Remodel Masterclass | House Of Kennedy

0:00Hi, everyone. Welcome to Dear Alice. We are going to be doing another Remodel masterclass today. yep y 'all are liking this series so i'm really glad that you are and when we see that that a lot of people are watching and listening to this and learning and the reviews are really good on it then we're like let's keep it going so give the people what they want i think this is our third remodel master class right yeah yeah so this is house of kennedy this is a home that has been on our portfolio since about 2019 so i'll bet we started this work in 2017 and this is a remodel on a 90s Rambler. It was beautiful, all brick.

0:35We've got a main level and a basement. And we really concentrated all of our efforts on the main level, but then also on the interior. This client wanted to put all of her budget into the interior, which I totally love and agree with. Because if you have to share your budget with exterior remodel, then you can only do half as much. So it was really fun to go all in with her. She was really in the mood to do something special and unique and fashionable. And I'm so excited to see you. I'm so excited to show you some of the tricks that we came up with on this house. And I know all of you are going to relate to this.

1:10You either grew up in this house. It's your mother's house. Yes, you either grew up in this house or you're living in this house or your friend has a house like this and you won't believe the difference. Some of these tricks we did that really expanded the space, made it feel more continuous and just made it feel super designer with eight foot ceilings. So I hope you're going to love this episode. but first up i wanted to say our black friday collection sale is on right now at alice lane home there are discounts up to 30 off in in the collection so go check that out at alice lane home.com let's just jump into it okay all right this was such a fun project to tackle um and we're going to be showing you again i wish we had like hours to just go through every room and i go through all the details because we love this we love talking about this we're going to focus on the entry, the family room, and the living room, kind of those main public spaces and how they relate to each other.

2:04I think we're the most dynamic and the most memorable for all of us. So yeah, so let's get into it. Let's do it. Okay, so I'm going to show you some befores. You've seen this, you've seen this real estate posting. Again, 1990s, this home was built. And it almost reads like the 80s, because if it was built in 1990, then these ideas were all in the 80s. So what we're looking at is we've got an eight foot ceiling, we're looking at a front door that's honey oak we have a honey oak banister and even the windows are trimmed in honey oak that's right not paint grade not white but they went for it they did stain grade and then we've got a really beautiful um swaggy drapery that's that's got some fun pleats some empire swags right there totally yep and then we've got a patterned carpet that's kind of a royally navy blue with some medallions in it and a small tile pad for the entry with a coat closet with bifold doors yep i'm gonna call this the gas station tile yes this is a this is a ceramic tile that mimics kind of a travertine look yeah yeah yep and the thing when we walked into this house there were again when especially when you first occupy a house that's not yours you didn't build it you kind of want to just like take everything away you're just like let's blow this place up and but often our budgets don't always allow for that to take everything away you kind of have to like balance like where do I want to invest my money where do I want to like see what we can make with what's been given to us with this inherited architecture and so when we looked at these before pictures a couple things that we immediately felt was just like this kind of hopscotch of flooring materials you had the tile and then you had like this carpet that was gonna like kind of splitting this yellow brick road before you get to honey oak in the kitchen and so you have so many different things happening in front of you and we're like okay first and foremost like we can unify the tile or like do a tile feature here but then let's take it into the hallways so we'll do something really cool there what are other things that like immediately like stood out to us was just trying to see we had a coat closet which a coat closet is great but when you're this client you want to have like a really fashionable like landing spot to be received and like this kind of entry reception because there really wasn't any you can see there's no walls.

4:19And there's no sense of entry. It just feels like a front door, a small pad to come in with your wet boots, hang a coat up, and then continue walking. So we wanted to really delight and surprise in the entryway. Yes. And I have to say a really great trick for you, if any of you are embarking on a remodel or looking around at your existing home, is when you chop up the floor, like Suzanne just said, you are creating these little tiny spaces, right? Your eye just kind of goes to that footprint which is often why we'll tell people go with the bigger rug because your eye expands to the size of the rug same thing here if we're going to do continuous flooring like we're about to do then all of a sudden the space reads as one big one instead of the entryway just feeling like that little spot of tile now all of a sudden the entryway encompasses all of the railings it encompasses the hallway and we were able to take out the coat closet and give ourselves a moment for a console.

