I said in the “Meet the Cherry Lane” post that I wanted to go in a slightly different direction with this house, and that’s because it’s a different architectural style than I have dealt with thus far. Bear with me here.
In central Oklahoma the majority of our homes are ranch style. The homes that you see being remodeled on Fixer Upper are almost identical to many of the homes in our region. White cabinets and shiplap walls and subway tile is fitting for ranch style homes. Thanks to Joanna Gaines, they go together like peanut butter and jelly.
At first glance the Cherry Lane house could pass for ranch style with its long, low exterior profile and its internal layout. But something about it kept giving me pause. The combination of the arches and the white exterior… something about it looked almost… Mediterranean. Stick with me. Can ranch style homes have arched windows? Yes, absolutely. But the white brick with the squished mortar gives off a stucco-esque vibe, and that, along with the repetition of the arches inside and outside… it finally hit me. Guys, this was a ranch style house that went to visit its cool older cousin in Southern California and came home Spanish revival inspired. The house equivalent of getting a single ear piercing or a tattoo.
Check out these Spanish modern or Spanish revival style homes. (These are obviously not my images. They’re from google. I am just a brand new baby blogger and do not know how to source my images yet. Feel sorry for me.)
I dropped Cherry Lane there at the end. You thought she was one of the Spanish Mod inspo photos for a sec, didn’t you?
Now check out these moody interiors that are giving me all the inspiration alongside some shots of Cherry Lane so you can get a feel for where it’s headed:
Below: living room inspiration- arched windows, focal point fireplace, dark ceiling beams, large open archway to the kitchen, Below that: Cherry Lane
Can you see it???
Can you picture my darling Cherry Lane in these homes if you squint?? I didn’t even have to squint. I had made up my mind. We live in suburban Oklahoma- I am aware that we were untouched by the Spanish revival, save for some pockets of older neighborhoods in Oklahoma City- so I know that by all definitions, this home is not a true Spanish revival home, EVERYONE CHILL, but the inspiration is there. Someone involved with the design of this home was inspired by Spanish revival or Mediterranean style, and I was not about to smear the walls with shiplap and deny this home its true heritage.
It was a home out of place- a square peg in a round hole- and though I was already in full blown love I fell a little deeper, infatuated with this beauty who dared to step outside of the box and be her own self.
So now that I had put my finger on it, where was I to go from here?
I had already ordered the flooring for the house before I had this epiphany and wasn’t able to change it, otherwise I would have gone with a dark wood flooring. I wanted badly to do dark trim-work throughout the house, but I couldn’t afford what it would take to replace and stain all of the trim.
So, locked in with light flooring and white trim-work, I searched for other ways to highlight Spanish style influences for this home. I couldn’t go full blown Spanish modern convert with terra-cotta tiles and a crazy-town Mediterranean tiled kitchen backsplash, because, hi, I still had to sell this house in suburban Oklahoma. How could I subtly and tastefully incorporate some design features that reflected my Spanish inspiration? I decided that I would focus my efforts on the master bathroom and the kitchen.
MASTER BATHROOM PLANS
I would do a patterned black and white tiled master bath floor. As luck would have it, patterned “cement” tile floors (I would use porcelain to avoid the scratch happy headache that comes with true cement floors) have come into popularity in recent years so this choice shouldn’t be off-putting or look out of place to potential buyers. They’re Mediterranean influenced without many people even realizing it. Sneaky. And the big kicker for the master bath: I found these AMAZING Mediterranean style mirrors to go over the vanities. In Emeril fashion I just shouted BAM!
Look at this in progress shot of the master bathroom coming together.
SHUT YOUR MOUTH. I’m talking to myself here. No really, shut your gaping, drooling mouth, Courtney, you look like a fool.
KITCHEN PLANS
The kitchen is the heart and soul of the home. Spanish style homes highlight this fact by playing up the backsplash. They scream at you: look at me! I am kitchen, hear me roar! So I knew that I wanted to do something big with this kitchen. I was really really nervous to take the risk, because, again- hi- I have to sell these houses; they’re not just for funsies. But ultimately I decided that I was going to really go for it. The main focus would be a loosely Mediterranean inspired backsplash. I did not have the budget for real Spanish tile, and again, it would look ridiculous and out of place here in our region. I found this extremely affordable tile at my new favorite store, Floor and Decor (all the heart eyes. If Kevin and I ever renew our vows I will demand that it take place here, in the glass tile aisle).
Here is an in-progress shot of the kitchen. The new countertops, backsplash, and sink are installed, and I’ve painted samples of my paint choices on the cabinet doors (which I would be replacing with simple, Shaker style doors).
