When a couple with two sons purchased this 100-year-old New Jersey farmhouse, they knew it would make the perfect family home — with a little bit of TLC. Some of its less charming features: knotty pine paneling all over, a drop ceiling in the living room, dark cabinets and a non-working fireplace in the kitchen, and a master bedroom with a ceiling barely 7 feet high.
To transform their home, they turned to architect Andrew Mikhael, who they found through The Sweeten, a resource that connects New York-area homeowners with architects, designers, and contractors. Mikhael masterminded a full-house gut remodel, including rearranging some of the elements of the floor plan to suit a modern family.
Throughout the house, vinyl floors were replaced with wood, finished to match the original wood floors. In the living room, light blue walls and new built-ins make the room lighter and airier. The kitchen was completely gutted and the fireplace removed. The window seen in the 'before' pictures was replaced with a sliding door to the backyard, connecting indoors and out, and new white cabinets and subway tile echo the lightness of the living room.
The most dramatic transformation, though, was reserved for the master bedroom, where the ceiling was raised a full foot and a half -- just enough for a chandelier.
To see more photos and read more about the project, visit the project page on The Sweeten. You can also check out The Sweeten for even more before and afters.
(Images: Andrew Mikhael via The Sweeten)
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Amaze. Love it!
Beautiful! (and thank you for taking befores and afters from the same angle!)
That is amazing! Curious about the budget for something like this. I love those floor to ceiling windows. Wish there was an exterior shot - curious what it looks like on the outside!
Wow! And I COMPLETELY agree with Tiffany about the before/afters! Makes it so much easier to compare and be amazed at the transformation!
Gorgeous!!!!!
I really like the lattice work on the window of the door in the kitchen in the before shot but the after shot of the entire space is just WOW....!!!!!!!
Great job, and I wish I knew why the direction of the grain on the island top bothers me.
I'm curious about budget, too (for reno, not decor). Very lovely home you have made!
Is this the same house?Why wax poetically about it being a 100 year old farm house then tear out most of what makes it what it is, an old farmhouse. Did they re-sell that knotty pine that was torn out? However, I commend them for re using an old house instead of using more land to build new. Guess I'm the poetic one that likes to restore and reuse.
beautiful
I live in an apartment in Maine that has the type of knotty wood paneling in the living room and study areas. I have grown to love this paneling. Having seen what my landlord has done with fixing up other apartments in my building I told him I wanted to redo certain things on my own. The living room had orange carpeting which I pulled out my plan is to put in deep green carpeting. In other words I will have a tree house living room. At present I am attempting to have my landlord pay for at least part of the carpeting.
What I just wrote ties into some of the other comments posted here. Overall I like what I see with this house remake over. If you have the money and can spend it I see no problem with doing so. However some of us are on very tight budgets. The other factor for me is I am living in an apartment which I have living for 7 plus years. I want and need to freshen up and redo keeping in mind that this is an apartment.
Beautiful. What happened to the knotty pine? I hope some of the materials taken from the home were given to be used somewhere else. Anyway, this is nice, but I live in an apartment. I would like to see more realistic apartment makeovers.
I completely agree with opening up the drop ceiling, but I gotta say I miss the knotty pine. If this were my house I'd try to find a way to stick with it in a fun way. And to be fair, the updated decor is simply not my style and that's a personal thing, but I kind of agree that although the house is now "beautiful" it's not interesting anymore.
Great job. It's very helpful to see the B&A photos from the same angles.
I'm pretty sure the knotty pine and the outdated kitchen cabinets were not original to the 100 year old home. They were probably installed sometime between the 40s and 50s. I think the work is beautiful!
It bothers me because it's vertical while the counter top grain is horizontal. Is that why it bothers you?
This is a wonderful renovation. Those floors are really beautiful and I love the kitchen.
Hi Epona: I'm in CA and the landlords are to replace/clean carpets and drapes every 5 years. Just an FYI so you don't put too much money into your rental. But I do understand 'making it your own'. When I rented, I had a wonderful landlord; he paid for the supplies, I provided the labor.
