Before and After – Renovation Ellen Avenue Hillcrest

by | Jan 20, 2023 | North Shore

When stepping into Ellen Avenue Hillcrest, you could be forgiven for thinking that you had fallen through a time warp.

Tones of peach, orange, yellow and brown set the scene throughout this house. It had been some time since any updates had been made and time had not been kind to this solid little building.

Maintain To Profit was brought on board to see what could be done to make this house a welcoming, enjoyable home.

We think the before and after shots showcase the transformation perfectly.

The Lounge

Orange. The lounge was orange. From the wallpaper to the carpet and the time-worn ceilings – this room needed a makeover! Maintain To Profit stripped the wallpaper off the walls and prepped them for painting, filling any dents and sanding before painting the walls and ceiling white. Because this room was not a large space, having white walls and ceilings instead of contrasting walls and ceiling invite light into the room.

The orange carpet you see in the lounge was throughout the house. It was dated, worn, and quite unsightly. This carpet (and color!) was removed and a new soft, hard-wearing carpet was re-laid in a very muted grey tone. Keeping muted colors in a home allows your color scheme to last almost forever and you can give your home its own personalized touch by using pops of color in your furniture and décor. In the long run, it is a much cheaper way of staying close to the current trends than having to completely redecorate.

The Master Bedroom

The master bedroom is now viewed as a place of retreat, a place of reflection, and a place of a luxury. Having a bright orange carpet and worn apricot walls with contrasting curtains and an old bedraggled lampshade hanging from the ceiling hardly screams “Sanctuary”!

So, in keeping with the chosen new color palette we installed the muted grey carpet and painted the walls white. The owner can now choose window treatments to compliment their bedding and furniture and bring in some added luxury to the room. With a well-selected light fitting this clean, the newly refurbished room can be the sanctuary you need at the end of the day.

The Kitchen

The kitchen in this home was wide and spacious – but with little to no practicality. The vinyl flooring was well past its use-by date. The walls were grimy with years of food grease build-up and dust and the workspace was next to none. Most families today – even single people! – need more than 2 cupboard spaces in a kitchen!

When you have a large space it makes it easier to come up with good plans to utilize the space and make it an enjoyable living area.

The new kitchen made use of the space available and has provided any would-be cook plenty of bench space. Instead of installing a new freestanding oven, we went with a ceramic cooktop and an under-bench oven. This allows the cooktop to double as bench space when it is not in use. A brand new air extractor was installed above the oven to remove cooking odors and fats and moisture created when cooking and this will help ensure the newly painted walls remain clean in the future.

A white and light grey marble tone to the kitchen benches helps tie the kitchen to the rest of the home’s color scheme. With new heavy vinyl installed in the kitchen area, the flooring will last for years to come. There are no worn patches or cracks in this flooring now!

Instead of just having cupboards and drawers at hip level in this kitchen, we utilized the wall space available and added extra cupboards along the wall for those kitchen items you may not use all the time or things you don’t want children to reach.

The Bathroom

The bathroom in this house was reminiscent of an old hostel. There was nothing about it that was very inviting or practical. Maybe in years gone by but certainly not by today’s standards. The peach walls, the shower curtains instead of the enclosed shower, and the fluorescent lights were all from a long-gone era.

Instead of having the shower by the window, where water could accumulate in the window frame and cause large damage to the structure of the home if left for periods of time, we moved the shower closer to the door. This allowed enough space in the corner for us to install a new vanity including cupboards and drawers for storage. A new toilet system was installed that is compact and sleek. No longer do you have to see long pipelines along the walls.

New flooring was installed – using the same heavy-wearing vinyl that was installed in the kitchen and the room has a hard-wearing flooring that is water-resistant yet modern.

A fresh coat of paint and the home renovation were complete.

A complete transformation – a miracle of sorts between before and after photos.