5:14Yeah. Okay. Another thing that we did, I'm showing right now, an elevation drawing showing finish work. Again, didn't have finish work before. It just had like those weird oak casings and things that got along with everything. We thought it'd be really, really lovely to do some of these designer tricks because the client loves, she loved a fashion moment. So we're very inspired by just kind of like this blocky paneling and you'll see it in the after pictures but we I think created a lot of grand grandness in this full stairwell which was just like drywall and a honey oak railing yeah it gave some height to the space even though we're still enclosed in an eight foot ceiling it brought you down into that staircase with this large paneling yes it was one of those space expanding tricks too okay now we're going to show some afters actually process pictures we want to show you this is a picture showing some of that finished work where it is just more of like this block block on block applied molding versus like an actual carved panel which I think like it felt young this client also was young she had a young family super hip loves interior design so she was willing to go for it and like really reflect her style and like embrace that totally and kind of like she's in homes all day because she's a realtor yes and so she really wanted you know her own sense of style and I love that she found this home in this really great neighborhood that probably everybody would have looked past on the MLS because you saw the befores and what she does with it is going to make it like the most desirable home.

6:41Yes. Another thing that we ended up doing again, we, I think we showed her different railing options, iron options, you know, ways to update the space and the price came in high. So we kind of went back and we looked at what the current balustrades were doing, which they were actually really like a beautiful form. You know, the selection wasn't bad. It was just, you couldn't see past the oak like that kind of hijacked the space and so we're like what if we painted it which in like a home like this it would be kind of fun to see something like high lacquered and painted and so that's what we did we painted this whole railing stair railing going all the way down in this high gloss black and I think all of us were just like mesmerized with like how different like it made the whole space transform and it connected back to we ended up doing those of you who can't see we end up doing a marble entryway and we use three different marbles to complete this look and one of the um the dark marble in it is this beautiful like antico scuro it's got little white um sort of fissures and and veins in it and so that black marble within the pattern it made this black railing really connect to it i think we ended up using a shade of black that was almost a little bit more charcoey which connected perfectly back into the marble and it all just felt intentional it updated everything all at once and I think that more modern version of paneling also and and the flooring just made it all just more modern or transitional it just looks fantastic look how big that entry was about to say now that you're not chopped up between the tile the carpet like it's so continuous and it feels like an entirely different space so in here some a little bit more showing that again that entry tile and how it bleeds into this hallway and again I think occupying that coat closet was like the biggest win yeah of this space so we removed the coat closet took that square footage made a jog in the wall where we could set an entry console a mirror a lamp and it just made the entry feel that much bigger we kept that marble flooring going all into that cavity and then we took it also down the hallway and it made that room or that house just feel so much larger so the trick here is continuous flooring visually enlarges your overall footprint.

8:59Yes. So if you're in a remodel or you want to remodel, keep those things running. Don't just replace a tile entry with a tile floor that's new today. Really like rip it out and continue how far your eye can stretch. That's going to make your home feel so much grander. Yes. I love that. Okay. Okay. Now, Okay. That's the kitchen. Yes, moving into the kitchen. This is probably the biggest ta-da moment. Oh, my gosh. We're looking at a honey oak kitchen from, it feels like the 80s. We've got a wall oven. All of our appliances are white stuck into honey oak cabinetry. We've got a white fridge, a white microwave, a white stove, dishwashers, everything.

9:42And then we've got the classic sink with the window above it and the blinds. And the flooring matches the cabinetry. Everything's honey oak as far as the eye can see. They loved it back then. And then a ton of uppers too, which I think I wanted to point out because what you guys did with it afterwards, it just makes it feel so much lighter, especially because it is an eight-foot ceiling. Yes. That's a great, great tip. Yeah, those uppers make it feel like everything's caving in on you. Yeah, and you really can't reach up above the refrigerator. And that's back when fridge depths were deeper, would hang out of the cabinetry.