So? That vinyl isn't 100 years old, either. Neither is the kitchen or the wallpaper in that master bedroom. Just because people make updates and renovations doesn't mean the 100 year old farmhouse isn't still a 100 year old farmhouse. In fact, it's probably not even connected to a farm anymore and yet it's still a farmhouse.
oh my!
Beautiful!
Ah-mazing! What a fantastic job. Though I do hope some of those original doors (including the fabulous latticework one in the kitchen) were re-used elsewhere in the house. Good design can be had while respecting the historical aspects of a home.
Does anyone know where that huge tufted ottoman/coffee table came from? Must have.
You're probably right, although my eyes are not that good! Having to think about it, it may be that I don't like the the grain running with the short side of the island.
Wow, what a transformation! The flooring choices and raising the bedroom ceiling are so very smart. I like that some elements of the old house were kept. If this were my house (I wish!) I would have been tempted to keep or put more older architectural elements into the remodel. The only thing I would have done completely different is to not put in the overhead recessed lighting (a personal preference to be sure).
I esp. love the bedroom transformation!!!
I don't think that WOW is enough! Great job :)
What a B & A transformation! Love it..well done!!
It is my dream to buy an old house and renovate...drool...
Looks great! I love the dark floors in the living room. I have recessed lighting in my entire house. Even though it isn't the cutest thing or true to its age, like this house, I honestly don't know how people live without it. I never will again. Besides, when you have big windows to look out or decor as lovely as this, no one will be looking at the ceiling.
This is a gorgeous transformation!! Very well done indeed. The colors and furniture accent the home so well. It still has the feel of the farmhouse but brought up to date. Wish I lived there!!
It's a lovely home. Now it looks like every other renovated home.
WOW. That's a fabulous house :) Love the bright kitchen
I love everything about this renovation! Beautiful, right down to the furnishings. I want to see more - especially that room off the kitchen that shows dark walls and gold window treatments.
I can't believe it is the same place!
WOW!!
You make a very valid point! Thank you for saying so. It's great to maintain charming heritage features, but in this case, it doesn't really look like there was much left of the original farmhouse interior anyway. This is a lovely restoration!
My sentiments exactly! How can you teven tell its a 100 year old farmhouse? Certainly hope they donated the knotty pine and other 100 year old features to the ReStore for someone else to use and not throwing more perfectly good stuff into the landfills.
There's a great show on a certain house channel called, "You live in what?"..these visionaries take incredibly deteriorated historic buildings, saving them from demolition and developers and restoring them for their homes...they have a great respect for those who came before them who built these & the history of the place. They salvage as much of the buildings & features as they can..it is very inspiring, especially since the homeowners do the majority of the work themselves.
I think it looks fabulous. I can't believe people are sad to see the knotty pine go--notice how the pine trim matched up with the drop ceiling? 100 years old? I don't think so! It looks like somebody tore out all of the original elements decades ago. This place needed a gut job. Good for them for giving new life to a shabby old house.
SOOOOOOOOO much paneling!! ARGH! Club basement heaven!
That's a GREAT re-do! I'm a fan of the new colors, and I especially am entranced by those fab stripey LR curtains.
OMFG!!!! Amazing transformation. I love it and very cool to see them side by side even though they totally feel like different houses. Just very inspiring to see this kind of work. I know it was not easy, cheap and fast — it all paid off. Congrats and pat on the backs!
I'm continually astounded by the people who post rude comments on this site about other people's homes. Whatever happend to, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all?"
I think the owners of this house have a right to rennovate it however they want, regardless of other peoples' opinions. And personally, I think they did a great job. The knotty pine, ugly and unsalvageable bedroom wallpaper, icky parquet floor weren't doing this house any favors whatsoever. They were NOT original to the house (MAYBE the wallpaper was--hard to tell, but regardless, it was SHOT), and even if they had been, oh well. Bottom line is that the homeowners can do whatever they want to their own home. I think that their rennovation is much more "in spirit" with the house than the "before." They remodeled tastefully, and in a traditional classic style. Times change and evolve, and there's no reason why homes shouldn't change and evolve with the times. Memories and history live on inspite of things like wood paneling or wallpaper in a house like this--not BECAUSE of them.