I chose this loosely Mediteranean-inspired tile for the backsplash, and to keep it modern and cool I decided to paint the upper cabinets white and the lower cabinets a dark, rich gray (Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze- this is labelled option B in the image above). I debated back and forth on whether to embrace this two-tone look or to just do lighter gray uppers and lowers (labelled option A in the image above). Of course Negib had an opinion on this that differed from my own initially, but in the end- after I had paint samples up on the cabinets- he wound up encouraging me to take the risk and do the two toned kitchen.
Additionally, I planned to hang two floating shelves in the space where I had removed the bank of upper cabinets. They would be cedar and stained a light to medium neutral color. They, along with a cool, sleek stainless steel vent hood, would serve as a reminder that the space is modern and cool, not a frumpy old grandma kitchen with a weird patterned backsplash.
I would keep the cabinet hardware and light fixtures in the room very simple. The room was going to be pretty busy and I didn’t want to visually overwhelm it with another focal point.
LIVING ROOM PLANS
Moving into the living room I planned to once again play up my Spanish influences by first returning the ceiling beams to a dark color, and also by highlighting that amazing arched fireplace. How amazing is this arched fireplace, by the way??? IN LOVE. Feel my pulse. It’s off the charts.
Check out these Spanish Modern fireplace influences, again from Google:
I love the fireplace so much already I can’t imagine how I could fall deeper. But just wait until you see her paired with a beefcake mantel. Yum.
EXTERIOR PLANS
As for the exterior of the house I planned to repaint the brick and mortar. The “white” was looking pretty rough and off-white and dingy. No amount of power washing could make it pretty again.
The green trim would be painted dark: Sherwin Williams Urbane Bronze. I found an amazing front door with an inset arched glass panel that would tie into all of the arching goodness that the house had to offer.
Can you see it???
Do you feel all of the Spanish vibes that I am vibing your way? Or do you feel nervous for me, like it’s going to turn out like a kindergartener’s art interpretation of a lion-zebra with a turtle head? I suppose you will have to wait and see. Stay tuned next week for the reveal. Fingers crossed that this old gal accidentally gets it right on this one 🤞🏻
This house and I are in love. I love it fiercely, and I know it’s true love because I loved her before her big She’s All That-style makeover. Before she ripped off her nerd glasses and her dirty painter’s smock. This isn’t a looks based love- I love her bones and her soul. It was a love at first sight kind of love, even when she looked a little worse for the wear.
Look at her. If she were a person she’d be Meryl Streep, no doubt. She’s got an air of maturity. She’s confident, classic. She doesn’t need gimmicks or trends. I mean look at her for just a hot minute and try not to blush. Insert catcall. She turns coyly. “Oh, who me?” Minx.
The white brick with that squished mortar. Those arches. I’m normally a clean lines kinda girl, but those arches are doing it for me. And… there are more inside. Come, let me show you.
But First, Some Backstory
I bought her at an online auction. It was my second house to buy in this fashion, and it’s safe to say that I still don’t fully understand how these online auctions work. On the technical side of things, when I bid is an actual human being bidding against me, or is the bank auto bidding back until they reach their reserve? I don’t know, but I did know that the rule was once again in place that you were not allowed to enter the home before purchase.
Full disclosure, because we’re friends: I entered the home. Because fool me once… (I’m looking at you, Magnolia House) Cockroach style, I circled around and around and around the house looking to gain entry until, at last, I found an unlocked window with a broken screen. It was five feet off the ground, but, I was getting in that house, SO HELP ME. It was after church (I know, breaking and entering on the Lord’s day- don’t think that either the irony or the shame has escaped me) and with the boys in the truck I begged Kevin to give me a boost. Very much a rule follower, he wanted no part of my breaking and entering, but alas, it just happened to be Mother’s Day, so as ruling Queen of the Day, I commanded a boost, and he was forced to oblige. He boosted me, and I climbed the rest of the way up and shimmied my way in through the window, while he high tailed it out of dodge so that both parents wouldn’t be hauled away to jail when the cops were inevitably called.
It was love at first five foot drop. The minute I landed on the inside of the house I fell in love.
I had drop landed in a bedroom.
Peering through the windows, before breaking and entering, I had thought that maybe I had won the lottery and gotten salvageable wood-ish floors, but that was immediately proven not to be the case. Inside it was obvious that the cheap laminate floors were in terrible condition . Peeling, chunks missing, planks coming up. They would obviously need to go. But as I walked through the house I didn’t care about any of that. I was too busy falling madly in love. The second I rounded the corner and entered the living room I knew that I would stop at nothing to get this house.
