Don’t give up on that 1990’s cookie-cutter, there is hope!

We see it all the time on tv and on the internet all of these beautiful old homes that are boasting character and unique details. Or there’s the ultra-modern white box home that you can’t even eat in. But there has to be a happy-medium somewhere and that usually ends up being a track home in the burbs that looks just like every 3rd home in the line. So what do you do? You customize!

This client has been a client of ours for a couple years now and the home they bought was built in the early 1990’s. Prior to meeting us they had hired a contractor to come in and update all of their main floor living, removing all of the builder-grade oak trim, flooring, spun spindles, cabinetry etc. And instead they had everything upgraded to white. And while beautiful, the home left the homeowners feeling like it was sterile. (We see this ALL the time, there has to be a balance!)

He loves industrial, she loves clean and bright. So when they called us to replace all of the current millwork and doors upstairs we began to explore all of the options. Since this is their first home and they’re hoping to upgrade they want to be able to appeal to the masses for resale and not customize it completely. We updated all of the bathrooms upstairs with a quartz counter, undermount sinks and new faucets/hardware. We traded out all of the old oak trim for white flatstock like downstairs and then we threw them a curveball–what about painting all of the interior doors to be a color? Since it’s been white on white on white, we chose to go with dovetail gray for all of the six-panel doors. Then changed out all of the hardware to be black to match the black faucets and cabinetry hardware throughout the home.

We also tackled the staircase, bringing in an industrial vibe by painting it out all in black, and adding in a new square handrail, stained to help break up the monotony. We also added in a newel post detailing to create some more interest at the base of the stairs. What was once builder-grade is now sleek, cool and the talk of the neighborhood.