to decorate it as nicely as we can because it is a small space but make it practical too so there's a rug where our kids can play and do lego in the second bedroom which is my oldest daughter's bedroom we ended up doing a custom bunk which i think made a big difference they put shelving on the bottom we try not to buy things that will become obsolete as our children grow older it's actually an adult bunk bed you know you can be on the top and it will support your weight it's just good to know that as our kids grow older or when we have guests in they don't have to be infants or toddlers to be able to use the room our bathroom upstairs which is technically our only bathroom right now that's finished we just kept it really simple with a tub that was low enough that we can actually get our children in and get out the only thing i love are faucets so much they are more tricky for kids as much as i love the way they look but yeah just really easy simple clean lines i think most people love to take risks in their powder room we kind of tried to go like a restaurant moment so that you're kind of going into a powder room at a restaurant it feels special added color in there we do still love color like deep greens and deep blues so that was our way to add it in for the washroom the entryway was so tricky we wanted closed cabinets so that we could put jackets and whatnot but we went over function and we went with design we love the way that tang it all looks and to be honest we can hang tons of stuff on there it's easy for our kids to get ready in the morning put their shoes on and get out the door we were okay with a little bit more of an open design where people can see the sight lines so they come in and they can see right into our backyard our original house had an attachment on the back which was used as a mud room unfortunately when the architects and the engineers came to site they said it was not to code and it was not safe or structurally sound so we did take square footage off the house for that reason but i think it was the best decision we made because it allowed us to have a massive slider and a good sized deck we use that as our second living room so throughout the summer and fall and spring we are out there all the time we also had no fence so we had a communal backyard that you know everyone could see what was going on it was a mess but it was nice our neighbors got to see us slowly put up a fence and put grass in and make it beautiful it was great because that we got done prior to covid so we had an outdoor space that was safe for our kids and it was wonderful we couldn't be happier that we already had a thoughtfully well-designed home filled with things that we love and we appreciate we're so grateful that we had that opportunity to be in a space that was relaxing and beautiful that was really nice i think me and my husband we've been here for two years but we haven't habituated to how lucky and grateful we feel being in the space [Music] you

Channel: House & Home

Views: 108,870

Rating: 4.937192 out of 5

Keywords: House & Home, House, Home, Decor, Decorating, Decorated, Design, Designer, Decorate, Decorator, Interiors, Interior Design, Interior, House Tour, Home Tour, Homes, Architect, Architecture, Style, Styling, Stylist, Inspo, Inspiration, Tips, Advice, Expert, Ideas, Best, Beautiful, Renovation, Restoration, Restoration Hardware, West Elm, Design Within Reach, Scandi, Ikea, Ikea Kitchen, Toronto

Id: lgrKVCp-HuQ

Length: 10min 6sec (606 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 27 2021