Hilltown House: Home Tour

Four years ago we started construction on our house, which we fully intend to be our forever home. It is nestled among the farms of Bucks County, PA, in a very quiet neighborhood full of the most amazing families. We modeled the outside on the old stone historic houses that dot our towns, and I try to keep that feeling going inside by sticking with traditional details while injuecting a dose of color and fun.

I think it's easy for people to assume that New Construction means a perfect house, but most of the time it means a big blank intimidating canvas! I hope from the before pictures you can get a good sense of how even the most builder basic-options can be transformed into a house full of personality and character. Not every space is quite finished yet, but the journey is definitely part of the fun!

FIRST FLOOR

-- Entryway --

One of the reasons I loved this floor-plan is because of this long hallway off of our front door, but the original entryway was the perfect example of what a basic, builder grade house looks like - mixmatched floors, very bare walls and boob lights.

Now this is honestly one of my favorite views in the whole house. This is probably the best spot where you can see the difference replacing the floors made (although I am still in need of a runner for the hallway), but in addition I changed out the light, painted the back of the door, and added a lot of artwork.

Wall Color - Sherwin Williams Frosty White | Front Door Color - Sherwin Williams Sensible Hue

-- Front Room --

Along our hallways is our front room / dining room combo. The original placement of the couch was so wrong! It looked like you were walking past a department store display.

After a lot of trial and error I finally figured out how to orient the seating in this room. I've been slowly pulling together the pieces I want in here, but there will be some BIG changes coming this spring! I want this, and the dining room, to be a combo of new/old and my goal is to keep them formal without feeling too stuffy.

Wall Color - Sherwin Williams Frosty White

Accent Chairs | Blue Rug | Ivory Rug

-- Dining Room --

We pretty much just transferred our old dining room into our new one when we moved. It's not a very big room and it's almost perfectly square so all of the furniture never felt quite right, but since we don't use it very often it hasn't been high on the priority list.

Until now! This room will also get a makeover this spring (hence me testing out that gray spot on the ceiling). The corner cabinet and artwork will stay, along with l the light and some other accessories but everything else will get a major upgrade.

Wall Color - Sherwin Williams Frosty White

Glass Cabinet | Painting | Dough Bowl | The light fixture is from West Elm and is no longer sold but This Collection is similar

-- Mudroom --

I don't think that our mudroom really qualifies as a room - it's kinda like a mud hallway. Luckily a small bench, some baskets for shoes, and some hooks for coats tuck away perfectly onto one side. On the other side I built a large chalkboard for the kiddos and now we have everything we need. Check out the full reveal here.

Wall Color - Sherwin Williams Aloof Gray | Door Color - Sherwin Williams Sensible Hue

Bench built from Farmhouse Bench plans from Shanty 2 Chic | Artwork | The Bee hooks were from the YoungHouseLove for Target line but are no longer sold

-- Powder Room --

I kinda just want to laugh when I look at this before picture!! The only thing this room had going for it was that it had dark hardwood floors, but besides those and the toilet everything else went out the door - even that towel bar you can spy in the mirror that I had totally forgotten existed.

I wanted to pack as much personality in this little room as I could so I injected every spot with a hand-crafted, slightly vintage feel. The beadboard, stenciled walls, hanging shelf, mirror, and vanity were all DIYd and give a cozy, inviting feel to one of the most used rooms in the house. Check out the full reveal here.

Wall Color is Sherwin Williams Aloof Gray | Royal Design Studio French Bee Trellis Stencil in Pearl Oyster Stencil Creme

Hanging Shelf plans from Shanty 2 Chic | Mirror Plans from Shanty 2 Chic | Vanity adapted from Farmhouse Bedside table plans from Ana White

Sink | Faucet | Ferris Wheel Print - It looks like the framed version is no longer sold but the link will take you to the same print

-- Living Room --

Our living room and kitchen are completely open to each other so of course we spend 99.9% of our time in there. We brought our two old sofas into this room with the intention to basically wear them down to the bone when the boys were babies/toddlers - and boy did we wear those things out! As much as it would have been nice to tackle this room earlier, I needed to let my boys grow up a little first.

My main goal with this room was to create a casual space that I would feel comfortable letting the boys play in, but was also bright, clean, and relaxing. To do this, I kept the pallet really light (which has taken some lifestyle changes) and maximized the storage so all of the boys stuff could be easily moved out of site at the end of the day. I added built in cabinets on either side of the fireplace, which I finished in marble and glass tile, built a large console table under the TV as well as a Storage Coffee table. I took advantage of the wall space by adding a shiplap wall, picture ledges, and floating shelves. The space feels large, light, but also cozy all at the same time. You can check out the full reveal here.

