We are back, celebrating one year in our Texas House with lots of before, after, and progress photos of our upstairs living areas.
Hey Friends! We can’t believe it’s been one year since we moved into our new home in Austin, TX, and we want to celebrate by sharing lots of before and now photos with you. We are happy with everything we have accomplished in our new home in our first year. We want to welcome you to part two of a home tour after One Year In our Texas house!
If you didn’t catch part 1 of our one year home tour, where I shared a tour of our downstairs, you can go read that first. Well, today I want to bring you upstairs. So many times over this past year, I have hesitated to share the upstairs of our new home, because truth be told, it is not where I want it to be. But in the spirit of keeping things real, I am going to share where our upstairs is after one year of living here. I love getting a glimpse into how people really live, and our upstairs is our current reality. So I’m hoping you will give me some grace, try to picture the possibilities, and enjoy this glimpse into our reality!
Stairwell Before|Progress
I thought I would start with this view up our stairs from when we first bought the house. If you scroll back up to the photo above, you can see what that same glimpse up our stairs looks like today. There is so much I want to share about our stairs. Starting with the stair rails, which I would like to completely replace with something more traditional.
You will notice the two paint colors on the landing wall. The bottom half is the same brown as the downstairs walls, and then the top half of the wall is a creamy color. I despise the two paint colors, and it is on my agenda to give this whole stairwell situation a makeover some day. But for now I just added some artwork. The lighting in almost our entire upstairs needs addressed as well, which you will soon see. Take note of the ceilings in the before and after of this space, and see what a big difference painting the ceiling white made!
Bonus Room Before|Progress
The first thing I knew I liked about the upstairs in this house when we walked through it for the first time was the floors. They still probably aren’t the floors I would have chosen, but they are very pretty and great quality hardwood floors. And they are far superior to the floors downstairs. We have a light colored dog who sheds constantly, so it shows up a lot on the floors. If it weren’t for that, I would love them a lot more than I do.
A bonus room space at the top of the stairs was one thing on our list when house shopping, and I love the space we have here! We have two young adult children who come to visit, and when we moved, we downsized from a 4 bedroom to a 3 bedroom home. So for the time being, we decided to add a daybed that has a trundle to pull out instead of a sofa in this space. That way we can sleep 2 guests here. And we made the right choice, because it has been used several times so far! We found this daybed at Wayfair, and we added memory foam mattresses we ordered on Amazon.
We haven’t painted the walls in most of the upstairs since moving in. Luckily, they are a creamy neutral paint color, so I am fairly happy with them. You can see a glass coffee table in these progress photos that has since been moved downstairs to our front room. I didn’t like it up here anyway. I added this vintage trunk that I painted in a spot right at the top of the stairs. It holds extra blankets for guests. I hung the curtains that used to hang in our old living room here. I still need to find an area rug, and a few other odds and ends for this space, but it functions great for our family.
Please allow me to pause for a brief interruption, and share a before photo of our guest room. Pay special attention to the built in cabinetry in this space, because we had it relocated to two different spots in our bonus room. Read more about that below.
I love that this bonus room is L-shaped, because it has this cute little area over to the left of the stairs. It’s open to the downstairs, which makes it feel bigger than it actually is. When we decided to relocate the cabinetry from our guest room to our bonus room, I knew this little nook would be a perfect spot for an arts and crafts station. Here it is before we moved in.
And here is that same little nook today! I just love this transformation, even though it’s not quite perfect just yet. The upper shelves just so happened to fit perfectly against this wall. Literally they felt like they were made for this space. We did have to have the desk side of the bottom half cut down a little bit, but there is still plenty of room to slide a sizable chair underneath.
Our 12 year old sits here for hours upon hours, creating and doing art. And we just let the mess pile up until I can’t stand it for one more second, then I clean it, and we repeat. But it’s been wonderful to have a designated space that is sort of tucked away from guests. So no one else really sees the mess. The cabinet you see to the left of the window also came from our guest bedroom, which was previously being used as a home office.
This area has three of the gaudiest light fixtures I have ever seen, haha! Two in the bonus room, and one in the stairwell, which is kind of the same area. It’s not in the budget right now, but I simply do not like the lights at all. Here is a good shot of them.
One day I was cleaning this room, and I got a wild hair, and just started taking crystals off of the two lights that I could reach. In the end, this is what I was left with. Still not the lights I picture in this space, but much more pleasing to my aesthetic. What do you think?
