BEFORE & AFTER Photos Inside!
My Med Home decor style tends to be more minimalist and modern than bold or traditional - although I can’t resist the stunning ceramic tile designs you see throughout the Med, and boutique chic accent pieces.
I like to create breezy, cool and calming living spaces throughout the home, re-creating the essence of my favourite holiday happy places.
While I was waiting for the purchase of My Med Home to close (3 months) I already started to plan my initial renovations. I had a vision for the Med Style home I wanted to create. I wanted to do simple, fast, and economical renovations at first that would have a tranformative effect immediately.
These 3 small, fast and economical renovations brought to life the breezy Med Home I had imagined in just 6 weeks: 1. Beach Home Whitewash painting 2. Modern Med Kitchen remodel 3. Modern Med Bathroom remodel.
Read on for Med Home inspiration and ideas - with Before and After photos!
Mediterranean Home Renovation Reveal!
3 Small, Fast & Economical Renovations - to Transform your Med Home - Inspiration and ideas to bring the Mediterranean to your home, with Before and After photos.
What I did to transform my new home into My Med Home Style in just 6 weeks!
1. Beach Home Whitewash painting - Before and After photos
2. Modern Med Kitchen remodel - Before and After photos
3. Modern Med Bathroom remodel - Before and After photos
1. Beach Home Whitewash painting - 1 week - Before and After photos
It’s amazing how a fresh coat of white paint can immediately make a 20-year old home new again.
My original house had dark wood ceilings throughout, which I felt made the house feel smaller than it was, and more wood cabin-ish than by-the-sea beachy.
My first task was to completely whitewash paint all ceilings and freshly paint all walls white, while the house was bare inside. We did this DIY ourselves to cut costs - and it was actually a lot of fun to see the house already transform before our eyes with a little white paint! To paint all ceilings and walls in my 3 bedroom home took about 1 week.
2. Modern Med Kitchen remodel - 2 weeks - Before and After photos
The vision for my Med Home dream kitchen was minimalist and functional (for a wannabe 5* chef). I wanted my kitchen to be modern and sleek, almost disappearing into the white walls and to seamlessly flow into the living area for effortless entertaining. To achieve this I chose white marble countertops (for the disappearing into white walls effect), and light grey cabinets inspired by the cool and modern feel of concrete.
IKEA has made it really easy, fast (and economical) to attain your dream kitchen. They have online planners and simulators to get started on your own - and helpful staff at your local Ikea store who provide you with tips and tricks for sourcing the right kitchen pieces to fit perfectly into your space.
After a few hours of online designing of my dream kitchen (equipped with the dimensions of my kitchen space), I took my plans to the local IKEA store to choose my desired kitchen cabinet style, and countertop material. Within an afternoon I walked away with a fully designed kitchen, purchased, and a promise of delivery and installation by IKEA within 2 weeks!
As I love to cook and experiment with Mediterranean diet recipes in the kitchen, I really wanted chef grade appliances for my Med kitchen. As I economised greatly by selecting IKEA for my kitchen cabinets and countertop, I was able to reserve my remaining kitchen renovation budget for a premium stove, oven and refrigerator.
I chose SMEG for my chef grade kitchen appliances. SMEG appliances have premium chef features at the heart of their modern and chic design. They also offer a variety of cool colours to create a focal point for your kitchen design. I chose the SMEG Victoria Cooker with Gas Hob and the SMEG Victoria Free Standing Refrigerator with 4 Doors in pastel blue to complete my dream Med kitchen. I am so happy with the functionality of my SMEG appliances. I really feel like a 5* chef cooking with the SMEG Victoria Cooker - the 7 gas burners and 3 ovens are ideal for entertaining large groups of guests - and I get so many complements on the unique pastel blue colour!
While you are having fun designing and selecting the features of your dream kitchen - don’t forget to get a contractor scheduled to remove your existing kitchen if you want to move fast!
You can also do this yourself if your kitchen removal simply requires removing existing cabinets and appliances (I did this myself in a previous home, and demolishing is actually quite easy). I did hire a contractor for the removal of the existing kitchen in my Med Home however, as my new design required some rebuilding of the architectural design features of my home around the kitchen.
TIP: To keep your kitchen remodel fast and economical, don’t endeavour to move existing water points or stove-top ventilation points. This will increase the complexity, time and cost significantly.
My contractor was able to remove my existing kitchen and rebuild the architectural design features within the 2 weeks it took for IKEA to process my new kitchen order. The SMEG appliances took a little more time to arrive. But the wait was worth it, and they easily slid into their places on arrival to complete my dream Med kitchen!
3. Modern Med Bathroom remodel - 2 weeks - Before and After photos
The vision for my Med Home dream bathroom was inspired by Turkish and Moroccan baths, with beautiful ceramic tiles, and a calming spa-like essence. Similar to my Med kitchen, I wanted the main bathroom fixtures to disappear into the white walls, allowing the eye to be drawn to the colourful Moroccan ceramic tiles as the focal point.
I designed my dream Med bathroom around the ceramic tiles, which I chose for the flooring and shower. For the floor, I chose a quintessentially Med blue and white colour scheme for the tiles to keep a light and breezy feel, and white tiles with unique texture and accents of silver for the shower.
