French Country Cottage Before Tour

Take the tour of this outdated Colonial fixer upper before we renovate it into a charming French Country Cottage charming.

Including mortar washed brick walls, vintage chandeliers, wide plank farmhouse flooring, pallet accent walls, shiplap wainscoting, barn beam accents and so much more!

French Country Cottage Before Tour

Exterior

Well, it is officially ours.

Yesterday we closed on this cute little 1400 sqft Colonial built in 1966 that was lovingly maintained by one owner for over 50 years.

Despite the fact that is has about a million bushes on the property and the roof is sadly way too orange, I immediately fell in love with the cozy cottage charm and the French Country farmhouse potential.

On the exterior I immediately envisioned new farmhouse shutters, removing about 75% of the one million bushes and replacing them with coral-colored roses and white hydrangeas, adding carriage-like hardware to the garage door, and replacing the front door with a rustic cottage package.

The back already has that fabulous Trex deck, but I see a large paver patio to the side of the deck with built-in fire pit instead of the bushes and extending the outdoor living space laterally.

Maybe adding an arched lattice to the side of the house to draw the eye to the larger part of the yard.

Ah, that gorgeous big tree.

French Country Cottage Before Tour

Foyer

C’mon in! Don’t mind my children running around.

When you first walk in there is a tiny foyer that leads to the family room on the right and straight back to the kitchen. I love the iron railing that ascends the stairs.

I also like the decorative molding that cases the stairway.

The floor is a sheet vinyl that appears relatively new, but I couldn’t help but wonder if we would find any wooden floors in this house hiding beneath the surface.

French Country Cottage Before Tour

Family Room

This main room would be the family room, and although it was a nice big room to walk into, it still felt very closed off.

My fireplace wall!

For those of you that have followed along with the Vintage Victorian renovation and the Colonial Foreclosure renovation, you know that I MUST have a fireplace.

Well, that’s my wall!

The only downside in this house is there is no gas. Only electric. Oh well. Big plans for a built-in corner electric fireplace with custom surround (maybe some mortar-washed brick and shiplap??).

This wall between the kitchen and family room needs to go, but then what to do with the kitchen!?

French Country Cottage Before Tour

Kitchen

The greatest challenge in knocking out this wall was figuring out how to relocate the fridge. I am pleased with my design though and can’t wait to start on the kitchen! Many posts to come!

I love this breakfast nook and envision LVP wide-plank flooring, built-in benches for our custom fir breakfast table, wainscoting, a built-in breakfast bar, and mortar-washed brick walls.

French Country Cottage Before Tour

Half-Bathroom

This little bathroom needs some character, to say the least.

My plan is to find a vintage nightstand to cut out and fit underneath the wall-mounted sink, replace some hardware and give the lighting and walls an update to add some French Country shabby chic charm.

French Country Cottage Before Tour

Hall Closet

This hallway closet is in between the garage door entrance, the back door entrance, and the sunroom.

I am excited to work on opening this up and creating a well-designed drop zone for the family. Quality not quantity is the name of the game in this house!

French Country Cottage Before Tour

Sunroom

Without a doubt, this room will be my favorite.

The wood paneling will be painted white, add a large vintage chandelier and reclaimed mortar-washed brick floor and this room has French Country Cottage delightful written all over it. With lots of natural light,

I will be happy to start my mornings in this room!

 

French Country Cottage Before Tour

Upstairs Full-Bathroom

At the top of the stairs is the only full bathroom in the house, for now.

Thankfully there is already a double sink, so I think I will refinish the vanity cabinet and focus more on the hardware and the walls to bring some French Country flair to this room.

French Country Cottage Before Tour

Bedroom #1

This first bedroom gave me hope that there might be more hardwood oak flooring under some of the other floor coverings.

This would be the girls’ room! That folding door from the 60s will be replaced by a DIY sliding barn door. Lots of easy DIY tutorials to come with this little cottage cutie!!

French Country Cottage Before Tour

Bedroom #2

This fire-engine red bedroom at the end of the hall will be Caleb’s room.

My plan in here is to use the pallets that our kitchen cabinets will arrive on and create a pallet accent wall and try our hand at designing a DIY pallet bunk bed with trundle and built-in night lights.

French Country Cottage Before Tour

Master Bedroom

More of the 60s blah.

One of the greatest design challenges in this room will be maximizing that closet space. I am excited to try what I have on paper. I will be knocking out that entire opening, framing it out with barn beams, and creating an open concept master closet design with a built-in closet system.

Again, zeroing in on quality over quantity in this cottage cutie. Hopefully more hardwood underneath that carpet??!!

French Country Cottage Before Tour

Basement

Once we finish the basement it will add approx 600 sqft to the overall square footage.

It already is a walkout basement which means we need to finish and install heating to gain the footage.

We will move around the mechanicals in that back corner to create my laundry/craft room (picture shiplap walls and ceiling, open shelving, laundry station, and craft area complete with a wrapping station/island on wheels).

We will add a full bathroom and create an open space for entertaining and a kids’ zone!

I hope you follow along as we take this Colonial from outdated 60s to French Country cottage charming!

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