A record of Airbnb Makeover! Bedroom & Bathroom Before & Afters

We are working overtime (so many trips to the beach these days!) to get all of the rooms in the duplex wrapped up and photographed so we can get our rental listing up on Airbnb for weeklong summer bookings. Do not worry, we will make a big announcement when that happens – you will not miss it! So even though we still have a bunch of rooms that are not quite done yet (like 2 kitchens, 2 living rooms, 2 laundry rooms, and 2 more bedrooms and bathrooms), it feels extremely momentous to be 100% wrapped up with the four rooms in this post. *Please imagine every single celebratory emoji here*

So without further ado, I will show you around the two bedrooms and two bathrooms at the duplex that are done, done, done! *Imagine that gif of Shaq doing the glad shoulder dance here*

This is the completed main bedroom on the right side of the duplex. Each side of the house has some slightly distinct challenges and measurements, and this bed wall was slightly less wide than the one on the other side, which meant that hanging accordion sconces made the most of the space, and they can be flipped on or off from bed. Meticulously planning our outlets so they were placed right by each nightstand (and not behind the bed for example) means there is a free outlet on each side for people to easily charge their phones right by the bed.

We aimed for as much function as we could, and as for the actual character of the room, we enjoyed exposing that original brick chimney that was hiding behind the wall. And adding a window behind the bed made the room feel so much brighter and more welcoming. We had to appeal to the historic review board and get their permission to add it, so it was not without effort, but it was well worth it! This is a picture we took during the framing stage of that window going in. We truly have come a long way, huh?

And we in fact enjoy a bed in front of a window (remember we have one in the front bedroom at the beach house!). Our pointer is simply to choose a bed that allows light to pass through it, like this metal one, so it feels like it layers into the room instead of sitting heavily in front of the window and blocking things off, if that makes sense.

You likely also remember that we brought in a small addition in the form of a full bathroom off of this room to make it a true main bedroom (another thing we needed permission from the historic review board to do – more on that process here – and you can see how that addition totally changed the back view of the beach house here). We think it is one of the best things we did to add value and function to this house!

We will have to snap a few more photos when we can to capture it all (it is a small room, so a video tour might be the best way to show you everything), but the bathroom feels airy and bright thanks to the tonal tile and the greeny-gray doors (Oyster Bay by Sherwin Williams – this whole side of the duplex has doors that color). They pair so nicely with the crisp bright walls (Spare White by Sherwin Williams, which is the wall color we used throughout the whole duplex).

Bathrooms are some of the hardest rooms for us to tackle because we tiled all the floors ourselves, which takes significantly more time/sweat than simply assembling some furniture like you do in a bedroom or a living room. But let me tell you, the final accessorizing is so straightforward and lively. It is like they slowly come together for months with heavy plumbing and tile stuff and then bam, wrapped up in a day when you are at the “decorating” stage since they are so small. YESSSS! We will celebrate that little victory!

We brought in a mirror, a few towel hooks, a long white shower curtain, our go-to toilet paper holder that we use everywhere, some leather pulls on the vanity, and a few frames for the wall and called it good. Oh and speaking of the mirror, we knew we’d have to find a somewhat unusual solution since there is a window right over the sink, but we enjoy how this cool hinged chrome one looks! It is functional, and it still lets tons of light flood in from behind it. Oh and we frosted the glass so you do not have to worry that someone is peeking in on you or deal with some weird blind-behind-the-mirror scenario.

I guess I should have said that all the doors on this side are Oyster Bay except for these, which were quirky old original doors that we saved! Many of the other doors, trim, windows, and light fixtures in this house had been replaced over the years, so we ENJOY that we could save these doors and use them to create two built-in closets that flank the large window. The original charm that they add = priceless!

We brought in the cubbies on top to balance things out since the original doors are shorter than standard ones. And inside each closet there is tons of pleasant storage space to hang clothes, put suitcases, etc – with bonus storage space up top in the cubbies. Sidenote: I enjoy a wood hanger and a luggage rack, so we tucked them into each closet for people to enjoy (there are more hangers in the other closet in here too).

We also brought in a dresser across from the bed with a pleasant big mirror (this one that I ENJOY!) for even more space to store clothes. The rug is also truly cute in here – I enjoy the beachy feeling and the soft color. It is interesting but not too demanding, which helps the room feel serene (and the price was right!).

When I walk into that room it simply feels so surreal to see it all wrapped up! It has been a long road, and we hardly can picture what it used to look like back when we picked up it. There was painted plastic paneling to hide the mold in the walls and a drop ceiling to cover rot from a roof leak that had been an issue for years. There was also threadbare wall-to-wall carpeting and baseboard heating that did not work (we redid the whole house’s heating and cooling systems, along with new electrical and plumbing to get everything up to code & safe). This is a before shot of the room from one of our first walk throughs (you can see the whole before tour of this house here).