This is where the remainder of the built-ins from the guest room landed, on the other side of the room. We have another little desk area on this side where we have a PC and a place to do school work or pay bills. I plan to change all of these built-ins up with paint or stain one of these days. But I am far from the planning stages on this room. The entire bottom shelf is currently filled with a collection of my husband’s I have to say they don’t make me happy, but they do make him happy, so sometimes as a wife, I need to compromise.
I have to say, I struggle tremendously with styling these shelves, which is a huge reason why I have never shared them before on the blog. I always seem to feel like they are too busy looking, yet I like everything I have up on them (minus the entire bottom shelf) individually. But all on display on these shelves, it feels busy to me. I envision painting this whole area one day, and styling these shelves in a much more cohesive way. We have a small television hanging here, which is mostly used to play Wii. I need to find a small console table to place beneath it, but for now it’s a stack of vintage luggage. Honestly, this entire room is somewhat of a mish mash, and one day I will really focus some attention of making this space look the way I want it to. I just need to figure out exactly what my vision is. For now though, we find this room to be ever so useful for our family!
Master Bedroom Before|Progress
To the right of our stairwell, you will find our bedroom, and a hallway the leads to the laundry room and two other bedrooms. It was a bright blue on all four walls when we took ownership. And this was the only room in the house that I painted before we moved in. I painted it the color Gray Owl by Benjamin Moore, and it really improved the room so much! I really haven’t done much else in this room other than move everything here that we had in our old bedroom. But just removing the old curtains and painting the walls made a huge difference.
We actually just finally hung curtains in this room in July. And it made the room feel so much more cozy and soft. I bought the curtains from Ikea, and I ordered the curtain rods and ring clips from Amazon
If you notice the ceiling fan in the before photo below, and then scroll back up to the progress photo above, you will see that we added a light to the existing ceiling fan. I just bought a kit from Lowe’s, and my husband and brother-in-law attached it.
This bedroom is the largest master bedroom my husband and I have ever had, and we are so enjoying all of the space we have. Our last bedroom was tiny. We plan to buy a cozy chair to put over in the corner between the two windows you see here. I have been on the hunt for a second hand chair, but haven’t found the perfect thing quite yet.
Isn’t it amazing how changing just the paint and curtains in a room can change the look and feel of a room!? I have lots of other plans for this room, but for now, I am happy with the in between. We used the rug from our old living room in this room, and I;m happy with it. I may layer something else over it one of these days. And I am currently debating what color I want to paint this bed.
This room has a little nook on the other side, right next to the master bathroom. I decided to use a small desk we brought with us from WV, and make a little spot to sit and do my hair and makeup when I get ready.
It works out just fine, and it makes it easier that my husband and I aren’t constantly fighting for space in the bathroom. I like to sit when I get ready, so this works for me. One day, I plan to change this desk for a more proper makeup vanity, but for now, it works. And we still have room to spread out in our bedroom, even with me having this makeup table in here.
Master Bath Before|Progress
This master bathroom checked all of the boxes for me. It had two sinks, a separate bathtub and shower, and a large master closet inside of the bathroom. It could use some updates, but it has good bones and it is a fairly large bathroom.
I am actually getting ready to take on the $100 Room Challenge, and this bathroom is going to be getting a little makeover during the month of September, so you are actually getting a little sneaky peak below, because the mirror is a part of the new makeover. But I am still not quite finished with this mirror, so I’m really not spoiling much.
As you can guess, the mirrors in the before photo were not my style at all. I find them to be way too fancy and ornate. And it’s hard to believe I lived with them for a whole year before I finally sold them on Facebook Marketplace. I’m not going to go into any details about this room, because I will be sharing my plans for this bathroom in a separate post that will be coming in the next day or two. But I have a pretty good plan to transform this space for a phase one makeover on a budget of just $100.
The glass block window in this room is my least favorite thing about the room. I want to rip it out one day and replace it with a regular window. I do like the privacy it offers, because it is directly across from our next door neighbors bathroom window. But I simply hate it. Every house in our neighborhood has these windows in the master bathroom.
When you exit our master bedroom, this is the view you see of our upstairs. to the right is the bonus room, to the left is a bathroom, the laundry room, and two bedrooms.
And this is the same view right now. You might remember this old vintage dresser that I stripped some of the paint off of. I just couldn’t part with this. The bathroom right around the corner is sadly lacking in storage, so we used this dresser to store things that belong in a linen closet or medicine cabinet. It has come in very useful and it is in a convenient location right outside of the bathroom door.
