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!

[Debby20]

wow you have a talent - are you doing that for your work? I hope so. WOW

[Huma0]

Thank you @Debby20! Sorry I didn't see your comment until now. No, I don't do this for work, although I wouldn't mind. Having said that, once something becomes your job, it can kind of take the fun out of it!

[Mathieu-And-Kunj0]

@Huma0 darling you are in wrong profession. Start a Brit version of "This Old House" there.. Some people have a vision for these things and some don't and you my dear have a plenty of it... In fact one of my property can use some uplift.. I would like to have your thoughts? Specially given that your property and mine may have some architectural similarities. Any tips or ideas?

https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/19936793?s=51

[Huma0]

@Mathieu-And-Kunj0thank you for the nice words!

I like your listing a lot. What a beautiful building! You also have lots of vintage/antique furniture that that works well and that I'd love to get my hands on 🙂 I will have a more detailed look and make some suggestions, but off the top of my head...

I think the living room could do with more colour or pattern on the walls. It's a big room with high ceilings, so I think it could take something quite dramatic, but you don't have to go too dark or too bold if that's not your thing.

A trick I learnt, and have started applying in my own house now, is that painting the woodwork (doors, window frames, skirting, picture rails) in the same colour as the walls can look very chic and this works best in rooms with high ceilings. You need to use a paint for interior wood (I go for eggshell as I think the matt finish is much nicer than gloss) but in the exact same colour as the walls. I do like the gold highlighting on the panels though.

Can I ask if the floor is new or restored? Is it laminate or wood? Sorry, I can't tell from the photos. If it's wood, I would think about staining it or possibly doing some kind of washed paint effect, as it looks a bit too new and shiny for the rest of the decor, but I understand that is quite a big job!

One of your bedrooms has beautiful antique beds, but the other has very modern furniture. I would think about replacing that as and when you can with something more in keeping with the property. Overall, it would be good to try to incorporate more of a flow in the style and mood of the rooms throughout the apartment. I know this is a bit tricky though with kitchens and bathrooms if they are already modern looking.

I love thinking about this sort of stuff, so I will definitely have another look when I have more time and maybe include some photos for inspiration.

[Mathieu-And-Kunj0]

@Huma0 Thank you for the suggestions.. We are planning to do some updates this summer. I do not know how much we will be able to achieve because I want to do a lot of things but we have time restrictions. However I will sure to put some pictures here for you to see.

The furniture are all real antiques brought either from the antique shops or handed down by my husband's family. I have thought of doing something dramatic and bold many times with navy blue and olive green with highlights of gold but everytime I put this project aside as the living room's wall does not have a a normal paint or wall paper but it has paintable fiberglass wallpaper with strong textured design. This makes it quite difficult to put a plain wallpaper on top or to use stencil for design. Removing this fibeglass paper is a nightmare and often does big damages to the wall.. I am not sure we would get anybody to do this work in summer. Holidays here are Sacred!! But I am still trying to explore and find some solution for this. Bedrooms are simpler as they have normal wallpaper and would be easy to change. 

The floor believe it or not is an original oakwood floor from the time of the construction of this apartment. And aside from a small patch that we got re-touched as one of our guest's rabbit peed on the floor and left a nasty mark, we did not disturbed it. It is naturally this shiny.. Come to think of it, I am actaully surprised. But we do take super special care of how we clean it.. 

The red bedroom use to have an antique bed too but it broke. We had another arrival so as a last minute resort we rushed to Ikea and had to change the whole room to match the new bed. Since then it just got stuck there because changing the bed would mean to change the whole decor again...

But many thanks for the tips.. I will add them in my to do list... Can't say if end result be as neat as your but I will give it a shot.

Please do tell me if you think of anything else.. I would love to hear your thoughts..

Cheers,

Kunj

[Huma0]

@Mathieu-And-Kunj0

Wow, your wallpaper sounds like a nightmare! I had a similar situation in my last home, so all I could do was paint it. Sometimes it's just not worth trying to strip paper off old, fragile walls. In this house, the walls and ceilings were in such bad condition that they all had to be ripped out and redone, so I had a blank canvas.

