Before & After

Resources

Tales From The Set

Letter From Debbie

Planning to surprise your partner is never easy, especially when it entails getting her far away from home for several days, not just a few hours. But Pierre and Karen had lived in their new home for ten months and they were obsessing over colors. Everything in the small suburban bungalow was white, including the kitchen appliances and cabinets. So Pierre sent Karen off hiking with her mom, giving the Facelift team a short three days and nights to work some color magic.

The kitchen is the most difficult room in the house to renovate, so we decided to begin there. Karen had told Pierre that she loved bright, dramatic colors and that her dream was to have a big kitchen table for everyone to gather around.

Ripping down cabinets and removing trim can be a scary prospect, but Pierre loved this part. We removed some of the upper cabinets to allow the room to breathe, and extended the others to the ceiling by replacing the doors with taller ones.

Pierre had seen the design and, most important, the wild color palette and he immediately acknowledged that Karen would love it. But as he saw the orange ceiling being rolled on, he began to panic. What had he agreed to? The orange paint was applied in color blocks to the ceiling and walls, linking the two open spaces together and solving the problem of the uneven ceiling.

The upper cabinets were also going to be orange, but instead of paint we found the most stunning translucent orange plastic sheeting and used this on the doors. Aluminum corner trim finished them off perfectly.

A dark cool color was needed to balance the vibrant oranges and to ground the overall design. Much to Pierre's relief, the lower cabinets and countertops were given a couple of coats of charcoal melamine paint and we splurged out on some gorgeous slate for the backsplash area. A new gun metal gray vinyl was laid over the kitchen and den floors.

Carpenters Paul and Jason made two tables; a serviceable plywood table, dressed up with 4"x4" slate tiles that took most of us to move into place in the center of the kitchen, and a very mod amebic shaped coffee table set on wheels for the den. Both tables were too high though and had to be trimmed down at the last moment.

To heighten Pierre's state of nerves as the final hours wound down, he hadn't heard a word from Karen. When would she return? How would she react to the major wallop of color in her home? This is when tempers do get a little short. We'd also had two days of torrential rain, which meant that everyone was working on top of each other inside the tiny house.

But Karen was way past delighted. She enthused over all her new things, but mostly over the colors. The fresh, happy and youthful mood was everything she had wished for. And she's holding on tight to Pierre, who had the nerve and the foresight to pull it all off.

Debbie

Letter From Karen

Dear Debbie;

Words can't explain how surprised I was when I walked into my home and saw the TV cameras staring at me. I immediately turned around and walked out thinking, "I'm in the wrong house!" When I finally realised it was a real TV show and this was indeed my house, I was speechless, excited and overwhelmed. I can't believe that Pierre thought of this and my family was in on it, and on top of that they were able to keep it from me. You got me good!

Thanks again for the incredible Facelift transformation. We now have a beautiful and fun living space we will truly enjoy.

Karen