10:15but it looks like a full foot right there yeah like it's a solid 48 i don't know why this feels so giant one other thing i just want to mention and again i i know i've seen and my aunts and uncles like so many homes i've seen do this where they actually took that eight foot ceiling just like did like this tiny little tray they either popped it up to eight six maybe or they actually lowered that cabinet height to like seven six i don't know anyway but we went ahead and like filled and leveled all that out because there was no need four inches and added it to our overall height yes we did yes also just tell us about this yes they had a kitchen island that made a shape of an l and in that island they had a white stove with a little vent above it and then you know the cabinets that go above the vent and we've got drawers on all sides of it mom's just standing in the it feels like the hallway cooking cooking thanksgiving i cannot believe the space planning on this but it also gives you a really good overall shot of the before and that family room that we're gonna talk about next so this was a fun one to get our hands on you just do anything after would look good so we're practically cheating um by showing you these befores isn't this fun to think about like when this was like being conceptualized and like bill they're like this is good yeah like they thought that was a good like let's do hang great yeah let's do like hanging uppers in the middle that sounds like a good idea thank you for mentioning that cory i didn't give credit to the fact that uppers are just hanging in the middle of a ceiling yeah just like cute forehead right there okay so we did obstruct the exterior a little bit in the kitchen we had the one big if you remember above the sink there was the one big kitchen window and we said i'll raise you one window and i'll take two and i'm going to flank this i'm going to put the stove where the sink was and we're going to put windows on both sides to get more natural light into our kitchen and bounce you know all around in that space so we did that little bit of exterior repair but I think it was well worth it we went with a really beautiful European 48 inch range here and which is now like the centerpiece I feel like exactly which can I just say if you're going to embark on a kitchen remodel your range is your money shot that is what you're trying to solve for is to get that range in the middle of your kitchen I can't tell you the amount of kitchens I've walked into and I don't know where the stove is and I can't ground myself so today our range hood and our range is kind of that that if you will if you're going to propose to somebody that diamond ring it's that that crown jewel in the prongs is the stove and the range hood so that's what we were solving for is how do we get this thing so that it's the money shot and then flanking it with windows and and then the storage solutions and this are so good i can't wait to get to those and the client actually i remember this was one of her first requests she's like i want a lock renew so like she knew that she was gonna like throw down because like not only is the it's the diamond but it costs the most yeah we took that thing took that railing money and we said we will put it in a stove i'm getting a real spent i know the stove money in the stove the railing money in the stove we're gonna get that we're gonna get that stove because that's what you want client that's what you're solving for though in a remodel is like what do you value most and i love that she knew that about herself yeah and kori to your point we took all those uppers that we had you know been given instead of like again putting them up in front or like adding more on this range wall we actually like utilize our trick that we talk about all the time of just this tall tower storage, especially on that fridge wall.

13:49So you can kind of see in this next image, you can kind of see where originally we had like counter, all these like cityscape of uppers. This is where we did that tall storage where we had, you can see where the fridge and freezer are before they got their panels on and then tall pantry storage on each side, which is so smart because then we don't have to like obstruct our window and like, you know, the actual prize view of the kitchen. Yeah. And then it elongates the entire room too. If you were to look at those back to back, you would swear that's a foot taller, that ceiling height. It's like the kitchen has stilts now.

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15:5190, yes. And it's that. I'm like, don't do the 45. We're taking away the clip. And look how cute. Pocketed in there. It's like an appliance garage. It's all marble. and you've got your KitchenAid plugged in, your toaster plugged in, and you just pull them forward when in use. They remain plugged in. And then you push them back into that little pocket above it, a little shelf with all your cookbooks. Can you imagine having to take that out of it, like a spinning Lazy Susan in a corner or something like that? Half the time is broken or chipped or cracked. They're no good. Another thing that we did, just again, give her storage.

16:20She loves design and she loves display and the utility of it, is we did floating shelves over those windows. You have this in your kitchen too, Jess. Like it's just such like a great way to just like not obstruct that window light, but to still give you some storage solutions. And then the layering feels designer. It totally does. Okay. One interesting thing too, like just with actual function of this space is that when we were kind of plotting it all out on CAD, we had like spot for the kitchen. We had the spot for the family room. She's like, where can I fit like a dining table or can I fit some dining solution so that like we can still eat together?

16:54And with the space given, we're like, gosh, we really can't fit like a round table. We can't fit a rectangle table without your island continually getting smaller and smaller and smaller. And so we came up with this really great solution, which I think is so, so chic and cool, where we actually had that banquette integrated into the island. And then we pushed a table with chairs around it. And I just think it turned out so, so, so chic. Yeah, it's this channeled cognac colored banquette that just feels like so expensive car. Vintage, but modern. The other thing that I love in this kitchen besides that built-in banquette to the island trick is we didn't use cans.

