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  • About
    • I'm Christina, a full-time web developer with a dog sitting business, home renovations, and a blog on the side.

      This blog is about restoration and decorating of our houses, currently a 50s New England ranch, previously an MCM, and before that our Little Victorian...and the homemaking in between.

      READ MORE

Little Victorian

Modern Homemaking

Tour the Little Victorian

Update: we no longer live in the Victorian, a new job moved us back to the Midwest where we just purchased a Prairie House (mid-century modern). Work will begin on that soon!

Meet our Victorian.  It’s little…only 2 bedrooms.  And one of those bedrooms is only 8 feet wide.

We purchased it in 2010.  After 3 offers on complete fixer-uppers, we finally got this house, which we didn’t think needed remodeling at all, just some minor changes.  Ha.  Every room is completely different now.  As of July, 2015, we are currently working on the dining room, master bedroom, and kitchen.  All at once.  After that, it’ll be finishing the attic, and then the garage, and then, we’re done.

As usual, the photos need to be updated.  Badly.  I’m working on it.

(To see more of each room or it’s plans and projects, click the each header.)

THE FRONT

Outside

THE LIVING ROOM

living room 1
living room 2
Living-Room-Before

  • Pull up carpet, paint floor white
  • Install new, functioning front door
  • Remove cheap molding around door and put original back up
  • Install crown molding
  • Paint ceiling and walls
  • Paint window sashes
  • Install recessed lighting and a center pendant
  • Rebuild stair landing into hidden storage
  • Finish decorating (new tables, etc)

THE DINING ROOM

Dining-Room

Butlers-pantry-1

 

Before:

 

003 dining room before 002 dining room before

  • Replace teeny-tiny chandelier
  • Build built-in storage?
  • Add molding to walls
  • Replace tiny crown molding with big stuff
  • Paint walls and ceiling
  • Remove awkward pass-through, half wall?
  • Pull up laminate and refinish original hardwood (hopefully!)

KITCHEN

little-victorian-10

little-victorian-9

little-victorian-4

Industrial kitchen lightBefore:

Kitchen Before Kitchen Before

  • Replace cheap, broken cabinets
  • Open ceiling? (Can’t!)
  • Replace ceiling fan
  • Window coverings
  • Add corner shelves
  • Replace appliances
  • New breakfast table
  • Pull up laminate

POWDER ROOM

Powder room before and after

  • Lay new floor
  • Build new sink base
  • Install overhead light
  • Paint

MASTER BEDROOM

Open-closet
master-bedroom
master-bedroom-art
Before:

original-bedroom

  • Paint over stars stenciled on floor
  • Finish attic above bedroom, turn it into a loft above the bed for reading
  • Build a closet wall
  • Repaint and decorate

GUEST ROOM/OFFICE

Guest Room office before and after

  • Pull up carpet
  • Paint walls (light gray) and ceiling (light blue)
  • Buy sofa/guest bed
  • Build work area for me
  • Install over-head lighting

We have also built a pantry, made major changes to the main bathroom, and are finishing the attic.

Reader Interactions

Comments

Add a comment

  1. Noe Garcia

    December 25, 2013 at 9:22 pm

    I simply LOVE the design and how much the home changed. Found your site on studiopress and happy I did. Want to see more awesome things.

    Reply
    • Christina

      January 3, 2014 at 12:27 pm

      Thank you, Noe! It’s nice to have you here!

  2. Kari Post

    May 5, 2014 at 12:15 am

    Love what you have done. I am buying a small 912 sq ft 2 BR ranch and it’s in similar shape – livable but needs updating. What you’ve done with your home is inspiring!

    Reply
    • Christina

      May 5, 2014 at 10:09 am

      Thank you Kari! How exciting, have fun with your new house!

  3. Mrs Limestone

    June 20, 2014 at 9:29 am

    You have a beautiful home. Thanks for sharing it with us!

    Reply
    • Christina

      June 20, 2014 at 2:32 pm

      Thank you so much, Stefanie. It’s definitely a work in progress.

    • Dana Myford

      October 15, 2014 at 12:16 pm

      I really like this idea, what shelving unit did you use that has a bar?

    • Christina

      October 17, 2014 at 1:02 am

      Thanks! It’s just a wall rail from IKEA (Bygel) screwed into the bottom of the shelf.

  4. Stacy

    April 15, 2016 at 7:07 am

    The whole house is beautiful! Wow, it makes me relax just looking at it.

    Reply
    • Christina

      April 15, 2016 at 9:05 am

      Thank you so much! 💕

  5. Heather Menke

    July 18, 2016 at 1:47 pm

    I love the open shelving look that you used in the kitchen and the bedroom.
    Would you share your source for the shelf brackets and the approximate size shelves you used for the closet?
    Please and thank you!!!