Yowza, the AFTER is gorgeous! Come and redo our home, please!
They allowed the photos here, so they obviously wanted feedback. So what if it's not the feedback you want to read? There would be no comment section if people weren't free to give their opinion.
Anyway, although I love knotty pine personally, I do agree it most likely wasn't original to the home. So, they weren't tearing out 100 year old character from the house or anything. And I do prefer a home with it's original character in keeping with the time period it was built.
Wow. Looks super.
In the past I've argued for keeping knotty pine panelling in a small, bar-like room, but this had to go, I agree. It looks so great. It's not really my favorite decor-style, but it looks really great in the space. Awesome job.
Reading some of the posts... why are people up in arms?!? That pine paneling wasn't 100 years old! It was from the 60s.... And it looked awful.
Well, my critical but perfectly constructive comment got the heave-ho, so no, people aren't free to give their opinion. Grumble grumble.
Very nice. From the Before pix I'm guessing the house was remuddled sometime between 1945-1970--knotty pine was not an early 1900s feature, & even if it had been, it sucks the light right out of a room. There are very few houses out there that haven't been changed/modernized as people's needs changed, & I think there's a difference between respecting the past & being a slave to it--even more so with a building that's already evolved thru time. Who gets to make the call on when to freeze it? Or decide if 'freezing' is only decor, or also involves a building's mechanicals? Just gets more complicated.
that "knotty pine" is not 100 years old and certainly not original to the farmhouse. It's from the 1950-60 era and I have been faced with lots of it in house renovations. I just painted it mostly - with lots of "KILLZ" primer and ivory paint, and then, sometimes glazed it a little. "Dropped" ceilings, those awful "popcorn ceilings" and cheap wood paneling were all make-do "renovations" at a certain time. I'd rather buy a house that has not been "improved"! I understand your passion for re-use but no one would buy that 'knotty pine" and it shouldn't have been manufactured in the first place.
The location of this house must have been fabulous to warrant this energy and expense.
I really loved the knotty pine. Reminds me of camp & the outdoors.
I, for one, HATE knotty pine. Any reno that gets rid of it is A-OK in my book, but this one is really nice either way. I love how much brighter it is. All that paneling was dreary.
Lovely job! Those of us who design kitchens would like to know where the fridge and sink are located. We would like to see if its as functional as it is beautiful.
It's obvious some people are not tactful while posting a comment. No need to be an asshole with opinions.
The AFTER is gorgeous, good choice .
agreed, looks a bit magazine-ish and boring to me.
Not crazy about it either.
Pish on the knotty pine,the afters on this redo are amazing!
I somehow wish they could have kept the fireplace in the kitchen. I had a house in college with a fireplace near the kitchen. We used to cook in it all the time.
remuddled - love it.
the house is lovely. not so much my taste, but lovely nevertheless. i'd have kept the fireplace in the kitchen if possible. of course my kitchen is 9lx9w x 10t so if i had this space, it'd have a couch in it so people keep me company when i'm cooking. i am so over the very practical island with barstools thing, not sure why.
Thanks for all your comments. It was an old house with an addition and several renovations in its lifetime. The configuration of the house left rooms very disconnected from each other, and changes like converting the central powder room into a hallway connecting kitchen/dining went a long way towards a more cohesive, flowing home. The kitchen fireplace was long ago disconnected from its chimney, and with the added appliances and island, the space was too precious for a non-functioning fireplace. Had we known knotty pine wall paneling had such a following, we'd have kept it for AT's Classifieds!
Before/after floor plans, more detailed descriptions, and more photos are on the website:
http://andrewmikhael.com/ja-house
Best,
Andrew Mikhael, AIA
Mine did too, so go figure.
