Happy New Year! This year one of my resolutions is to complete some of the home projects on our to do list. In October we started one of the more major projects on our list – replacing and adding new millwork throughout our home. Today’s post is the first in a series of posts I’ll be sharing with the inspiration, progress and final reveal of some of my favorite spaces that we tackled.

When we put an offer on our home, we hadn’t even see it in person first. We had seen an online listing of a house a few blocks away with the same floor plan a few years ago and we fell in love with it. It had always been what we imagined our first home to be. Unfortunately, that home sold so fast, we didn’t even get the chance to see it in person. So when our current home became available, we decided to put in an offer. Long story short, after a little bidding war, our final offer was accepted and the house was ours. The only issue was that the home we purchased was a completely different style than the other house. The house we first fell in love was decorated like a farmhouse and had beautiful wood mouldings in every room. Ours was more modern and lacked the traditional design elements that made the other house pop.

After a lot of research, I knew one of the most dramatic improvements to our home would be to tackle the moulding first. I know it’s not exactly the first place most people start, but I knew it would be the most dramatic and relatively easy change that would really improve the feel of our house. The first space we decided to change was our entryway. I found some major inspiration on Houzz of a home I was in love with. The moulding on the stair wall was so stunning and I knew I wanted to replicate it. I started researching moulding projects and I came across Metrie mouldings and I was blown away by their selection. Their mouldings have transformed the homes of some of my favorite home bloggers and I knew I had to use their products. Their “Then & Now” collections are gorgeous. I decided to go with their “French Curves” collection for  Parisian-inspired look.

Here’s my inspiration (and here’s more on Pinterest) Source: Vintage South Development Source: Metrie  Source: Pinterest Source: Pinterest

Before we started, I hadn’t yet found a contractor so I drew up the design and measured everything myself. I’m no designer, but I am a bit of a perfectionist so I wanted to make sure the contractor knew exactly what I was looking to do. 

Here’s what we started with:  The huge entrance wall was the perfect canvas for what I wanted to do, but we needed to remove the handrail first. We found a great contractor to do that for us. He actually used the wood from the old handrail and added it to the left side to extend it all the way up the staircase. That way there was still a handrail for safety (and to meet code), but it wouldn’t take away from the design element. I also knew I wanted to rip up the old carpet and replace the steps with wood treads and white risers for a cleaner look. I can’t wait to show you how everything turned out. Stay tuned for next week when I share the final reveal.

xo, Maria

In collaboration with Metrie.

Shop myinstagram

view all