It’s been a long time (but really, not that long) since I introduced you to my wonderful and sweet clients Clay and Carisa Walker (click here if you have no clue what I’m talking about) and we have finally come to a stopping point on Phase One.

Let’s recap:

This is the Walker Fixer. In all its original color filled glory.

The exterior was simple enough. But it would come most in Phase Two. For now, we’d give her a facelift with a nice fresh coat of paint, and pick out some new sconces that actually matched.. If you can believe it, every single light fixture is different in the entire house.. inside AND out.

LOOK HOW HAPPY SHE IS!

Can we just take a moment to appreciate that master balcony up there? Holy goodness.

Slowly, but surely, we’re getting the exterior cleaned up and made like new again. The new custom door is coming in soon, and then we’ll get that storm door outa there and the sconces centered. Come spring time we’ll be moving forward with the new landscape, driveway, fence, and destruction of the fountain is continuous // I.e. Phase Two. We’ll probably attempt to reuse those river rocks somewhere else in the landscape, or even use them for the new pool decking/surround, it’s honestly tbd.

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Ooooooh the before’s of this place. The bones were there, the character was there. But would you believe me if I told you that this place had been redone or changed in some way 5 different times? When we started looking at floor plans for changes wanting to be redone, we had a difficult time because there were 5.. so keeping up was a challenge. BUT, we got it done.

Originally, we were going to keep the floors, repaint everything fresh and brighter, and just focus on new lighting, cleaning up the fireplace, and bringing in fantastic pieces to simplify and beautify this otherwise dated space. We were on a budget, ya know?

Then, with my ingenuity and the help of our amazing contractors, we were able to transform this space they were going to “settle” with, and make it something they couldn’t wait to get to. Oh, did I mention this is their vacation home? In beautiful Wimberley, TX? Home of natural watering holes and great breweries.

 

Just all the things. I tried to document the process so if you’re wondering how it all came together, go back to my insta, and then come back.

All the details will be down at the bottom of this post.

Some of the initial decisions we made, like the wall color (Behr Ultra Pure White) and the fireplace, turned out significantly better than I could’ve hoped. When we cleared the fireplace of the (quite terrible.. amiright?) mantle, I also made the decision to scrape the fireplace of all texture to make it more modern and clean. We rounded off those corners and removed the lower “bump outs”on each side of the built ins to make the future home for the firewood. I know, I know. Everyone says “don’t do it because…” yadayadayada. WE DON’T CARE. We love the look, and are going to build a little box for them to sit on so the wood isn’t on the floor. Also, the wood is coming from our tree that got struck by lightning that we had to cut half of it off.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

ALSO, I’ve let the wood dry out for over 2 months, and am going to power wash and treat with natural insecticide to prevent critters from making a home in the wood. It will be the cleanest wood (and long-lasting!) until they find the use for it in their wood burning fireplace.

The console table and dining room tables were designs I had in mind as soon as I walked in for the first time. I worked with local carpenter and friend Mick Doherty from conception to creation on these pieces, and he was able to literally bring my vision to life.

Everything in the house was so detail oriented, from the size of the shiplap for the ceiling, the orientation of the recessed lights, the spacing of the cans, size and spacing of the beams (that we also decided to take all the way up to the vaulted ceilings in the master), and everything in between. We wanted to keep the color palette clean and neutral and decided to let the accessories and plants bring the color. She’s also Mother Nature in the flesh, so she’s got one of everything, even the stuff that hasn’t been discovered yet.

One of the easiest decisions for us were the floors. That tile, I just die. The floors are a beautiful wood-look tile in “ash” that we built the base of the entire design off of. We felt that the ash floors paired with the white walls and paneling and beams were putting off a very heavy 70s-mod California beach house vibe and I can’t get enough.

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This kitchen.. there’s just no point in going into the before, so let’s just see the afters

Here’s what went down in this kitchen:

We had a door to the “green room” and a door to the pantry that opened up into each other. We took that “green room” door out, widened that doorway, knocked out the pantry, and absorbed the closet in the “brown room”. We gained a whopping 30″ in the kitchen. That doesn’t sound like much, but when you’re absorbing THAT space and inputting a wall of cabinets and built in appliances, you’re then gaining 30″ of cooking/entertaining/walk through space. That’s a ton in kitchen world.

The new layout features a new gas stove moved to where you have plenty of countertop space for entertaining near the dining room, a built in fridge, and an undermount microwave to keep the counters clean and clear of clutter. We also did an undermount sink and solid surface countertops for durability since she’ll be hosting lots of guests (and now won’t have to worry about friends ruining the counters with red wine).