Knotty pine like that looks better on an accent wall than a WHOLE ROOM, at least IMO; I grew up in the 1970s, a time period in which it sometimes felt like the wood paneling was closing in on you. It can be handsome, but it can make a space very heavy and very dark. Also, there's this assumption I see often on AT that all wood paneling, and for that matter all wood, is automatically of good quality and therefore should be preserved with the care given to museum artifacts. But it ain't necessarily so.
I think the space looks a lot brighter and airier now. The bedroom is particularly graceful.
Wow. Fabulous... I love the polished but not overly formal look. And, I agree with everyone else who said it before: thanks so much for taking before and after photos that match!
My family has a 100+ year old cabin that had that same knotty pine paneling (from a 50's add-on). My mom recently had to do a major renovation to avoid its collapse. Since the cabin has been in our family since it was built by my grandfather's grandfather, we all had a sentimental attachment to its aesthetics,1950s knotty pine and all. We had the contractor salvage as much of it as possible from the old added-on kitchen and use it in the newly built kitchen. The old kitchen was floor to ceiling with the paneling as this farm house was. In the new kitchen, it only covers from floor to about third of the way up the wall (like wainscoting) and on the island. The old kitchen was nothing remarkable, but the new kitchen is drop dead gorgeous.
Love it but I miss the kitchen fireplace too! If it could have been made functional I think it would have been wonderful and added character. I almost wanted to buy a house not right for us because I loved its kitchen with fireplace so much.
Wow. I posted a respectful, nicely worded comment about my opinion that, while the renovation is beautiful (my exact wording), I felt that it belonged more in a glossy newsstand magazine than on AT...And it disappeared. Nothing mean or ugly in it! I realize that this is a private website and they can moderate it as they please, but if every single comment that is even mildly critical of some aspect of AT is removed, then I don't think I'll be back. I like the sense of community here, so if you remove that, well...I can just find everything on Pinterest then. If this comment disappears too, then so does a longtime reader.
I just found the ottoman (in a slightly different shade) on One King's Lane for $479 https://www.onekingslane.com/product/19853/1198188
Fantastic. I love the.inside, but I am interested as in what the outside looks like.
That was almost exactly what I said. It's really frustrating when you take the time to make sure you don't sound like a troll when you have a dissenting opinion only to be treated like one anyway.
Great remake. And thankyou for the corresponding pictures. They really show the modernising well.
The 2nd 'before' pic is my favorite; though I'd have changed out that hinge hardward immediately. The afters are 'ok' but I see (personal opinion) design blips and bloops. The kitchen seems pure '90s. If they used professional designer(s) they didn't get their money's worth.
Wonderful remodel. I think removing the panelling gives the living room a whole new formal/calming feeling. For me the 50's panelling look reminds me of rec rooms and attics. It kind of makes me feel like the walls are closing in. While I love mid century furniture I would remove or paint the knotty one every time.
Interesting remodel. I have seen whitewashed knotty pine that looks amazing, too.
As much as I love the remodel, I have a soft spot for pine wood paneling.
It's beautiful! The additional lights make a huge difference, and it looks a lot brighter which I'm sure is very important during a New Jersey winter.
I hate knotty pine, so this looks much better to me. The old bedroom looked so small and cave-like; the raised ceiling is a huge improvement. I'd have seen if it was possible to add a second window to that room, though, add some more symmetry.
WOWZA awesome reno
would a cow in the living room help?
maybe some pigs in the kitchen, chickens in the bedroom...
Holy wow! How many people would have been able to envision such a transformation?
m.h. I agree whole heartedly. You can't even see that it is a 100 year old farm house with all of its quirks....it just makes me sad:(
Last I checked, we were all adults and we should all be able to accept comments that don't agree with our own. I don't see a single rude post here. Simply people who don't particularly care for the reno with reasons why. Design isn't cookie-cutter and neither should design aficionados' sentiments be.
