After losing five different home offers, we finally got lucky with our fixer-upper in Old Sherwood. I remember seeing the bay windows in the living room and instantly knowing this was home. Over the past three years, Myers and I have worked our way through renovation after renovation - plus welcomed our first baby. I thought it would be fun to highlight some of our projects here.
Our first project: we set out to remove the yellow paint in the master bedroom. This led to Myers removing all of the trim and replacing the trim with craftsman style molding.
Paint: Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee
Our next project: removing the hallway wallpaper. Not pictured: the adjacent hallway with raised velvet wallpaper. DIF Wallpaper removal to the rescue. Myers carried out the craftsman style trim in the hallway and we replaced all the interior doors with solid red oak shaker style doors.
Paint: Benjamin Moore Swiss Coffee
After removing all of the wallpaper, we took a break from house projects and focused on a family one instead. We milled down pecan lumber grown and cut on Myers’ family property, then used it to make barn quilts for Christmas gifts. Creating something meaningful from family wood, with our own hands, made this project incredibly special. We loved working on it together.
This was our first house, and we had no idea what we were supposed to do—or not do—during the closing process. We moved fast, fueled by the excitement of finally having an offer accepted. Then move‑in day arrived, and we realized you couldn’t fit a sofa through a single doorway. Three different entrances, and not one of them worked. We tried them all, multiple times, over multiple days.
So we lived for a year with just two oversized lounge chairs in our living room. I begged Myers to cut out the dining room bay window and add a deck with French doors. He drew up a beautiful CAD plan, and after one long, hot summer, we finally had both a deck and a sofa.
The long, hot summer pushed us to finally renovate the blue bedroom before our first baby was due to arrive in April. Harvey’s bedroom began as a blue space with wallpaper trim instead of crown molding and a dated blue carpet. We’ve heard the original owner raised three boys here, which makes the transformation feel even more special. I wanted to shift the room towards something warmer and more outdoorsy - a room that reflects the pieces of Myers and me that mean the most. In the end, I think it turned out beautifully.
Paint: Benjamin Moore Saybrook Sage
Chair: Crate + Barrel
Crib: Nestig
Photography: Natalie Ray (Images from our newborn session)
Art: Sarah Robinson (Tuna Fish Linocut) + Sam Larson (Cowgirl Yellow Lab).
And then came our hall bathroom. The wallpaper was peeling from years of steam buildup (and an over-eager home owner), the shower insert was dated, and the blue tile had definitely lived a full life - chipped, worn and ready for retirement. We decided to honor the legacy of the blue tile and of course, no one will ever forget: Alice’s birdcage. May it live forever in the Landis household.