Home Decor and Renovations March 2015
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The Best Makeovers From "Downtown Shabby"
The designers from "Downtown Shabby" definitely pushed creative limits for this beauty's reno.
FYI
On episode five of Downtown Shabby, the Kelly family's classic painted Victorian got a major makeover thanks to Frank and Sherry Fontana. Check back each week as we share their latest transformations.
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EPISODE 1: Large Victorian in La Grange, Illinois
When Tim and Ashely Folger made the decision to buy this Victorian beauty a few months back, they'd only been inside the house for a whopping 30 minutes. Flash forward to moving in and actuallyliving in the space, and they realized that the house's impractical design and lack of amenities really weren't working for their family of soon-to-be four (Ashley has a baby boy on the way!).
Enter master renovators Frank and Sherry Fontana of FYI's Downtown Shabby, who worked with the Folgers and their $100,000 budget to redo this space for episode one of the new season. The Fontanas have been renovating homes together for more than 15 years — and were certainly up to this challenge. The original exterior of the home, pictured here, was fine as-is, but the couple wanted to repaint it white. Sherry had a concern that, without replacing the siding, white could show the house's age.
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AFTER: A Brighter Look
But everything worked out just fine. The white adds an element of modern crispness to the 120-year-old facade.
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BEFORE: A Cramped Master Bedroom
With no space and even less storage, the functionality of the Folger's bedroom was limited. "The challenge here was creating more space when there was none," Frank says. Aesthetics were also seriously lacking — Frank called this space a "basic blah bedroom."
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AFTER: A Streamlined Couple's Retreat
Giving the Folgers the bedroom of their dreams took work. "We borrowed from another room and made a new entry for the master bath," Frank said, on how they created more space out of thin air. "This master bedroom is somewhere I would now want to retreat to at the end of the day!" adds Sherry.
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BEFORE: A Hopeless Master Bath
The master bathroom, which was already in the stages of demolition when Frank and Sherry met the Folgers, didn't work for the family — in function or in style.
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AFTER: More Modern Glam
Pearl gray cabinetry and gold accents add cleaner sophistication to the Folger's new bathroom. "The challenge was blowing it out completely and modernizing all the electrical and plumbing to accommodate the new glamorous design," says Sherry. "Moving plumbing stacks allowed us to create the entry for the walk-through closet and master bathroom."
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BEFORE: A Nonexistent Nursery
At the beginning of the Fontana's intervention, Ashley Folger was a mere 10 weeks away from her due date with baby number two. The countdown to baby meant prioritizing the nursery, which hadn't been set up yet. The Folgers were using the "nursery" as a catch-all storage space.
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AFTER: A Baby Boy's Fresh Start
Calm colors and wooden toy ships bring to mind a peaceful night at sea. "This is now a precious space to bring home a baby with soft color pallets, nautical accents and rich furniture," says Frank.
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BEFORE: An Empty Parlor
"In the early 1900s, the Parlor room was used to view the deceased," explains Sherry. Yikes! No wonder the Folgers weren't using this space.
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AFTER: An Entertaining Space Comes Alive
The Fontanas envisioned this forgotten room as a hub for entertaining — think holiday parties and cocktail hours. "The parlor room now has a show-stopping bar area with seating and style," said Frank. "It was a glorious transformation, chock full of ambiance and function."
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BEFORE: A Disjointed Living Room
The family hated the original design of their living room — the TV, popped forward and hanging over the fireplace, was the (unfortunate) focal point of the space. "The living room had some character but needed a complete update to meet the homeowner's needs," Sherry says. "The challenge was merging these spaces and expanding the fireplace to fit the large television."
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AFTER: A Comfy Family Center
Ahh, so much better. Previously dark, dingy, and cramped, the Folger's new living room is a bright and cheery oasis for their growing family. "The living room now has multiple areas of entertaining. It turned out glamorous, functional and full of character that fit the homeowners taste," says Frank.
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EPISODE 2: An 1880s Farmhouse in Chicago's Logan Square
John Pernat and Mary Nisi were thrilled to own a home in Chicago's lively Logan Square, but were having a hard time reconciling the disjointed design of the traditional farmhouse with their mid-century, modern taste. On episode two of Downtown Shabby, Frank and Sherry Fontana stepped in to help out. "This home was small, cramped and lacked a cohesive design and flowing floor plan," says Frank.
The Fontanas also had to consider John and Mary's 2-year-old son, Sebastian. "The home really needed updating and the homeowners needed more living space for their growing family," explains Sherry. The entryway, pictured here, wasn't cutting it. Mary explained that she and her husband would often have to skirt around the door — making it extra challenging to get Sebastian in and out of the house effectively.
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AFTER: A Functional Family Foyer
The storage system that Frank and Sherry installed allowed for a more transitionary space — cabinets and shelves are perfect for storing shoes and coats, while a mini bench offers a comfortable spot to sit to put on shoes.
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BEFORE: A Blah Bedroom (and Laundry Room?)
John and Mary's bedroom needed aserious upgrade — mainly because their master suitealso doubled as the family's laundry room (not pictured here). The couple also complained that in order to fit comfortably into the room, they had to be sitting on the bed.
