I’ve written some in the past about the choices we made with our home (the first home we bought!). But today marks the one year anniversary of closing our home (how!?) and I would like to share the progress we’ve made with our home over the past 12 months, as promised in my oversharing Facebook post a year ago. Although this is our first home, we love it so much that we keep talking about different ways to improve it to make it our forever home <3

The Living Room

We kept the structural integrity of the dining/living room open space while adding a couple of touches to make the space feel more modern. Our big decision: no TV!

Norah’s Room

The second room I put a lot of effort into is Norah’s room. It came with only one window so could be quite dark, but I used it to our advantage by creating lots of “nooks”, low to the ground furniture and soft pinks . The results is rather dreamy and I love it.

The Master Bedroom

Recently, David switched the bed to the other side and it made all the difference! I realized I only kept the bed on the other side because the previous owners did so. All of a sudden, on this side, we gained new windows, the room feels bigger, and we can see the bed better. Thank you husband <3

The Deck

We love this sun-filled deck but it could feel a bit scorching (facing North-East) under Bright Colorado Sun. So I’m glad we added an awning, a grill and ample seatings to make it usable :) I also like that the violently orange deck faded with time and looks amazing now! Def adds to my street-cred as “work from home pioneer”, according to my mom =))

Staircase & Entryway

Still a work-in-progress (need to add more paintings along the stairway) but I’m happy with how functional everything is right now!

Closing Note

Our first year strategy was to prioritize maximizing the existing space without any structural change by putting our own touches in home decor, personalized art, and modern color schemes. There are still so much more we would like to do: upgrade the kitchen, heat the lower floor, enclose (potentially) the deck by our master bedroom, redo the bathrooms, and more! But, for now, I’m happy with where we are and so proud of how much we’ve been able to do in the past 12 months. You can follow the hashtag #smookeshomestead on Instagram for more updates. I tried to tag where I get stuff from there too, but that’s probably a post for another day, as I have some tips there too! Thank you for following along.