Tour Our  Bennington Lane Cottage

Join me on this tour of our 1950’s cottage home.  See why it was one of the hardest but most rewarding renovations we’ve ever done.

How We Ended Up Here

This house will always be special to me.  

We had done several Renovations before but never to this magnitude.

When we were looking for a house we looked at several homes and nothing really spoke to me.  

I wanted to make sure that I got to put my spin on the house we bought.  I knew specifically the look I was going for so I knew the lines this house would need.

I found this house online and I talked Neal into going to take a look at it.  

When we first drove by he said no way.  lol  I love taking things that nobody wants and making them beautiful.  

So I finally got him to call the realtor so we could get in.

The minute I walked in I could feel this house was the one.  It took Neal a little longer.  But soon we both felt this was our next project and hey it came with a pool.

Exterior

The difference in this home from before to after was truly amazing.  

I didn’t start out with the intent of drastically changing the exterior.  But as I worked with the architect I kept asking him for changes and as he made the changes the look of the house transformed into something truly special. 

So basically we removed almost everything from this house and started over again.  Siding, roof, windows, doors, porch,  you name it.  

Living Room

The living room got most of its makeover from the exterior changes.  

I really wish that I had an up-close photo of the original front door.  The new doors and windows gave this living room new life.  

So basically, all we had to do it paint it and add furniture and style.  

It was super cozy!

The upstairs didn’t have a legitimate staircase.  

It was more of an attic, and there was no way to get furniture in or out.  

So we tore out that old staircase and reconfigured it all.  

As you can see below, so much better.

Dining Room

The dining room didn’t need much work beyond paint and a new light fixture, but this room was dark.  

I found the window on the back wall in an antique store in Lousiville, Kentucky.  

It made a huge difference.  

Now the light from the kitchen windows could come through to the dining room and living room.  

It wouldn’t be a cottage home tour without a french country dining table and chairs.  

It took me years to collect this furniture.  French provincial furniture is one of my favorites.

Kitchen

The kitchen is where we did the majority of the interior work.  

As you can see in the picture below,  this kitchen had not been touched in a long time.  The cool thing was this white stove still worked!  

They just don’t make them like they used to.

I didn’t like the layout of the kitchen and there was a room next door that we were not using.  

So we took the wall down between the two rooms and moved the kitchen into the adjacent room.  

Making the old kitchen into a breakfast room.  

We spend a ton of time in the kitchen and this made more sense for our family.  Now we could have a large farm table to have family meals.

This kitchen is most people’s favorite room when they toured our cottage.  

I went with all white shaker cabinets with a grey island.  It is very much a classic cottage kitchen.  

The cabinets were from IKEA and took me a week to put them together and set them in place.  

I also did the tile backsplash.  That was a killer job and I retired from tiling after that job.  lol

Can you tell from the picture that this was the former kitchen?  Most people can’t even if they looked at the before photos.  So much better as a breakfast room don’t you think?

Sunroom

The sunroom only needed paint and new flooring when we bought the house.

It had dark knotty pine walls and nasty carpet that had to go.

It became my SHE SHED.  

It was definitely my favorite room in the house.  I loved hanging out here, working, and watching TV.  

It was off-limits when mom needed a break.

Master Bedroom & Bath

The master bedroom in this was lacking and we discussed many times knocking out the wall between the two downstairs bedrooms and making a master suite.  

We made it work for us though and I ultimately decided to leave it as it was.  

One of the best features was a dressing room.  I had my make-up vanity and it was great to get dressed in.

Guest Bedroom and Guest Bath

Girls Rooms and Upstairs Den

Pool and Back Deck

I had to add this picture again just because the transformation was so drastic.  

We tore off the bedroom and porch upstairs, and all the 1950’s concrete railing that had been destroyed by the lack of gutters.  

The day we tore it off my husband gave it a shove and it tumbled down.  Scary if you think about the fact that my kids played out there for a year before we fixed it.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of our 1950’s cottage and all the work we did to transform it into what it is today.  Check out our current home here to see how my style has changed over the years.  I would love any questions for comments and please share it if you can.  Have a great day!