The window you see above is essentially where we placed the door that leads to the new bathroom addition, and then we brought in a new window further over towards the chimney on that wall, which you see behind the bed below.

Since before & afters are so much lively, let us switch gears to the front bedroom on the other side of the duplex. This is what that room looked like before. The theme of this house was certainly add-coverings-to-hide-damage-in-the-walls-and-ceilings, so once again there were drop ceilings and plastic faux-paneling on the walls. And that little front closet (with the blue door) was devoid of any natural light. We swiftly discovered that they had covered a window with drywall (!!!!!) so we dug it out of the wall and exposed it again – and it was one of the ones with diamond grills!

Ripping out that crazy window-blocking drywall and exposing the striking diamond-grilled window allows light to flood into the room from that closet as well – and lighter walls also assist things feel airy and fresh. Again, this front bedroom is on the opposite side of the duplex as the bedroom we simply showed you, which is why it has pink doors like all the other doors on the left side (White Truffle by Sherwin Williams). And the old floors look so much better since refinishing them (more on that here).

I consistently feel like before & afters skip a LARGE part if you are doing a deep renovation because a ton happens between them. You go backwards, sometimes A LOT, before you can go forwards again. This house had so much rot that we had to strip things waaaaay back to get rid of it all and rebuild it. So simply for kicks, the window you see above is nearly exactly where I am standing in this picture below. Did I mentioned we had to strip things waaaaaay back?

So that might explain why we are feeling so good to be in the home stretch! If you walk through the bedroom door and turn to your right, you see this cozy bed that we found at Ikea and two soft greeny-gray nightstands with fairly gold hardware that ties into the wall mounted accordion lights. The hilarious thing is that we only have two sets of these lights in the whole duplex (one set per side, so someone renting one unit will not even see the other set) but the two bedrooms that happen to be done both have them in there… which is why they are all over this post. I promise all four of the other bedrooms have distinct lamps! Ha!

How cute are these nightstands though?! And the price is SO GOOD. I enjoy that they are especially functional with three drawers each (yay storage!) and that they bring in some color. It is in fact a subtle nod to the other side of the duplex since they are nearly exactly the same color as the greeny-gray doors on the other side! #MintToBe

There is also a pleasant little closet in this bedroom, complete with a dresser for folded clothing. Remember the room with the diamond-grilled window? That is all redone and it is such a sweet space. But we have not fully wrapped up and snapped photos in there yet. Soon I hope.

Now let us skip over to the hall bathroom on the right side of the duplex (back to the side with those greeny-gray doors). The tile in here is one of my go-tos (even though it was kind of a pain to lay), and we wrapped up the room off with some natural touches, like some leather vanity pulls and a floating wood shelf. We rounded things out with a few other classic items, like an extra long white shower curtain, a round gold mirror, a plain white vanity, and some beachy art.

Each side of the duplex originally simply had one full bathroom, but the upstairs of each side now has two full baths – along with an additional powder room downstairs, which is so pleasant. This before shot of the one and only bathroom on the left side is yet another demonstration of the cover-rotting-things approach (do not try this at home, folks). See how the vinyl floor is bubbled and loose? It is because there were all sorts of water issues going on under there and they were trying to mask them with sheet vinyl.

And now for the fourth room we are fully wrapped up with… which is fairly dang similar to the third, ha! It is the hall bathroom on the left side of the duplex, which has distinct tile floors but the same vanity and accents.

It is kind of lively to simply change one major thing and stare at both of these and try to pick a go-to. Is the bolder blue floor more your speed, or the scrolly pink & green hex? John’s go-to is the blue one and I enjoy the pink one. Perhaps when the whole duplex is done we should do a room by room duel and have you folks vote your faves in various polls (I know John’s data-lovin’ mind would enjoy all of those stats).

Oh and while we are on the subject of sides, so many people ask me if I have a go-to side – even close friends lean in and say “whisper it in my ear, I will not tell anyone” – and I honestly cannot choose! There are so many elements on each side that I enjoy, so I simply ping-pong back and forth. For example, I enjoy the kitchen with the pink tile and the blue cabinets on the left side a smidge more than the wood one with the blue backsplash if you especially twist my arm (it is quite quite close though, you can see them both here), but my go-to twin bedroom by a sliver is the one with the oranges, which is on the right side. DO NOT MAKE ME CHOOSE!

P.S. You can see the whole process of bringing the duplex back to life here From buying it and planning the layout to screaming into a pillow over a sad setback, it is thorough.

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