The Renovation Report: Coastal Colors & Flooring

After a very long hiatus, I'm back! The renovation on the beach house is almost complete, so I'll start posting pics and tutorials documenting the entire process. I found that while I was actually in the midst of the renovations, I had no time to post about it. Now that things have settled down, I'd like to get back to it.

Just to recap--this was a complete renovation of a 1600 square foot 3 bedroom 2 bathroom vacation home in South County Rhode Island. The house had been built around 1980 and had never (apparently) been updated. It was complete with the original kitchen with disintegrating cabinets and nonworking appliances, chocolate brown bathtub, original wall-to-wall carpeting, and wallpaper--lots and lots of wallpaper. Step one was getting rid of all the carpeting (including the wall-to-wall in one of the bathrooms) and wallpaper. The next step was choosing the new backgrounds: paint and flooring.

For paint colors, I focused on gray-green-blue colors. Because the house has an open plan, I wanted the colors to flow nicely while still defining individual spaces. The trim was painted white throughout. All of the paint is Benjamin Moore.

1 Palladian Blue (Entry & Mudroom) 2 Gray Owl (Kitchen) 3 Horizon (Great Room) 4 Sea Foam (Downstairs Bedroom & Bath) 5 Super White (Trim) 6 Woodlawn Blue (Master Bedroom) 7 Wickham Gray (Upstairs Bath) 8 November Rain (Upstairs Bedroom)

On to flooring. After considering many different options, I decided to go with a laminate flooring throughout (except the bathrooms and the entryway). Keeping the open plan in mind, I wanted continuity with the flooring. It's also a beach house. I didn't want to have to worry about wood floors getting ruined by sand. I wanted my family and friends (and pets) to be able to kick back and live in the house without anything being too precious or delicate.

The flooring I chose is called Reclaimed Chestnut by Bruce Flooring. It's a a very thick laminate (12mm) and my contractor was amazed at how sturdy it was. He said he tried to bang up a piece of it with a hammer and then a screw driver, and there wasn't a scratch. It's now been installed for almost two years and it looks brand new. In terms of appearance, I wanted something with gray tones to go along with the rest of the color scheme. When I saw it all together, I was thrilled! Here's a sneak peek of the kitchen to give you an idea.

I'll be back soon with before and afters of the entire project.