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AFTER: A Bright Mid-Century Master Suite
Mid-renovation, John and Mary decided to up their budget from $50,500 to $125,000 to allow for a drastic two-story expansion project on their bedroom and kitchen. The expansion gave the couple a spacious master suite with two separate closets (goodbye laundry room) — and also allowed for this bold bed nook in the prettiest of wallpapers. "To achieve the look, we used custom wall coverings, walnut wood tones, and color palettes from the era. I feel like we pulled it off well!" says Frank.
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BEFORE: A No-Flow Dining Room
If you asked John and Mary what they disliked most about this spacebefore the reno, they would have complained about the narrow doorway leading into the kitchen. The tight doorwaymade the room feel claustrophobic and limited the flow of the house.
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AFTER: An Expansive Entertaining Space
It's hard to believe that you're looking at the same dining room. By widening the entryway into the kitchen, it feels as if the whole house opened up. The end result is an inviting dining space, perfect for entertaining guests.
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BEFORE: A "Rental" Kitchen
Mary described her kitchen as something that looked like the kitchen area in a rental apartment: functional, but generic and boring. It was also a tricky space to navigate for the family of three. John and Mary hoped for something more efficient so that they could all occupy the kitchen at the same time.
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AFTER: Island Envy
Mary and John were originally skeptical about having an island, but it all but tripled their counter space. And the sleek, dark wood cabinetry was another nod to the couple's coveted mid-century style, which wasn't as easy to achieve as this before-and-after sequence makes it look. "Challenges were two-fold," says Frank. "From the design perspective, squeezing a mid-century design style into a 100-year-old farm house took some serious work. Those two styles don't usually mesh well."
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EPISODE 3: A Chicago Bungalow Beauty
The Mayer family was living in a typical Chicago bungalow but wanted to upgrade from standard to style-forward. On episode three ofDowntown Shabby , Frank and Sherry Fontana revamped and modernized the Mayer's space on a tight budget. Just goes to show you — a reno doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg.
The kitchen, pictured here, gave off '50s diner vibes and was justold, in terms of styleand age. "The countertops were formica," says Frank. "The walls had dated wallpaper trim and the color was orange." The appliances were in need of an update as well.
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AFTER: A Fresh Start
Frank and Sherry realized that in order for the Mayers to have the kitchen of their dreams, they'd need to completely gut it. The duo added new cabinets, flooring, silestone countertops and new stainless steel appliances. "I love this kitchen now," says Frank. "It's like night and day."
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BEFORE: A Dingy Living Room
The living room was virtually void of natural light — which explains why the space looks and feels so dark and heavy. And the clunky black furniture (a bad choice against a sea-foam green wall) wasn't doing the room any favors, either. Frank and Sherry wanted the Mayer's living room "to reflect the rest of the home we were renovating."
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AFTER: Earthy Zen
"We worked to brighten up the living area by adding earth tones," says Frank. A neutral color palette and the correct scale of furniture infused the Mayer's living room with a healthy dose of calm. The sunburst mirror above the couch both expands the space and offers a whimsical pop of brightness.
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BEFORE: A Family-Unfriendly Bathroom
The Mayers are a large family — which means that one sink just wasn't cutting it. "Their big wish was a double vanity for the family," Frank says. In addition to providing more counterspace, the Fontanas wanted to unify the decor and appliances of the space. "The bathroom had fake plastic tiles that contrasted with white basic ceramic tile. The vanity top was fake stone," Frank explains.
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AFTER: Bright and Airy
The bathroom was another area the Fontanas decided needed gutting. A custom double vanity, new tile and wainscoting on the wall successfully elevated the previously dingy, cramped bathroom — and shades of cream and grey added to the bathroom's newfound openness. "The bathroom is so bright and airy now!" says Frank.
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BEFORE: A Mish-Mosh Family Center
The Mayers desperately wanted to convert their basement into a living space for their sonand a family hang out room. This dual need made repurposing the basement doubly hard for the Fontanas. "This area of the home needed a major renovation" Frank acknowledges.
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AFTER: Divide and Conquer
Frank and Sherry were up to the challenge. Giving the Mayers' son a room of his own meant redrawing the floor plan: "We broke up the space into three areas — the son's room, a living area with TV and a downstairs eating area for family get-togethers," says Frank. The Fontanas also redid the flooring and ceiling — which means that they literally renovated this basement from head to toe. The end result is a stunning, functional space for a large family. "We really maximized this space," Frank says. "I hope they enjoy using it as a family and that their son enjoys his room!"
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EPISODE 4: An Awe-Inspiring American Four-Square Expansion
Susan and Seamus O'Mahoney wanted to modernize their 1930s American Four Square home, but didn't quite know where to start. Thankfully, they had Frank and Sherry Fontana ofDowntown Shabby in their inner corner — they turned to the master-reno duo to help find and create room for their three kids and update their tiny, old kitchen. Frank and Sherry, in an attempt to meet their friends' requests, were pushed to the creative limit while tackling this expansive project.
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AFTER: Porch Envy
One of the most difficult parts of the O'Mahoney's renovation was seamlessly adding rooms to the house. The exterior is a perfect example of how Frank and Sherry merged the old with the new. "We built a three-season room, new porch and stairway, dug a new foundation and matched the stucco," says Frank. "This was a big part of the reno!"
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Home Decor and Renovations March 2015
Source: https://www.housebeautiful.com/design-inspiration/home-makeovers/g3847/home-renovation-before-and-afters/