In Part I of this Before & After series, we’re revisiting one of our favorite projects nestled in the hills of Newport Coast, California, lovingly referred to as #MGDXNewportCoast. This home was a labor of love for both our team and Client. We took the dated tract home interior and exterior, and stripped it down to its bare bones in order to reimagine the home as a blank slate upon which to build something fresh and new.
The extensive remodel focused on lots of new millwork elements, subtle prints and patterns, a stunner of a staircase, and pops of blue that we carried throughout in a variety of hues as an ode to the coastal views surrounding the property.
Today, we’ll be sharing the transformation of this home’s lower level: the Living & Family Rooms, Dining Room, Kitchen, Laundry, Powder Bath, and the Staircase of our dreams!
Come follow along…
Living Room
With a predominantly all-white base layer and enough natural light to make our hearts sing happy tunes all year long, we introduced a decidedly updated look & feel from the original palette of taupe and yellow walls, and dated wood finishes. We selected a warmer-hued engineered wide plank oak hardwood floor for throughout, with pops of color and pattern in all of the furnishings, rugs, case goods and ware selections. Lots of personality, and yet still fresh, happy, and all around family-friendly.
Dining Room
Family Room
The Family Room now opens out onto the newly re-designed backyard with expansive ocean views, so replacing the once fixed windows with a new bifold door system was a must. It’s the perfect spot to catch sunset, hang with the family, and multi-task between napping and lounging, so we opted for two sets of swivel chairs here with a narrow coffee table to maximize comfort and keep the layout open and easy to navigate around on a day-to-day.
Kitchen
Perhaps one of the biggest updates and priorities during this remodel was the kitchen. While the layout remained very similar to the original due to restrictions, all cabinets, appliances, plumbing fixtures, and lighting were replaced to maximize the kitchen floor plan and design potential.
In our eyes, custom cabinetry is hands-down one of the best investments you’ll ever make in the remodel process. The kitchen is often the heartbeat of every home, and we like to make it SHINE BRIGHT!
We threw caution to the wind with this one, and ditched the all-white kitchen classic that we’re so fond of (and will personally never tire of), and instead went bright & happy. Flush inset cabinetry with shaker panels, a shiplap-clad extended island and X-detailing, grey zellige backsplash tiles, an integrated china cabinet of sorts, and hand-blown glass pendants all work together for the perfect statement kitchen and accents.
Depending upon the time of day too, the blue-grey cabinetry color shifts to introduce new hues and has everyone guessing as to which variation of the color they like best. In person, it’s equally the most calming and the happiest kitchen around, and we couldn’t love it more.
Powder Bath
The sweetest little Powder Bath around…and oh, how we love her!
As you can see, this space didn’t have much worth salvaging, so away we went with the old, and in we brought all the things we could possibly integrate into one tiny little space, in hopes of packing oodles of punch and charm for this Powder Bath.
A custom vanity cabinet was made to fit the oddly-angled shape of the room, and we opted to use a combination of shiplap wainscot paneling and a patterned accent wallpaper above to make things pop.
Laundry
Stairs
The updates we made to the Staircase most definitely gave the home an entirely different feel from an architectural standpoint, and really opened up the spaces that were connected by both the original and new design.
The original staircase was largely hidden behind lots of drywall and what I called peek-a-boo windows, which served next to no purpose except letting in a little light and getting a good giggle in at the sight of them because they were just so out of place as a focal point.
We knew we wanted to design and integrate a more modern iron railing system, and well, it was quite the feat. While it may not look like much, the amount of talent and patience and diligence it took to get it just right has given us an added layer of appreciation for what it is today. It’s immediately visible the moment you walk through the front door, and from just about every room in the house, and it makes this perfectly understated wow statement. We love it!
We’ll be back with Part II in our Before & After reveal of our Newport Coast project, highlighting the upper level of the home!