I don't particularly care for some of the design choices that were made, though it's still a lovely reno.
In the living room, I'm not attached to the knotty pine though it would have been interesting to keep some on the window wall paneling for texture. It would have looked lovely with that beautiful blue. The crown molding was a perfect touch too. I wouldn't have messed with the fireplace though seeing as it's more than likely original to the property. I would have worked it into my decor and just cleaned it up.
The kitchen for me is a nice kitchen, but it doesn't say farmhouse. I would have kept that fireplace and the beautiful little door and worked the kitchen around them. Either by recreating glass panels for a couple of display cabinets mimicking the door or however I could think. I wouldn't be surprised if those were original to the house as well.
The bedroom is a structural home-run. Elevating the ceiling was brilliant and the backboard of the bed just helps emphasize the additional height. I love the furniture, paint color and that chandelier is stunning. My only issue is with the bedding. I would have put something bright on the bed to play against all the neutral. A nice bright, blue, yellow, pink & green floral or quilt sort of thing...similar to what they did in their gorgeous dining room (pics in the links).
Overall, it really is a lovely remodel. I just feel it looks too much like a new build now instead of a remodeled farmhouse.
I got poofed too. Only rave reviews are acceptable. Apparently. What happened to expressing a difference of opinion?
While I am unsure of most of the before, I can see it not being desireable by most New Jersey people. ( Hey I would consider myself one... my accent proves it.)
I'm just dissapointed. The end result is nice, in that sterotypical sense. There is no personality in the space.
And frankly I am BORED with these results. They are common and banal. Doesn't help that the blue they chose for the main area is probably my least favorite color of all colors ever.
At least the hardwood floors turned out nice yes?
Very nice reno! I love how much lighter the place looks now! I normally would have voted to keep the knotty pine, but that room was pretty dark and oppressive, even with that large window! It is definitely an improvement! My favorite has to be the bedroom though...looks amazing!
While there are plenty of people who bemoan the loss of the knotty pine why isn't anyone bemoaning the loss of those foam ceiling tiles that were put in at the same time as the (cheap) pine panelling? Having lived in the 1970's I know those two things went together like bread with butter.
This is a lovely transformation, but it is sad to see the lovely fireplace and door in the kitchen gone. Pieces of the homes history that could have totally been incorporated into the current look.
I agree it would fit more in BHG. Not too many people can afford a architect, and I too thought the spirit of this site is more diy
Agreed. Totally pedestrian.
To clarify (since my previous post is still here!), I think that they did a great job, and while it's not my particular taste, it looks roughly 150,000% better. Give or take a few %. Great job to all involved. I really wasn't trying to hate on the project... :-)
Grew up in a house with knotty pine throughout the whole first floor. Still hate it.
Wow!
So this is how you take a unique space and make it look like everything else...
Depressing.
Since my original post had been booted, I will try and reword what I wrote, and say you need the big bucks to do this job. (I live in NJ and know the area where this house is quite well.) Sure it is incredible to see such a transformation, but it is par for the course for where it is located and sorry if that comes across as snarky, but there are enough glam magazines and sites in regards to expensive designs and renovations out there already. I don't need AT turning into that too.
Love the transformation. before n after images help a lot to understand the difference. great job.
It cracks me up that people are bemoaning the loss of the knotty pine as if it were original to the 100-year-old farmhouse (which, as others have said, had 100 years of remuddling behind it).
It is beautifully done, and I admire anyone with two toddlers who could live through that (although maybe they hadn't moved in yet). I look at that white upholstered ottoman/table thing and see grape juice and finger paints in its future, though...
Thank you!!!
i don't get it. if you don't like old houses, why buy one in the first place? clearly the owners like a more contemporary look. they must've had money to burn.
It is gorgeous. I'm a bit of a voyeur of amazing "before" and "after" photos. But I have to say there's a big difference between "a little bit of TLC" and "a full-house gut remodel, including rearranging some of the elements of the floor plan."
Like, at the very least, $200,000 difference!