Wall Color - Sherwin Williams Frosty White

Rug | Sectional | Faux Leather Chair | Table Lamps | The Map is from IKEA and is sadly no longer sold, but pops up on eBay every now and then

-- Kitchen --

One of the splurges we opted for was an upgraded kitchen layout, which included a double oven, separate stove top, and larger island. Everything else we kept very basic, including linoleum floors, no backsplash, and not having hardware installed. I have to admit, for a while I thought we made a huge mistake in going for the white/black combo because it felt so stark!

Luckily all of that changed as soon as we put the new floors in! The light wood tone just made the whole kitchen come alive. Unlike other rooms, I work on the kitchen a little bit at a time since it doesn't need any major demo. Over the last few years I've installed hardware, added towel bars, added under cabinet lighting (actually a professional did this one), installed a backsplash, added a lot of behind the scenes organization, trimmed out the island and added new brackets, changed out the outlet covers, and added floating shelves around the fridge. There a few more things I want to tackle, but I absolutely love how far this kitchen has come.

Wall Color - Sherwin Williams Frosty White

Subway Tile | Counter Stools | Cabinet Door Hardware | Cabinet Drawer Hardware

-- Morning Room --

One of the rooms that has the most impact on our house is our morning room, which extends out the back of our kitchen and holds our kitchen table. It has windows on all 3 sides so not only does it let all kinds of natural light in, it also gives the back of the house a very indoor/outdoor vibe as we can see trees in every direction. At first we filled it with our old kitchen table and curtains (and those teal cabinets which my mom bought us as a housewarming present). Side note - seeing that little high chair at our old kitchen table brings back such good memories : )

To maximize the space, I ended up building a farmhouse table big enough to sit 10, and made the super graphic curtains to give the whole house a playful vibe since they can be scene from pretty much everywhere on the first floor. I added trim to all of the windows (you can read about that process here) and am attempting to keep a plant alive in the corner. I do need to get a bigger rug one day, but this one is doing to job for now until I can re-arrange a few other things in the room.

Wall Color - Sherwin Williams Frosty White

Farmhouse Table and benches built from Restoration Inspired Table plans from Shanty 2 Chic

Curtain Fabric | Rug | Accent Rug | Seat Cushions | Table Runner | Teal Cabinets

SECOND FLOOR

-- Loft --

The main reason we wanted this floor plan was because of this loft space. The railing overlooks the staircase and all of the bedrooms are laid out in a square around it. That window also gets the best breeze in the house and is the perfect spot to sit on a spring day.

The loft will probably be the last space I actually design because A) the furniture is pretty much set already (I have to give my husband a shout out for suggesting we go with these two chaise lounges instead of one couch) and B) I can't make up my mind on what I want to do with the rest of the room. I know I want a big comfy rug - but besides that I keep changing my mind on what else to add. In the meantime this space does it all - it acts as my husband's office when he works from home, as a 2nd living room, a place for the boys to have sleepovers on the weekend, and most important a space that makes our 2nd floor feel like more than just a hallway.

Wall Color - Sherwin Williams Frosty White

Chaise Lounges | Desk Chair | Modular Shelf | Storage Baskets | The leaning shelves are Crate and Barrel. They don't make these exact ones any longer but this is the new design

-- Guest Bathroom --

The original guest room bath taught me two important lessons - 1) if you build a new house and have plans of eventually updating your bathroom floor just have them install linoleum to begin with and 2) I will NEVER use white grout on a bathroom floor.

The guest bathroom was the first major project that I ever tackled and I'm still really proud of it. I demoed all of the floor and shower tile and rebuilt both from scratch along with staining the vanity, adding beadbord and trim, adding medicine cabinets, and building floating shelves. This bathroom is now such a happy place to take baths and brush our teeth. I shared all the details in some progress posts but you can find the final reveal here.

Sherwin Williams - Silver Strand | Vanity Stain - General Finishes Gel Stain in Java

Medicine Cabinets | Subway Tile

-- Guest Bedroom --

I think our Guest Bedroom Started out like a lot of peoples - part dumping ground / part round-up of old furniture. Eventually we did clean it out and made room on the floor for that mattress, but it was still essentially a plain white box and the last thing from welcoming.

Photo by Lauri Tripaldi Photography

I ended up tackling this room as my first One Room Challenge hosted by Calling it Home. I departed from the gray tones of the rest of the house and choose a bold green-blue for the wall. I wanted the room to look like it could belong in a super cozy bed and breakfast in an old farmhouse, which led to me adding a faux fireplace and traditional board and batten trim. Now I'm super jealous that this isn't my master bedroom! You can check out the full final reveal here.

