From Shabby to Chic: 4 ways to turn your fixer upper into a stunning family home

When people think of making a custom home from a blank slate, you mean you have to build the house yourself. While this is also a great way to ensure your home is exactly how you want it, you can also buy an old home and do the same thing.

A fixer-upper is a great way to turn a shabby home into a stunning family home that is set up precisely to your preferences. This is because when you buy a home that has recently been renovated, you are purchasing it according to the tastes and needs of the previous owners. A fixer-upper will need to either be gutted and rebuilt inside or just updated according to your tastes.  

In this article, we will go over several ways to do this. 

1 - Clean it out

The first thing to do is strip everything down and give it a deep clean so you know what you're working with. Call in a professional company like Woodard to do it quickly and correctly. If you attempt to clean up a house that hasn't been cleaned in years, you will waste a lot of time. 

Once the company has finished the cleaning part, you can focus on gutting it. 

2 - Gut it out

To turn the house into a blank canvas that allows you to create your dream home, you need to rip up any old carpeting, and you may find a beautiful hardwood floor hidden beneath it. 

There may be old wallpaper that will have to come down. In some cases, you may also find crumbling plaster and drywall. It may be a good idea to rip that out and get right down to the studs of the walls. 

3 - Upgrade the bathroom and kitchen

The two rooms that will make your home stunning and very chic are the bathroom and kitchen. An upgraded bathroom will feel luxurious. For instance, setting up a full-body shower with a whirlpool jet tub will give you the sensation of going to a spa. And a smart toilet is a great way to add to the experience and pamper yourself. 

The kitchen is where your creativity shines and is usually the house's focal point. Make it an open concept and add a large island so you can entertain guests while you cook. 

4 - Tear down that wall

Old homes often have tiny rooms, and they were more accessible to heat and saved money back in the day. These days, we love open spaces and large rooms. 

Find the non-load-bearing walls and see if tearing them down will give you more to work with when trying to plan the house's layout. You could provide more space to your bathroom or open the dining room to make your kitchen an open space concept.