17:33We used four pendants. The pendants center over the dining table and they center over the island. And I just think this looks so, so cool. I love it. The floor-to-ceiling storage solution. Also, you know what we did here that we've never done before? Automotive finish on cabinetry. That's right. She wanted a high lacquer, but she also has all these young kids too. So we were working with a contractor who he's a magician in itself. And we're like, what can we do? Like, can we, could we do metal cabinets? He's like, you could, he's like, but we, he was just like so willing. When you start to like propose some of these ideas to these brilliant craftsmen.

18:10He's like, you know what? He's like, yeah, I can like, I can do an automotive finish on this metal cabinet. Yeah. Like, let me work this out. I think we can do this. And then we're like, can you, I'm going to one-up you again. And we, can we do a golden light striping on that with metal? And he's like, you betcha. So that's what we did. And you took that inlay and it runs top to bottom. It's not cut off in the doors. So again, elongating that cabinetry. So those elongated cabinets read like, I mean, all four doors have, excuse me, four, is it four or is it six? All six doors. There's four double door units.

18:43So technically eight because there's four on one side, four on the other. They all have appliance poles on them. So you get this look of like this bank of long doors. and it's just an absolutely space expanding stretching trick to give that entire wall of storage but what's fun is when you're when you're walking into the space from the entry that wall is kind of behind you and you see the bank at situation first and so you've got all of this great storage back there but you turn around and you're like oh my gosh that is so arresting and then of course the cabinets being in metal you just haven't seen that before but then you get this glean of the high gloss that's really really durable for the kids so it was a great solution another um i think great tip that we did here is on the island we did the automotive paint on the actual perimeter cabinetry but then we changed the finish on the island to this kind of like cerused um charcoal blackened wood grain which again i think when you talk about like the dark marble in the entry and the black banister and railing feeling that like anchor to something deep right there I think it's just such a cool connection point yeah like in these homes I've heard some designers say that like every room needs black like it needs something to anchor it and like we continue to use these black elements throughout the home that anchored it gave it depth and gave it sophistication yeah absolutely and when you do when you can do a ceruse finish like this it is more forgiving like with kids with scratches with all those things you don't see all the fingerprints as much.

20:14For all you mamas and papas out there, you can live beautifully. So, okay. All right. Now we're going to go into the family room, which is just shared in that kitchen space and that cavity. So here's the before of the family room. There's those honey oak balustrades again. We have the picture that we're looking at right now. It just has a sea of carpet with those honey oak balustrades. And then we have a brick fireplace, which isn't broken, but the client was like really trusting. She's like, let's do something cooler. We also have some, gosh, they just loved a floating built-in. Not really tied into anything, but it looks like we had an existing, again, hits that tray right there.

20:57It feels like an armoire, an oak armoire that's made out of cabinetry built-in. And then next to it, it's kind of a hanging chad of a desk. It's like a built-in desk with two file drawers and then kind of one triangle that's holding up the oak top. You know what they were doing their best. And probably an intercom system sitting above it. Remember those? Oh, yeah. There's a central vac those put in. Only the popular kids had those. Yeah. Awesome. Okay. So with this, this is where we went. We started to go with it. We decided to do a cast fireplace. One thing, we're going to show you the living room also.

21:29So when we're doing like replacing a fireplace or we have a new build and we're like planning for a fireplace, cast is a really great option that's going to keep your price point a little bit, like give you a really cool solid, the whole thing is like, you know, non-combustible. It's going to give you a really, really cool look and it's going to be less expensive than a carved marble. We saved the carved marble for her living room, which is a more elevated postured space. And in a more relaxed space like a family room, oftentimes we will do the cast because it brings the price point down. from a carved marble and it does give like this really uniform look which you know it's supposed to look like limestone this is an actual concrete that's formed but it gives that look of limestone and it's just really cool we wanted to show you this because we did replace the fire box we dropped that down to the ground we didn't have the raised hearth anymore which again I think feels just like more expensive unless you're in the mountains but also if you have an eight foot ceiling getting rid of that raised hearth um didn't make it feel so short um so that's another trick and today we are not loving the hearth as much we unless you said unless you're in the mountains and you want to sit there and dry your ski coat and all of that i think that's really charming but today we're taking fireplaces to the ground yep exactly okay and so like just with that with painting and with a new fireplace and new lighting this is where we came you can see the balustrades again you can see they were painted black so we didn't tear out anything like there was like very little cosmetic to this like full rip out but you can see it changed it completely we did that honey oak floor that you saw in the kitchen we did new engineered wood floors like and just kind of this more medium um white plate carried them into the yeah i carried it in here um just again to try and like continue and stretch the eye to make the spaces look larger so so that's the family room and it just looks so chic and like it's right in front of that kitchen So such a good entertaining space with having both of those open to each other.

