Our Third Floor “Mother in Law” Suite
I finally reorganized our third floor that had sadly become a storage room. It took a lot of work but I am so excited to have our “mother in law suite” or “apartment” again!
Our third floor “mother in law” suite is the perfect place for out-of-towners to stay while they’re visiting. Come take a tour! We think you’ll love it as much as we do.
Today. I am sharing a room in our home that you have never seen before. We actually have an entire third floor that some of you may refer to as a mother in law suite. I call it an apartment. It has a large bonus room, bedroom, and a bathroom. So it works for just about anyone visiting us.
I think I have shared most of the rooms inside our home, so why have I not shared this room?
Because I have been too embarrassed to share it.
The Story Behind Our Mother In Law Suite
Our home always had a third-floor “attic”. But we remodeled about fifteen years ago. It went from one dark-paneled orange shag-carpeted room to a bonus room, bedroom, and bathroom. But then yours truly needed more storage so I started carrying extra decor and extra Christmas decor up to the third floor. And within a few years, you could hardly even walk around. So we never went upstairs.
I do have a reasonable explanation as to why this happened. When I started painting full time about eight years ago, I needed an art studio. So I converted our garage, which originally was a Carriage House, into my art studio. The only drawback to converting our garage back to my Carriage House studio was that I had to find somewhere else to store Christmas decor, boxes and everything else that we don’t need (or want) in our home. (Think of all of the stuff you. have in your garage. That’s what I am referring to.)
I decided to move all the “stuff” to the third floor.
This photo was actually taken after I had spent two days up here organizing.
But I was determined that it was time to get our “mother in law suite aka bonus room” back to a living space.
For the past few months, I have been slowly cleaning out the third floor.
But I did have help. My husband and son Michael were amazing as they carried a ton of boxes and took carloads of clothes and decor to the goodwill.
This project took forever. And about one hundred trips up and down two staircases.
And yet it was totally worth it.
Our third floor “mother in law suite” has three rooms which are a bonus room, a bedroom, and a bathroom.
Here is a peek of the bedroom.
It needs a rug and a headboard and a few other things but that’s ok as I am in no rush.
I took this photo standing in the bedroom looking out to the bonus room.
I even had the pinball machine repaired. In came with the house when we bought this home from Dave’s parent’s twenty-two years ago.
What about remodeling the decor? I do have some plans but I am in no rush. This is such an improvement that it works just fine for now.
Here are some of the items from our third floor suite.
I spent seven hours yesterday doing a deep cleaning of the entire third floor.
And I am so happy.
Here is a quick video tour.
So when all of this staying home is done, come visit me.
I have a great place for you to stay!
Great job Leslie. Does it have a kitchenette and bath?
I can totally understand about the storage issue. My guest room became our crap storage room. Finally brought it back to a guest room last Fall when my cousin visited us from Texas. No more anxiety walking into that room. By the way, I volunteer to be your first guest. Haha
OMG Leslie! I often dream at night that I open a door in my house and discover a space I forgot that I had. Hidden thoughts of wishing I had more rooms to decorate. Lol! This is my dream come true! It is amazing! When you renovated the 3rd floor you did not spare beautiful trimmed out rooms, French doors and floors. We live in a house built in 1840 so I understand your challenges with storage. Great work! I know are not finished yet. You will work your magic as you have done with your Waco home and Beach house and this lovely 100 yr old house. 👏👏Bravo!
This is awesome! And that pinball machine is amazing!!!
Maybe there is hope for us — our finished daylight basement with two bedrooms, bath, and very large living area is like your “before.” We even have an un-repaired pinball machine…
Job well done and I bet you really feel great! Whenever I go thru stacks of “stuff” I usually have a couple of “aha” moments and uncover something very cool I forgot I had…hope you had a couple of those also. Stay home and be well.
I’m picturing that space being filled with grandkids in the next decade…no pressure on your boys…lol. It looks great!
what are the dimensions of the space width and lengthh. must have french doors to each area. looks great!
What a great house you have with all this wonderful third floor space. It looks like a special space to stay. Job well done. Always feels good to purge.
What a great room. Are u going to rent it out? When life becomes normal again, would love to come and visit the Silos! I am a single older woman who would be coming alone and I would like to feel safe and secure in a place like yours. I would love to have something to look forward to! I have been following your 100 year old home and love all you have done. Thanks for your time. Sincerely Cheryl Cryan
Is the rug in the living room area old or new? If new, may I ask
Where you got it? So perfect, I love it!
Great job!
Okay Leslie, where did you put all of your extra decor, craft supplies, and crap,that you kept????
I’m just drooling over this huge space.
Beautiful! Mind if I ask the paint colors?
I absolutely love it! Especially the bathroom!
All I can say is WOW!!!!! You did an amazing job putting all of that together. What a great space!!!
Is it crazy that I love the before photo too? I see so many great treasures in there and it feels comforting to be surrounded by it?! Yeah, that sounds weird when you say it out loud. Anyway, love the after and who wouldn’t want to stay in there?! Does it come with room service? Fantastic transformation!
Could you share the paint colors throughout your beautiful hone?
WOW! I love the decor. what an amazing asset in a home!
Thank you so much!