We are in the final stages of my sister’s apartment renovation! Yay! Since we decided to tackle all of the labor ourselves it’s been a long road! The building board has rules for when works gets done so, we can’t make noise on the weekends. Which means we have been squeezing in quiet work at night and on weekends and then Jon has been taking days off for work when we have loud work to do. It’s been exhausting. Lots of dragging in tools and supplies from our house into the city and vice versa. Last Friday we worked a full day and got home around midnight. The only bright spot is that are now 90% finished! I’m heading into the city this week to do some grouting and get that number even closer to 100%.

Here is where we last left things off! Make sure you head over to that post to see the before shots of the kitchen.

Here is what we have done since then:
-Hung beautiful wallpaper Wallpaper from Shop Lo Home
-Painted the rest of the apartment. Walls, Ceiling, Doors and Trims. Seems like an easy feat, but it was long and exhausting.
-Cut tiles, laid and mortared tiles and sealed tiles in Kitchen. Still need to grout.
-Added new outlet and switch covers to everything.
-Took out many, many, many bags of trash.
-Installed hardware in kitchen.
-Installed all of the appliances: microwave, stove, dishwasher and sink. Waiting for grouting to be done before rolling refrigerator into place.
-Countertops were measured, picked out and installed. Installation was done by professionals, but it was an intense process as well.
-All lighting fixtures were switched out.
-Drapery has been installed.
-Apt has been cleaned! We had put down Ram board to protect the floors, which did their job, but removing the board and the tape that you use to install it was a nightmare! We spent hours removing the tape.

I was able to snap some photos on Friday night to share the progress with you all:

We added the prettiest brass hardware and instead of mixing it up with knobs and pulls I went all in with the pulls! I think using all pulls gives it a higher end look. Something little you can do when working with ready made cabinets.

We also went all out with the backsplash. It was such a small space that we had the budget to go with a higher end backsplash. This one is a combo of marble and brass. It has it’s pros and cons. Pro: Best of the brass inserts you don’t need grout, which is nice. Con: You can get most of it up as sheets, but then you will have little areas that will literally be you making a mosaic and getting those single little half pieces of marble into place.

The kitchen now opens up to a living room/dining room area. This area got a fresh coat of paint and high hats put into place. This area was also where all of that ram board. I was on the floor for hours on Friday getting all of that tape off and everything cleaned up, but it was worth it to get the rug down!

This rug is stunning. We were able to get the 8 x 10 size and it fits the space nicely and designates it as the living room area.

We are also pretty obsessed with the drapery! I went custom here and got the beautiful pineapple print fabric from a local designer! Paula is the designer behind Casa by PC and this amazing fabric is called, Anana. This give the space this perfect touch of whimsy, but the linen and pinch pleat finish to them shows off how stylish and fabulous they are.

In the bedroom we did a little clean up. My sister had left for a trip before hand and there were clothes everywhere! I had to put everything away and even organized her linen closet and vanity area. Her Floralie wallpaper from Shop Lo Home had already made quite an impact, but I wanted to go a little wilder. Florals can sometimes come off too sweet. My sister is sweet, but she is also edgy! We went bold with the drapery in here and got the prettiest yellow curtain panels for the bedroom!

I need four curtain panels for this room so, I wanted to get something more budget friendly, which meant ready made. I found the perfect panels at Target. In their Pillowfort collection they have twill blackout curtain panels in a rainbow selection of colors! They are back tab panel, which I love. They give you a nice fold, but you can also buy ring clips and clip them on if you like. They are also available in 95″ which is what I needed for this space. I hate panels that are way too short.

It’s all coming together and this week I’m finalizing some artwork pieces for the apartment along with figuring out what we are going to do with the dining area! I’m working with a vintage piece that I want to update a bit for it’s new life!