Wall Color - Sherwin Williams Halcyon Green

Fireplace built based on these Faux Fireplace plans from Ana White

Blue Striped Duvet Cover | Ceiling Fan | Waffle Weave Blanket | Animal portraits | Sconces | Luggage Rack | Floor Lamp | Faux Brick | Curtain fabric | Rug | Galvanized Vase | Glass Jug Candle Holder | Brass Wrapped Vase

-- Master Bedroom --

Our Master Suite takes up the entire back half of the 2nd floor so it is very large. Lucky for us this is more than enough space for our California King Bed, which is necessary because the little prince sitting on it in this picture likes to sprawl out.

My plan is to break this room a few different spaces, which are all currently in varying degrees of doneness - hence the 25% complete feature behind the bed. I'm still toying around with ideas for this room so for now I'm just making sure the bed is made every day and the clutter is kept somewhat at bay.

Wall Color - Sherwin Williams Aloof Gray

Bed | Desk | The trunk at the end of the bed is from Crate and Barrel and is no longer sold but this one is similiar

-- Master Bathroom --

In addition to the kitchen, we also chose to upgrade the layout of the Master Bathroom, which gave us a separate tub and shower, a water closet, and most importantly a window. The tile isn't my favorite, but it's not terrible and is certainly easier to keep clean than the guest bathroom was, so my plan is to seperate any changes to this bathroom into Phase 1 (easy cosmetic changes) and Phase 2 (demo and replace the tile and shower).

"Phase 1" master bath projects are almost complete - so far I've re-stained the vanity, replaced the builder grade mirror and lights, made a light fixture for over the tub, removed the towel bar and added a shelf and artwork in it's place. Last P1 project - add a feature wall behind the mirrors, and I think I'm actually going to repaint this room to an off-white. Check out this post for more details on the changes I've made to this space.

Wall Color - Sherwin Williams Frosty White | Vanity Stain - General Finishes Gel Stain in Gray

-- Laundry Room --

Our laundry room is pretty tiny, which is fine because it is right off of the loft so we can do any folding out there, but the laminate floor, wire shelves, and barely functional dryer didn't motivate me to do laundry in the least.

You can check out the whole Laundry Room reveal for all the details but in a nutshell - when our dryer finally started to break down for good I decided to re-do the entire laundry room and turn it into a space that was actually pleasant to spend time in. New tile floor, upper cabinet stolen from the kitchen, floor to ceiling bead board, new shelves and a planked countertop. Ahhh - so much better!

Wall color - Sherwin Williams Nebulus White | Bead Board color - Sherwin Williams Grizzle Gray

Floor Tile | Washer | Dryer | Laundry Sign

--- Boys Bedroom ---

The room the boys share used was originally our little ones nursery. It was very difficult leaving the old nursery because I spent a year painting a mural on the walls, but I thought this was a really cute temporary space.

I based their shared bedroom on a Pottery Barn Kids space including the Shiplap wall and the gray bunkbed with 1/2 stairs instead of a ladder for easily dumping sleeping children. The bottom bed's headboard is actually made from their old Pottery Barn crib that I painted to match the rest. You can check out the full room reveal here to see the storage solutions that fill up the rest of the room.

Wall Color - Sherwin Williams Nebulous White | Bed Color - Rustoleum Chalked Paint in Country Gray

Loft Bed built using Camp Loft Bed Plans from Ana White | Bottom bed built from Captains Bed Plans from Ana White and Pottery Barn Kids Catelina Crib | Star and Moon lights | Ceiling Fan

-- Boys Playroom --

I don't have a good picture of the playroom when we first moved in, so this is from a year later when we had already re-done the floors and I had figured out where I wanted the cabinets to go, but you can see that this used to be our oldest sons room. This room is actually really big so it didn't make much sense as a bedroom for one little boy, which led us to the decision to merge their bedrooms and move them both into the smaller, darker of the two rooms on this side of the house.

I designed this room as a companion to their bedroom so they share a lot of the same details and colors. It was important for me to give the boys a space that let them play the way they wanted to (including literally climbing the walls) so I made sure to leave plenty of open floor space as well as lots of different storage for easier cleanup. You can check out the full reveal here.

Wall color is Sherwin Williams Nebulous White

Lights built from Corbel Sconce plans from Shanty 2 Chic | Cabinets | Art Table | Chairs | The fish rug is an outdoor rug from Target that isn't sold anymore but this is a cute alternative

The floors are Pergo Laminate in Riverbend Oak that we bought from Home Depot and installed ourselves.

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Home Tour