Front Room Transformation

I have hated the plantation shutters in our dining room and front room (what we call our formal living room) since the first moment I stepped into this house. We will have owned it 5 years next month! The shutters are also in the kid bedrooms and I don't mind them there because it is an easy way to quickly darken the room and there's nothing to get caught up with littles around. But in the living areas of the house, it felt like I was living behind prison bars or something. I wanted to be able to see out and have the sun shining in.

Seth had popped the shutters off the hinges in the dining room years ago, but we hadn't actually removed the edges and had the texture and paint fixed. The unfinished edges were hidden behind the drapes in that room. But because the front room shutters were such an expanse, we couldn't do the same in there because we would not have been able to hide it. Other things have taken the front seat for the past few years, but we finally were able to make this a priority and I am THRILLED with the results!

This is a perfect picture of what I felt like I was living in. Jail bars.

My live-in (sexy) handyman popped the shutters off the hinges.

And then we hired Alex to come remove them and repair the resulting damage. He took off the edges and then painted corner to corner on those two walls.

The boys LOVED watching him and he was super great with them.

And it's off! It's off!

A few pictures of the damage uncovered by removing it.

We hadn't realized that the windows had all those holes.
It was covered up by the shutters this whole time.

I've been wanting that finished off for so long and it was awesome to watch it come down.

More damage:

After he removed everything, he had to caulk and use compound and then texture over it. He ended up coming back the following day to paint so that everything could dry properly over night.

He made short work of all the painting! And Graham loved watching.

He even opened the windows to finish painting the windows so they wouldn't be painted shut.

I love how crisp the window sill looks now!

The dining room put back together!

And the biggest change was in the front room. In addition to removing the shutters, we hung some curtains and bought some pillows. It makes such a difference! I love being able to see out so much better. I literally feel like I can breathe better in that room.

After.

Before

What do you guys think?