Schimpf Haus - First Floor Remodel

Wow, this project has been a long time in the works. When we bought our house, it was less of a blank canvas than it was a filthy time capsule from the 70's. The first floor was about 640 square feet of open space, apart from a washer and dryer tucked under the staircase (directly across from the front door, stunning!), some built-in cabinetry througout the room, and tons of low hanging soffits. The paneling on the walls was faux-wood, but the ceiling was all original pine tongue and groove. The flooring was wall-to-wall orange shag, but not in a cool way.

When we moved in as a family of four, the 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms were all we needed. But we soon found out we were expecting family member number 5 and, quel surprise, number 6 came just 18 short months after number 5. Schimpf, party of 6! We had to make some changes or find a new house.

I played around with a lot of options for this big, open space. I knew I wanted a mud room as the entrance with very cleanable finishes and lots of storage for coats and shoes and kid-clutter. The position of the front door (which cannot be moved due to the location of an exterior staircase) made the line of the mud room pretty clear. What was left on the other side of the new wall dividing the space made perfect sense for a new bedroom. The rest came together over time as we assessed the needs of our family. We decided to move the laundry up to the second floor into what was previously a bedroom, and that made it so that we needed to add back a 4th bedroom to accommodate another child. With two bedrooms on the first floor now, we knew we'd need a full bathroom. The remainder of the space made for a perfect family den. We also took this time of many open walls and construction dust to add central AC to the entire house. The first floor used to be the land of many soffits with some areas so low that tall visitors and my husband were known to hit their heads from time to time. The soffits had to go and the new ducting was streamlined and tucked into a little spot in the mud room. We went ahead and hid some plumbing for the upstairs laundry room/half bath in there as well.

From wide open spaces to a very functional space that works for our large family. We're loving it.

Stay tuned for the mood boards and the before and afters of each of these spaces. It was a dream come true to design and execute my own style in the main living space and bathroom and to allow my two oldest children to participate in and direct the feel and needs of their own rooms. Making a house into a home that not only functions better but feels like a place you want to be is always the goal, and I think it shows in the before and afters I have coming up.

Jillian Schimpf

Schimpf Haus