It actually took some digging to find a supplier of the ceramic tiles I was looking for. After several visits to boutique bathroom design shops, I was still not finding exactly what I was looking for. Until one day, I was eating at a local restaurant by the sea, which had a bar area adorned with the most beautiful Moroccan ceramic tiles I had ever seen. I asked the restaurant manager if he knew the supplier of the tiles. They happened to be from a local artisan. The manager graciously gave me the name and phone number of the artisan, which is where I ended up sourcing my beautiful ceramic tiles!
For the bathroom fixtures I chose all white, to create the disappearing effect. For the countertop I chose a simple and economical poured concrete to create my spa-like essence. And for the bathroom “cabinets” I chose simple bamboo stand alone shelves to go under the concrete countertop. For the shower, I chose a single piece of glass, floor to ceiling, to separate the shower from the rest of the bathroom, and to not obstruct any light or feeling of open space in the bathroom.
I was able to source all of the bathroom fixtures myself (sinks,shower head, glass, and toilet), same day - in stock, at the local DIY home depot store, Leroy Merlin.
I selected a contractor / plumber to do the demolishing of the original bathroom, who also laid the ceramic tiles, built in the poured concrete countertop, and installed the bathroom plumbing fixtures. This process of demolishing and rebuilding took just about 2 weeks, after the kitchen.
TIP: Just like the kitchen, I saved time, budget and minimised complexity by keeping the original water points and plumbing in place.
With these 3 small, fast and economical renovations completed in just 6 weeks, I was ready to move into my Med Home, which now reflected the expression of my Med Style.
BONUS:
5 TIPS for planning your first renovations in a foreign country
When I got the keys to my new Med Home, I immediately got a set of keys cut for my home renovations project manager - with the agreement that my first renovations be complete to move in 6 weeks later.
Here are 5 TIPS for how to do-it-yourself!
TIP #1. Documenting your Dream Home Interior Design Vision: When I found my Med Home, I could already imagine what it could look like with a few simple renovations and my own Med Style home decor. I started to create a scrapbook of tear sheets from interior design magazines which captured my vision for each room. This proved helpful when meeting with contractors and when visiting interior design shops. I often brought out that scrapbook to remind my collaborators of my vision if I thought they were starting to go in a different direction. This visualisation helped my small project team to stay on the same page, and to stay on task to realise my vision most efficiently.
TIP #2. Budgeting (gold, silver, bronze): What you see in design magazines often reflects the gold standard of what your vision may be. But that gold standard doesn’t always fit your budget. The good news is that there are always “silver” and “bronze” versions of that gold standard to choose from; that will be friendlier to your pocketbook. When thinking about the materials you want to select for your renovations, it is helpful to do your research and be able to suggest alternative materials to your contractor or project manager that can achieve your vision at the desired price point.
TIP #3. Sourcing your own materials (gold, silver, bronze): I found a useful trick to significantly reducing contractor costs - source the materials yourself where possible, and contract solely for the labour. When I started to source quotes from contractors for what I considered to be relatively small jobs, I was really surprised by how high they were, and often way outside my budget. When I offered to source the materials myself and asked for their quotes for the labour only, the cost became much more reasonable. In addition, in sourcing my own materials I could make my own call on whether I went for the gold, silver or bronze version of the material, which helped me to control my budget.
Important to note: Sometimes contractors have special arrangements with suppliers and can get the materials at a better rate than you can as a retail buyer. Once you have done your research on what it would cost to source the materials yourself, you can ask your contractor if they can beat that price.
TIP #4. Selecting local contractors: In my corner of the Med I did not find a “yellow pages” of local contractors to chose from. And even if I had, as a foreigner, how would I know which ones did quality work, were honest and reliable? As mentioned in my Blog: How I found my dream home (& life) in the Mediterranean: 5 Simple Steps - my real estate agent turned out to be my best source for referrals to local contractors and a trustworthy and reliable project manager to oversee my renovations with me off-site.
TIP #5. Self-managing vs. Selecting a project manager: To ensure that the project team you select for your renovations stays aligned with your vision at every step, you really need to be on-site for all decisions. Contractors are working towards a time-bound deadline, or number of days of work that you have agreed upon, and it is in their interest to economise wherever they can. Therefore if you are not there, they will make their own judgement to keep the project moving forward.
If you cannot be on-site for those critical decision-making points, you can also hire a project manager to be on-site and contact you at the decision-making moments. This is what I did and it worked out brilliantly. In my region it is recommended that you pay your project manager about 10-15% of the cost of the full renovations. I found this project management fee to be money well spent and a fraction of the cost of the flights and hotels I would have needed to book to be on-site myself.
Once I found and purchased my dream home in the Med I was super motivated to start enjoying it!
Home ownership in a foreign country can sound daunting at first, and organising renovations from afar can be equally as mind-blowing. I hope that my blogs on these topics provide inspiration on the steps you can take to break through the unknowns and realise your dream Med lifestyle.
Share your questions about renovating your Med Home in the comments below!
Jade
Lewon
Med
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