" By doing it ourselves, we saved a lot of money.”

DIY REMODEL

It can be overwhelming to tackle a remodel on your own, but Kaycie has a background in interior design, which gave her the confidence she needed. Not only did she graduate from the Interior Designers Institute, she also opened up a brick-and-mortar shop that sold home décor and furnishings. “I designed homes as an extension of the retail business, but after I had my second daughter, I turned to influencing, and that takes up all my time now,” she says. The goal of this new build remodel was to replace the builder-grade features with materials that speak to Kaycie’s preferred boho farmhouse style. “We ripped out the carpet on the main floor and replaced it with wood laminate, we created a mudroom out of a hallway and we completely stripped the primary bathroom, keeping only the original footprint,” she says.

Along with replacing the lackluster builder-grade materials, Kaycie and her husband James also enjoy DIY furniture projects. They designed custom cabinets in their sunroom out of IKEA bookshelves, turned a TV console into a sideboard, installed faux wood beams onto their living room ceiling and even built a fireplace in their bedroom. “By doing it ourselves, we saved a lot of money,” Kaycie says.

Hollowed-out wood beams give the look of genuine ceiling beams in the living room without the weight and cost. “It was an easy DIY project,” says Kaycie. “We ordered them already manufactured, then we stained them and installed them on our own.” The art on the wall was a DIY as well.

The original basic kitchen underwent a transformation, but Kaycie and James tried to work with what they had when POSSIBLE. “WE HAD A PAINTER REfiNISH the cabinets,” she says. “They were an Off-WHITE WITH A YELLOW/BROWN GLAZE, AND we wanted them to look more modern and streamlined.” They replaced the GRANITE COUNTERTOPS WITH WHITE QUARTZ and added a farmhouse sink, subway tile backsplash, pendant lights and a wallpaper accent. “With the bright white cabinets and backsplash, I wanted a way to complement the color we painted the island and break up all that white,” says Kaycie. “The wallpaper did that.”

The sunroom features unlined woven shades to help light filter in. “We chose not to put lining on them, because there isn’t a privacy issue in this room,” says Kaycie. The black corner cabinets were a DIY IKEA hack. “I designed them to look like an $1,800 cabinet I had seen online, but the materials only cost $200 each,” she says.