23:24Okay, the living room. This is where we saved our marble, saved for our marble mantle. So in the living room, this is a space, I don't have great befores, but this space when you walked through that entry, this is directly in front of you. So again, it probably had, you know, maybe it had that blue carpet with those fancy medallions going in there. I bet you it did. Smart of them. But we took that out and she just wanted to have, again, we were gifted a fireplace. So we got rid of it and we did our own. And we did this really, really great kind of in that antique oscuro again. And that's what I just want to point out is it's in sections.

24:02It's in pieces. So this whole thing wasn't carved. You could install this. You can see even the ground, how it's in tiles. So it was a little bit more affordable than the entire thing being carved. but the overall look feels very, very similar. And I think this is a great trick. Yeah, I think it's so beautiful. A nice thing about like homes of this era, I know because I have one of them, is they like really did all those like integrated cabinets, like just the door would be flush with the wall and you'd have these cabbies. And so I imagine that that's what we had here on both sides because the built-ins on each side of this fireplace tore them out and did our own thing, but we utilized that cabbie so that it could just stay completely flushed with the wall.

24:47And so you're not taking out additional space into the footprint of the room. So I think that's such a hot tip. And we added sconces. Add sconces when you can. Like I think on a fireplace, it's just such a gorgeous glow to just like have those going. I agree. And then we told you that black was sort of this common thread throughout the spaces to really ground it. So you can imagine walking in on that new three, that tri-colored marble floor and seeing this staring you back in the face. We did a black grass cloth on the walls. We did the integrated built-ins, painted those black on the face frames.

25:24But then the interiors, we went with this really pretty kind of rusty color just to give it a little bit of pop. Black marble, vintage rug. We've got some really beautiful charcoal, like mohair type sofa, and then purple in the occasional chair. I just think this space turned out so chic. I mean, this was completed in 2019. So we were working on it 2017, 2018. And I still love this space right now. So it's still relevant. So great. And you know what else is really fun? I love it whenever you can find a flush mount, not a flush mount, a semi flush mount for these houses that don't have tall ceilings.

26:01but they're like ceiling crawlers. Branchings almost, yes. Yeah, those are so necessary in the marketplace. It's not super tall, but it's wide and it makes an impact in a shallow space. Yes. Yeah, such a winner. So those were the three spaces we want to share with you, just like our best tips for working with an older home with short ceilings, that big design can still happen and should still happen with an eight foot ceiling. Like don't limit yourself. And like, I think what you said, you said this before, whatever space you're living in, if it's older, walk around and say, what could I do to this space to make it better and to make it more you?

26:39And so I walk into this and like, it wasn't her before, but it is 100 % this client. And I'm so proud of that work. I agree. Yeah. I think it was really good too. A few standouts are continuous flooring is going to visually enlarge the footprint. in the kitchen floor to ceiling those cabinetry stretches are going to make it feel really really tall put your budget into the interior if you can not have to split it whatever it is because then you can really finish a project in full so I thought that was a really good tip yeah I also really like that you pointed out that the cast fireplace is for the family room and the living room is where you do marble.

27:20If you're trying to decide where to use what, that's just a pro tip from us that we'll often do. Obviously, if you can go marble everywhere, that's a luxury. Go you. Yeah, but your cast fireplaces, you can still get a look. And I feel like that family room was so chic. Those cannonball inserts. Yeah, definitely. So good. Well, I hope you guys have enjoyed this episode of another episode of Remodel Masterclass. This was House of Kennedy. Thanks so much for watching. If you guys have questions for us, please send them to dearalice at alicelanehome.com. And just another reminder that Black Friday sale is going on right now.

27:56So go get some great deals. They're up to 30 % off at alicelanehome.com. And we'll catch you next time.

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