Big news from the duplex: after a year of planning, several major updates are finally coming together. The right-side living room is painted, trimmed, and already starting to feel like home. We selected Sherwin Williams Spare White for all the walls throughout the duplex — a soft, barely-there gray that provides subtle contrast with Sherwin Williams Extra White trim. That neutral backdrop allows the colorful tile, painted doors, stair risers, and cabinets we’ve chosen to really stand out.
Even in its current, relatively simple state, the living and dining area already shows a huge transformation from when we first walked through the space:
One of the most satisfying surprises: the Chippendale railings we removed from our Richmond porch fit perfectly at the bottom of the stairs in each unit. We opened up the staircases (they were originally fully closed and dark) and now the lower five steps are visually connected to the living area. The reclaimed porch pieces were an ideal match — the bottom curving rails fit exactly, and two straight sections from Richmond will work for the top rails after a few trim adjustments.
Here’s how the staircase looked before the opening — you can see the previous framing and how enclosed the space used to be:
And this is the upstairs view looking down, when the stairs were mostly boxed in. The change to an open stair approach makes the living room feel larger and more connected to the rest of the home.
We may refine the newel posts a bit — for example, swapping the rounded top (what I jokingly call the “hamburger”) for a squarer cap — but those are finishing touches that won’t diminish how much the railings add to the interior. They bring geometry and visual interest without overwhelming the rooms.
At the back of the house we’re also adding a transom above the now-wider doorway into the kitchen. Sean mocked up the transom using two 1×6 boards to check proportions, and we decided the bottom trim should be slightly narrower — changing it to a 1×4 so the glass-to-trim ratio reads better and balances with the side trim. That mock-up helped confirm the look and scale before committing to the finished millwork.
Most of the solid wood five-panel interior doors have been hung, and several have their first coats of paint. The doors, the transom, and the exposed brick chimney in the kitchen combine to give the house a sense of original character — exactly the older-house charm we wanted to restore after years of rental wear and patchwork updates.
The kitchen is temporarily crowded with boxes (they’re bathroom vanities), but the space feels right: a balanced footprint, a wide opening to the dining room, and double pocket doors to the laundry/mudroom. We’ll add a full-height tiled wall and other details — you can read more about our tile choices elsewhere on the project’s timeline.
The pocket door glass is currently covered with protective paper, but the doors already lift the area’s aesthetic. We’ve debated whether to paint or stain these doors: they’re a different base wood than the diamond door nearby, and the kitchen cabinets will be a light blonde wood, so we may paint some doors while staining others to balance the mix of wood and painted accents across both units.
Painting has already started upstairs. On the right-side unit the doors are receiving Sherwin Williams Oyster Bay, a muted gray-blue with a hint of seafoam that reads neutral yet distinctive against the Spare White walls and Extra White trim. On the left-side unit the doors are getting Sherwin Williams White Truffle, a soft muted pink — subtle rather than bright — that will complement the light walls and white trim once all the coats are completed.
We’re scheduled to begin tiling soon, which is a major milestone. After tile, the remaining tasks are floor refinishing, kitchen assembly, light installation, and bathroom vanity installation — all the work that brings a renovation across the finish line. Follow along for more progress updates as these twin units continue to transform from rental shell into thoughtful, character-filled homes. For the project’s full timeline and context, see the duplex category posts and related podcast episodes on our site.