Now those shelves. A thing of beauty. I worked with the husband and wife duo, Mel and Austin, at MyIronHome to create those fantastic seamless floating iron shelves. They are easily one of my favorite things in this house. We custom fit them for the new designed kitchen, since we had to deal with the soffits NOT being removed due to the late addition of some extra HVAC ventilation from previous owners, to keep the flow open and to fill it with all the beautiful things from E A / S T co. and Year and Day.

All the lights in the house were custom made from Illuminate Vintage, right here in Houston, and were the perfect finishing touch to every room. The vendors and makers involved in this transformation were incredible and I (and my client) couldn’t be more excited to have them working on this with me.

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You see why we call it the “brown room”?

This room just got a little bit of mild TLC with the new paint, fan, and floors. It’s become the kids room, and while it’s not totally full of fun toys and blankets, pillows, they love it and think those lights are the coolest thing since string cheese.

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The apartment bathroom was another magical transformation.

Look at those colors. The tile. The fixtures.

We didn’t want to pour a ton of money into this room, and I wanted to keep the design fresh and clean like the rest of the house.

 

 

The laundry situation is still being determined (yes, there are two hookups for laundry in this house, but the other is upstairs in the extra room attached to the master bathroom), so the full absolutely 200% done reveal will have to come later.

But what we did do is new paint, new floors, new vanity, new faucets and trim kits, and updated the current shower tile to be white. Did you know – there is a company in Austin that will come and paint your current tile AND IT WON’T COME OFF?! So the shower got a total facelift and is so in line with the rest of the house. So good. This bathroom is the go to for every guest that comes to the house, so I wanted to keep the walkway easy breezy (because literally there were just so many doors in this house) and installed pocket doors at every chance. We also removed the linen closet and opted for cute wooden hooks and hampers, because who doesn’t love hooks with ACTUAL LINEN TOWELS? No one. That’s the correct answer. Everyone loves linen towels.

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Now for the apartment. I believe this room was used for the mother in law that lived with the previous owners, and all of this side of the house (the apartment, third living/game room space.. yes.. third.) was an addition, or was a garage, or was something. Either way, the amount of doors in this part of the house were ridiculous. One of the doors in that extra game room is one that came out from the front. This side of the house is complete with a kitchen, living area, bedroom, a bathroom, laundry, and exit. So we wanted to make sure guests (me, because this is my room) feel as comfy and at home as possible.

Shoutout to this room for being one of the easiest to pull together. So simple, yet so powerful. That’s the beauty of minimalism, filling spaces with things that hold sentiment, and people you love.

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SERIOUSLY SO BLESSED. This house, these clients, this project, their friendship, it’s all been so amazing and I’m so glad they picked me to run this project from start to finish. It’s been so amazing running my first top to bottom full fledged remodel with every fixture, finish, product, and detail going into this containing a piece of my heart. I love this house and the people that reside in it, and it’s been such a fun adventure. Here’s to the closing chapter to Phase One and the start of a much anticipated Phase Two.

Until next time,

Kat

 

makers + products we used and loved

L I V I N G R O O M

s o f a // r u g // c h a i r s // p i l l o w s // t h r o w //c o n s o l e t a b l e // m i r r o r // l i g h t s // c h a n d e l i e r //d r a p e s // c o n s o l e c h a i r s //

D I N I N G R O O M

t a b l e // c h a i r s // c h a n d e l i e r // d r a p e s //

K I T C H E N

s h e l v e s // l i g h t s // g l a s s w a r e // c e r a m i c p l a t e s // c e r a m i c b o w l s // g l a s s b o w l s // c u t t i n g b o a r d //j a c k r a b b i t t a r t w o r k // c e r a m i c d i p p i n g b o w l // s p o o n r e s t // f l o w e r f r o g // p a l m p r i n t // l e a f p r i n t //

B R O W N R O O M

b e d s // b e d d i n g // p i l l o w s // d r e s s e r // r u g // w o o d h o o k s // a r t w o r k // f i b e r w a l l a r t // s i d e t a b l e s // l i n e n t h r o w // d r a p e s // l i g h t s //

A P A R T M E N T

b e d // r u g // b e d d i n g // p i l l o w s // n i g h t s t a n d s // l a m p s // a r t w o r k 1 // a r t w o r k 2 // h a n g i n g p l a n t e r // f r a m e s //

A P A R T M E N T B A T H

m i r r o r s // l i g h t s // w o o d h o o k s // a r t w o r k // t o w e l s // p u l l s //

Thank you x20 to our amazing contractor Edi Jimenez for dealing with endless calls and bringing my chicken scratch to life. If you are in Texas and need a great full service contractor, please give him a call! He and his guys were amazing and did such fantastic work.