    Reply
    • Christina

      July 21, 2016 at 2:38 pm

      Thank you so much, Heather! The shelves are actually stair treads. We picked them because they were thicker and sturdier than actual shelf boards, and they have a nice bull-nosed edge. We cut each board individually for the space it was in, so I couldn’t tell you how long they were anymore, but being stair treads, they were about 2 inches thick.

      The brackets are from Anthropologie, click here to see them.

  6. Lucy

    March 10, 2017 at 10:17 am

    What a lovley home!

    Reply
    • Christina

      March 15, 2017 at 4:50 pm

      Thank you so much Lucy!

  7. StevenClugh

    September 4, 2017 at 6:46 pm

    StevenClugh

    Reply
  8. Thomasbat

    October 26, 2017 at 3:56 pm

    Thomasbat

    Reply

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  1. Master Bedroom Without Closet | ontohod says:
    September 14, 2019 at 10:56 pm

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See more popular  posts:

Meet the Prairie House

Re-painting the kitchen cabinets

How to strip paint with a heat gun

Beautiful brackets

Kitchen open shelving brackets

Instagramming

Finished! (ish) let's just pretend the new mantle Finished! (ish) let's just pretend the new mantle is painted a warm gray. It will be soon. 
It was $94 for the whole thing. 
Swipe for the before. See everything at littlevictorian.com
#100roomchallenge
So we were making great (though last- minute) prog So we were making great (though last- minute) progress. Then we're putting the picture hanger on the DIY art I made for the room when the 80-pound dog comes in and steps STRAIGHT THROUGH THE ARTWORK. 😵 
Hubs is trying to fix it as usual. But seriously...I don't know if any more obstacles could be thrown at us during this challenge. 😂 
3 hours to go. 
#100roomchallenge
Ugly photo time! We're doing the $100 Room Challen Ugly photo time! We're doing the $100 Room Challenge on our dining room (that you guys haven't even seen the "before" of yet). It's a super fun challenge to stay within $100 and makeover a room in a month. We're behind schedule, but there has actually been progress. I'll try to remember to share here, but there's more on the blog! LittleVictorian.com
#100roomchallenge
Update: the MCM is officially sold! We did eventua Update: the MCM is officially sold! We did eventually finish most of our restoration/renovation projects. I'll share the updates in the coming months as we get settled in to our new place. 😁
@little.victorian

Before Footer

Finished! (ish) let's just pretend the new mantle Finished! (ish) let's just pretend the new mantle is painted a warm gray. It will be soon. 
It was $94 for the whole thing. 
Swipe for the before. See everything at littlevictorian.com
#100roomchallenge
So we were making great (though last- minute) prog So we were making great (though last- minute) progress. Then we're putting the picture hanger on the DIY art I made for the room when the 80-pound dog comes in and steps STRAIGHT THROUGH THE ARTWORK. 😵 
Hubs is trying to fix it as usual. But seriously...I don't know if any more obstacles could be thrown at us during this challenge. 😂 
3 hours to go. 
#100roomchallenge
Ugly photo time! We're doing the $100 Room Challen Ugly photo time! We're doing the $100 Room Challenge on our dining room (that you guys haven't even seen the "before" of yet). It's a super fun challenge to stay within $100 and makeover a room in a month. We're behind schedule, but there has actually been progress. I'll try to remember to share here, but there's more on the blog! LittleVictorian.com
#100roomchallenge
Update: the MCM is officially sold! We did eventua Update: the MCM is officially sold! We did eventually finish most of our restoration/renovation projects. I'll share the updates in the coming months as we get settled in to our new place. 😁
House update! The realtor is still confused about House update! The realtor is still confused about why "it's such a popular house." When she arrived yesterday for a showing, there were 8 cars in the driveway. 😃
We had three offers the first day, one of whom hadn't even seen the house in person yet.
Surprise! The house is going on the market today. Surprise! The house is going on the market today. (Long story that I'll fill you in on when I have more than 2 seconds.)
.
But we're once again with a realtor that calls our house "unique" instead of calling it a Mid Century Modern. 🤦‍♀️
.
We can't count how many locals came into this house and mentioned that those windows should be removed and walled up and the beams cut off. And then it would be a "normal" house. 🤯
.
Still can't really identify with people in this area. 🤷‍♀️ SO happy to be going back home to the East coast TOMORROW!
Right? We're getting back into the house restorat Right? 
We're getting back into the house restoration and we'll be working on the powder room in the master bed. 
Guys. It's bad. Swipe to see.
And we're going to try to make it pretty with a super tiny budget of $100 in 4 weeks and we're joining the #100roomchallenge to keep us (me) motivated.
The bedroom design is starting to come together th The bedroom design is starting to come together thanks to Craigslist and Goodwill. 
#OneRoomChallenge
@little.victorian

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