I understand about time restrictions too, especially if you have guests in and out. The wardrobes in one of my bedrooms are half painted because I started them without realising how fully booked the room would be. Luckily, most guests think they are supposed to look that way, i.e. shabby chic. Believe me, my place is not so 'neat'. Also, it's been a very long process to get it to this stage and there is still a lot to do, not to mention the ongoing maintenance and repairs which I'm sure you know are never ending in such an old house.

I will definitely take a closer look and make some more suggestions when I have a bit more time. I know what I'm like and will end up getting really into it!

[Brett3]

@Huma0

Wow! Wow! and Wow! That room looks fabulous and I love that you have stayed true to the buildings heritage. Are you thinking of switching from Editor to Interior Decorator?

I think when it comes to renovating you need to have an eye for what works. You can study like I did but you still need to have that certain 'something' that takes it from a new look to something really unique. You definitely have that certain something Huma. Did you take your own photos? Thay are also very good and capture the mood of the place. Opulent but comfortable.

If I make it to London I know where I want to stay!!

Brett

[Huma0]

@Brett3

Thanks for your nice comments! I've always been interested in interiors but have definitely gotten more obsessed by them since owning my own home and especially this one, which required so much work. I would like to study interior design but know I can't fit it into my schedule right now. Did you work as a designer?

No, I didn't take most of the photos. I was lucky enough to have Airbnb photographers come round. I thought the photos I took and used originally were quite decent, but realised after the professionals had a go that they really weren't! 

The only problem is that I am always updating the house but reluctant to replace the professional photos with my mediocre ones. I'm really hoping Airbnb will bring in the free photo session as a Superhost reward as they said they were planning to. If I manage to keep my Superhost status, it would be great to have an annual refresh of the photos to reflect the changes.

[Huma0]

So I maintained my Superhost status for a year and was really looking forward to the reward of a free photo session so I could get new pics with my more recent renovations, including two new bathrooms (the photos on my listings were taken nearly two years ago and lots has changed since then).

Very disappointed to learn that none of my listed rooms qualifies. Maybe it's because I got a free photo session when I first listed, but I don't see why that should matter. It's supposed to be a perk of being a Superhost, so surely all Superhosts should be entitled, regardless of if you got the free photosession available to new listings two years back...

😞

[Sandra126]

@Huma0, some before pics for you, didn't get them in the right order:

Living room

Looking through into kitchenLooking from kitchen into living roomBathroomBedroomKitchen

[Huma0]

@Sandra126 

All of these rooms are stunning. The kitchen and bathroom are very much my cup of tea, but the green room is really to die for!

[Huma0]

@Sandra126 

The tiles in your kitchen are very similar to the ones I ended up choosing. I mentioned earlier in this thread that I was having a dilemma picking wall tiles for the downstairs toilet that would go with the floor tiles I already bought.

In the end, I picked ones much like yours to go both in that room and in the kitchen. I'm really happy with that choice. Even if other elements end up getting changed over time, I think the tiles are there to stay!

[Sandra126]

I found a few boxes at the tip shop, total cost 2 dollars. So it wasn't a choice I made, money made it for me. But I made a mistake. I thought both boxes were the same, but when I opened the second one midway through the job I realized they were slightly pink. But I went with it anyway. The whole point of that house is recycling where possible. It's barely noticeable.  I just took delivery of a brass bath! For another project I haven't begun other than in my mind. But now I have a bath... ex demo, good price. Still expensive but so pretty. @Huma0 

[Huma0]

@Sandra126 

A brass bath sounds lovely!

My tiles were also a bit of a bargain (although not as much as yours) as they were an end of line pallet deal. The cost per tile was therefore a fraction of the normal price, and they are lovely quality tiles, but I had to buy a large quantity - way more than I needed for the kitchen, so not so cheap after all. That's when I realised that the tiles would not only work in the kitchen, but also perfectly in the cloakroom. So, it ended up being very economical after all and I have plenty spare for any that need replacing in the future.

I like that you went with the two slightly different colours. It adds more character and I'm sure everyone thinks it was intentional! Sometimes you just have to improvise.

[Lizzie]

I've saw the other photos you shared previously showing your renovation works, but these are even better. Wow was an amazing contrast, you must be so proud @Sandra126. 🙂 

Is everything finished now?