Maggie’s New Condo: BEFORE


My little sister (Maggie) bought a place in downtown Chicago! Beyond a big sister just being super proud and excited for her, I’m sharing this breaking news on the blog because Maggie has graciously given Casey and me creative control of the condo makeover!!

Yes you read that right, Maggie has somehow agreed to let us DIY Rookies totally makeover her place.

We’re super excited for the opportunity, but also a tad overwhelmed. Decorating your own home is one thing, but trying to spot someone else’s style and making sure all the decisions are within someone else’s budget is actually scarier than it sounds. We want Maggie to be OB-SESSED with her new place so we’re feeling the pressure to make the space amazing! Here’s a photo of the living room we’ll be working with. It’s from the real estate website:

The wood floors of this living room compliment the green walls. This is the room we are going to tackle first. There is nothing WRONG with this look but it just doesn’t seem to scream, “Hi, I’m Maggie!”. We want someone to walk into this condo and feel Maggie’s style and know a little more about her. More importantly, we want Maggie to walk into her condo everyday and feel proud and excited to be home.

Needless to say, we have our work cut out for us! Over the past month, we have been working with stalking Maggie to pinpoint her home decor style (not an easy task for someone who isn’t in love with home decor). We finally feel like we have identified her style and taste (more her style and how we coached her to identify her home decor style coming to the blog soon). We are also pretty excited because Maggie’s new place is literally less than a 1/2 block from Casey’s place, which makes the logistics of executing this makeover pretty dang perfect.The dark green walls brighten up this living room space.

We hope you can follow along as we tackle Maggie’s Makeover Series literally from start to finish. We plan to take you guys along with us as we start from square one and hopefully work our way to a fabulous reveal, sharing the good, bad & ugly in between. We hope to share video, tutorials, decor tips, and answer many of the questions we have gotten from Maggie along the way. (Where do I even start, how do I know my style, how do I decide on the perfect paint color, where do I shop for furniture???)This high rise Chicago apartment has a lot of natural light.

Our plan is to share a weekly “update” on Maggie’s makeover until it’s finally done! If you have any questions along the way, don’t hesitate to let us know so we can address those too. Starting from scratch is HARD!ย This bedroom has a lot of open space and clean carpet. This kitchen area has lots of cabinet space and nice counter tops.

… and from the looks of things, we have quite a bit of work ahead of us!

Bridget

Fast forward a bit and you can follow the entire makeover here:


The Year of Casey

Hey there!

Iโ€™m Casey Finn, the voice behind The DIY Playbook. I’m a Chicago gal teaching you how to design, DIY, and maintain your home…by yourself! Learn more about me right here.