A French Country Inspired Remodel in WA

This French country inspired remodel is one that was a labor of love to transform! See how the newest home owner updated it to suit her love of all things French and romantically inspired. Let’s head to the Seattle area for this home tour!

Shawna Straub is a local boutique owner in the Seattle area, known as My Pampered Life Seattle.  She purchased her 1991 home in 2018 as a distressed property needing much updating, a full refresh due to it being a smoker’s home for 18+ years, and also neglect from the previous homeowner caring for a terminally ill spouse.   Due to the circumstances, she was able to purchase the home under market value.  Since the remodel has been completed, the price of the home has doubled!

You can see why she was enamored with the grounds, location, and views from the photos below.

French Country Inspired Remodel – Before And After

The first year and actually before move in, she was able to switch out the front door, entrance way to the home, remodel the upstairs (except the Master Bath), and install the large entrance chandelier.

Here are some before and afters of those changes:

Before:

After:

Once Covid hit it was almost impossible to get any movement on the home and they took a break for a year to get funding together, figure out the phases of the future remodel and fix a lot of external issues with the home.  One of the dated factors were the garage doors and red brick on the home.  She first tried to paint all the brick white, which helped, but wasn’t the look she wanted.  After some convincing of her husband they decided to use stacked stone around the entire garage, front of the home, and installed new black garage doors and painted the home gray, black, and white.

Before:

Exterior After:

Shawna kept a Pinterest board called DREAM HOME. She added ideas for her perfect kitchen for 5 years (before the home was even purchased).  She knew the look she wanted but was having a hard time finding a cabinet making company that understood the vision.  Cabinets were so expensive, and she wasn’t finding anything that spoke to her.   After meeting with a local cabinet maker, he showed her a photo of a home that he had done recently with antiqued white cabinets with antiquing.  She literally teared up… it was finally the right look that she wanted and ½ the price of other cabinets.  He was also able to deliver them in 10 weeks vs. 6 months that others were quoting.  With this decision and appliances ordered the remodel was on!

Before:

The biggest changes to the kitchen were removing the dropped ceiling and removing the wall between the kitchen and dining room. Also removing the wall and door to the patio and replacing it with a folding window wall. Then there was removing and replacing all of the original appliances and cabinets.  The entire remodel was about 2.5 months.

Kitchen After – French Country Inspired Remodel:

The entire first floor has amazing flow, all 9 foot ceilings now. The indoor/outdoor access to make the pool and patio feel part of the home and extend the square footage.  There are no more pinch points in the kitchen, and she can entertain 50+ people without feeling overcrowded.  The old dated 90’s feeling is completely gone and the French country feel carries throughout the home with soft florals, corbels, and layered mirrors and trays. 

The final room, the living room, was also very dated and had smoke filled carpeting that was removed to subfloor.  The luxury vinyl plank now runs through the entire downstairs with large textured rugs to soften it.  

The Living Room – Before & After

Before:

After:

Shawna is excited to utilize the newly remodeled home as a backdrop for her product shoots for her boutique and to rent for movie productions and corporate events through Giggster.com.   She hosts events for the store, the yearly Christmas open house for church members, and of course all the holiday family gatherings.   This home is to be shared and provide inspiration to others to find easy ways to bring French Country into their homes and find their own style.

Thanks to Shawna for sharing her home with us! Visit her at My Pampered Life Seattle.

If you enjoy home tours, check out these homes that we shared below!

A Dream Home Tour (Recently Featured In The New York Times!)
French Country Charm In Dallas
A Refined French Country Home