LIVING ROOM
Look at the repeating arch theme. LOOK AT IT. Oh Meryl, the things you do to me. I was in love with the arching fireplace. The brick columns. The archway to the kitchen. The beams (rudely painted white, but don’t worry- not for long). All the light. It is just flooded with natural light from the arched entry window to the patio door and flanking sidelights (the sidelights open, btw. Precious.)
Imagine that arched fireplace with a mantel over it. And imagine the built-in shelf modernized. I planned to add canned lighting and a modern ceiling fan. I would do light floors, picture an ashy Oak color. Heart eyes. I would paint the woodwork white (only because the woodwork was so dated. I think dark wood trim would look amazing in this house, but the graining and style of all of the woodwork screamed 70’s cheap), the walls I would paint gray, and the ceiling beams would become wood colored again.
The little pony walls chopping up the arch to the kitchen would come out, obvi (regards them with disgust).
KITCHEN AND DINING
The kitchen and dining layout was great. I loved the spot for the dining table in front of the huge window looking into the big, (what would be) beautiful backyard.
In the kitchen, the bank of upper cabinets over the peninsula would come out, and some pretty, globed pendant lights would go in above the bar. I knew that I wanted to do something a little different with this kitchen, (this was not meant to be an all white cabinet-ed, subway tiled kitchen, friends) I just wasn’t sure what yet.
HALL BATH
The hall bath is a Jack-and-Jill set between the two guest bedrooms, but with access to the hallway. And let me tell you, it was rough. Really in pretty terrible shape, actually. The only thing that I planned to salvage was the tub. Everything else hurt my eyeballs and my nose hairs and would be gutted and replaced with new. Please make haste and empty thyself, room.
MASTER BED AND BATH
GAHHHHHHHHH. I cannot stop buying bedathrooms. [Bangs head against wall] WHHHYYYYYY?! Have mercy on my ever loving soul, I swear to you, I do not secretly love them. I publicly loathe them. They just seem to be present in every single home that I buy. Which I suppose is a good thing because this brings me one step closer to my goal of eradicating them from the planet altogether. But OMG, if I have to stare into the soul of one more bedathroom, guys… So help me.
My plan in this room was obviously to make it into two distinct rooms, AS IT SHOULD ALWAYS HAVE BEEN.
I would also rip up all of the nasty floors and paint everything and do some really cool bathroom tile.
BEDROOMS 2 AND 3
The two guest bedrooms were really great spaces look how beautiful that front bedroom is with that huge arched window. The light in this room is just amazing. I would so call dibs on this room.
All of the flooring would be ripped up in these rooms and they would be painted a nice neutral color with white trim and some nice modern ceiling fans. Easy as pie.
THE BACKYARD AND POOL
The backyard is huge. The neighborhood is one of those nice, quiet, older neighborhoods where the houses sit back off the road a little on oversized lots. The homes and yards have all been well maintained. It’s pretty dreamy, and though this yard won’t be earning Yard of the Month in its current state, it has great potential to one day. In fact, it has all the potential under the sun.
This was my first time to delve in a pool on a remodel… and all of the troubles that come along with it. I mentally set aside a hefty chunk of my budget in preparation to repair this in-ground potential beauty with attached spa. Not pictured: all the tadpoles of the earth. A plague of tadpoles. (Side note: on a Bring Your Kids to Work Tuesday I had my boys with me, and my oldest fell into the tadpole infested cesspool, and I fretted for days over imminent death by cess-pool related dysentery. The fear was real, but thankfully he’s licked grosser things so ultimately he lived.)
The siding around the back window was all rotted out and would need to be completely replaced. The porch sagged in a couple of places and would need two posts set to lift it once again.
The yard would need a good deal of tree and vine clean up and the fence needed repair, but I had a solid vision of shining this penny up again.
I CAN’T WAIT TO MAKE HER PRETTY
So as I said, I was in love.
And so, as a result of that fierce love, I overpaid for her slightly. And by overpaid, I mean that I paid about $10,000 more than what I absolutely, firmly said, “I will not pay over X for this house. I just won’t do it!” [cringe] But like I said, I was a mad woman. Crazed. Fevered. I would stop at nothing to get this house. And even with paying more than I wanted, there was still plenty of room in the budget to make this house very very worthwhile…. right?? [She said nervously, trying to convince herself] This house was a great flip choice… if I can bear to part with it when the time comes. No, just stop. I can’t think about parting with her yet. 😭