Second Bathroom Before|Progress
This is the bathroom that our kids and guests use. And we have recently made some changes to this bathroom to make room for our oldest daughter. And, I guess now is as good a time as any to let you know that our 24 year old daughter has returned to the nest. Long story, but she decided to leave Miami, where she had been residing for two years, and relocate to Austin to be near us, so she has moved in with us temporarily until she can secure a job and an apartment.
I started working on this bathroom back in March, right after quarantine hit. I never liked the vanity and sink in this bathroom, but it is currently not in the budget to replace, so I gave it a little makeover with some paint in the color Mossy Banks by Behr Paint. I also added some crates above the toilet that are used to store hand towels, wash cloths, and tissues. You can read all about this sink makeover here.
Since I wrote the post about our sink makeover, I have made a couple more changes. You might recognize the mirror in the before photo below is now hanging in our master bathroom. I painted it and hung it in there. Let’s take just a brief moment before moving on, to acknowledge the ugly light fixture that is off center over the sink. It will be replaced one of these days.
I needed to add a little storage for my oder daughter to have a place to put some things that she needs easy access to, and I happened to find some shelves at Goodwill. And they just so happened to be a perfect fit for the wall to the right of this sink. They were also perfect to house bathroom types of items. So, I decided to paint them the same color as the walls.
I happened to find a can of paint in our garage that had been used to paint this room. I plan to paint these walls for now, but I love the way these shelves look the same exact color as the wall, because they kind of just blend in. But they are extremely useful for my daughter, and bonus, they have some pegs to hang a hand towel and a washcloth on.
I had to remove the larger mirror because the shelves wouldn’t fit. So I added this mirror that I already had. It is a temporary fix, and too small, but it works until I find something to replace it. I also plan to replace the entire vanity and sink someday.
Laundry Room Before|Progress
Not much has changed in our laundry room, but I thought you might be curious, so here it is! It is a small room, but I am big time happy it is upstairs, and right outside of our bedroom. Makes it so much easier to do laundry! We did purchase a brand new washer and dryer right after we moved in. They are a champagne color and I really like them.
I also added the drying rack you see hanging on the left wall. It folds out to hang laundry to dry, and then folds neatly down to the wall if you are not using it. One of these days, I plan to give this room a makeover and make it something much more special, but for now, I am just thankful to have it at all.
Guest Bedroom Before|Progress
I actually gave this room a makeover last winter for the $100 Room Challenge. Obviously, the biggest change here is the removal of all of the built-ins that were here when we moved in. We also had to have some flooring replaced to match the existing flooring. You can read all about the transformation here.
This room has changed again, because, like I said, my daughter is living with us, so it is no longer our guest room. It is now her bedroom. So I let her change the decor in here, and I need to photograph it and share it because it looks super cute, even better than my little $100 makeover. Although, I do think I made quite a significant impact with a $100 budget!
Third Bedroom Before|Progress
This bedroom is the room that belongs to our 12 year old, and I thought it best to share at least the before photos, so that you could get an idea of the house as a whole. But my 12 year old child has asked me not to share her bedroom on the blog, and I have no problem with that. Besides, lets face it, the room is a disaster the majority of the time. I share a lot here on the blog, but if my child asks me not to share, I have no problem obliging that. They are only tweens and teens for so long, and they deserve to have a space free from prying eyes if they want it.
We have painted this space and bought new furniture as well, and the walls are now a very pale pink with posters and other things plastered over most of the walls. There is a shaggy grey carpet on the floor, and lots of room to hang out with friends. One of these days if I ever get permission, and the energy, to do a deep clean and photograph this space during the two seconds it stays clean, I might share it, hehe.
Well, now I have finally shared the entirety of our home on the ole’ blog! I can’t believe how fast our first year living in Texas has flown by! I have so many big plans to update this house slowly over the next few years and also on a budget. Some things we will take on ourselves, and some larger things we will hire out, but one thing is for sure, there will be lots of change to come in our yellow prairie house.
I plan to bring you along for the entire ride! I am currently working on my first post for the $100 Room Challenge, where I will be doing a phase one makeover of our master bathroom. The project has already begun, so be looking for the first post of this month long challenge in the next couple of days! thanks for taking the tour of our upstairs, and please please, come back soon for a visit!
Do you have champagne taste and a tiny budget too? Love fashion, DIY, crafting, all things vintage and thrifty? Stick with me, I’ve got you covered!
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