Before and after pics

[Huma0]

I'm an enthusiastic interiors buff and renovating my house has been a long-term labour of love and, I realise now, will always be an ongoing project. I'd therefore be really interested to hear from other hosts who have renovated their Airbnb properties and see before and after pics if you have them, or just hosts who have plans and ideas for future projects.

To start it off, here is one of the guest rooms in my house, BEFORE:

and AFTER:

I still haven't finished tweaking this room yet (the painted wardrobes for example), so there may be updates to come.

Please share your projects and plans!

[Jeff158]

We love renovating old buildings, we got the keys to this one in 2007 and spent 2yrs doing all the work ourselves. 10 yrs later and our current reno is a barn built in 1536 and me being 10yrs older its taking a bit longer to complete.

[Huma0]

@Jeff158 Wow, that's certainly quite a project and what an amazing job you did. I can't believe you did all of that yourselves. I wish I had your skills. Two years is nothing if you're not using contractors.

[Lizzie]

Aw I love this thread, I get so excited by renovation projects (in the UK we have a tv programme called 'Grand Designs' and I was hooked). 

Your room looks amazing @Huma0. You must be so proud looking at the difference before and after. When you were doing the work, did everything go as planned?

[Huma0]

Hi @Lizzie yes I love all of those programmes. One of my favourites was Sarah Beeny's Restoration Nightmare!

This bedroom was all pretty straightforward. You can't tell from the photos but the walls and ceilings were in terrible condition, so had to be ripped out and plastered from scratch, but that was the case throughout the house. The whole house was also rewired because it still had 1920s electrics. The floors were sanded and varnished, but because they were covered in some weird black paint that wouldn't come off, every board had to be flipped. That was the only big surprise.

The windows were also about to fall out of the wall, so they had to be repaired. The cracks around them were so large that they had been stuffed with newspaper. You could tell from the dates on it that this had been done for a few decades! Then it was just wallpapering and painting. I decided to paint the wardrobes much later. That's still a work in progress as the room is always booked so I never get a chance to finish them.

Unfortunately the house as a whole was not such a straightforward renovation because my builders weren't that great to be honest. They left without finishing the project, but also did a lot of things badly, like the plumbing. Some of these things I'm still putting right. Last week I had to have the whole of my roof terrace ripped up and redone because they didn't do it properly and it started leaking. I also have a wet room that has to be ripped out and started again.

Stuff like that can be really painful, and not only financially. However, it's good to look back on the before photos to remind myself of how far I've come and that the work that still has to be done is tiny in comparison to what I've already done.

[Helen427]

@Huma0 That weird black paint may have been an Asbestos based product - there used to be over 3,000 products with it in as it's a Fire Resistant material that has long been used.

May I suggest you keep tabs on your health as it's so easy to be exposed to Asbestos without realizing it and suffer the consequences both at the time or in further years.

@Debra300 @Laura2592 @Lizzie and others

[Huma0]

@Helen427 

I remember someone suggested that it was an adhesive for Linoleum, which makes sense as it was on the floorboards. There were no traces of the Lino though and the floors were carpeted when I bought the house.

I looked it up and it seems that asbestos was sometimes used in linoleum and perhaps in the mastic used to attached it. That could be it, but it doesn't really look like adhesive either as it's very smooth, more like a paint. Then again, perhaps someone had previously tried to sand down the boards and given up (like my builders) when the colour wouldn't come off.

[Huma0]

Here are some before pics of one of the bathrooms:

and after:

It is now time to give the walls a repaint, but because I always want to change things, I was thinking of going for a different colour to the grey. Any ideas? The pink mirror will stay, so the colour needs to work with that.

[Huma0]

Also, for those on a budget, this bathroom is a good example of how you can achieve a fairly expensive look without blowing the budget. I really shopped around online to get the lowest prices for the bath, shower cubicle, shower, tiles and taps. None of them were expensive. The mirror was bought at a warehouse sale for a fraction of the retail price because it had a tiny imperfection. The candelabra is from Ikea. The chandelier and basin are actually Ebay finds.

I really, really wanted a basin like this one but they cost a fortune, e.g. typically around £1,500. Can you belive I bought mine for £25? It had been in an unused spare bathroom and the seller only wanted £10. I felt bad for her, so insisted on paying £25!

Of course, the most expensive thing was paying the plumber/builders, but if you're clever enough to be able to do those things yourself, then this is a very cheap bathroom.

[Huma0]

Oh, and the flooring is solid oak parquet but cost less than £20 per square meter. Again, an Ebay find!

[Eve123]

Amazing. I am not handy but sometimes have an eye for design. But there are lots of people better at it than I am and I always welcome suggestions/ideas.

[Lizzie]

Wow, this is a completely didn't room. You would never think it was the same place. What an amazing job you have done with this @Huma0, you are very talented. Have you always been into interior design or is this your first project?

[Huma0]

Thanks @Lizzie. I've been into interiors since I was quite young. I'd probably say I started to take an interest in my early twenties after having briefly studied theatre design and worked in the set department on films when I was about 21, 22.

Before the house, I had a flat, which I redecorated, but that was very simple in comparison because all I did was sand and varnish the floors and paint the walls and furnish it of course. I wanted more of a project for my next place, but had no intention on taking on something as full on as this house! However, when I saw the place, I fell in love...

[Jeff158]

@Huma0 I'm very impressed with your attention to detail.

I have nothing to do with our interiors (apart from doing the building work)

Shirley's gone barmy painting chairs, pink,orange,blue and lime in this one

 

[Huma0]

@Jeff158 lucky Shirley to have you to do the building work! Yes, painting furniture can be addictive. I really like the different coloured chairs.

[Cynthia129]

Oh my gosh! This is the best thread ever!

Here are my before-and-afters. This loft was awful, I actually don't have a 'real' before pic of the walls, they were a very dark, odd blue, the rafters, too. This is after the painting and before we did the floors. 

And this is the result. All furnishings are from thrift stores, except a very few items (blue chairs, bed frame) from Ikea. The dining dishes are all NC handmade pottery, the art is local artists and all labelled in case a guest wants to contact them.