A Tour of Our Beach House
I am excited to take you on a tour of our beach house which is located in Ventura, Ca. I remodeled the inside of the home and I loved The End result.
I joined some Instagram friends this week to share coastal decor. At first, I thought I would just share the art in our beach house. Instead, I decided to share a complete tour of our beach house in Ventura. So I wrote a blog post, an Instagram post, and shared it in my Instagram Stories.
I also looked back into the old photos and found a lot of before photos!
Be sure to check out Jordecor, Robyns_Frenchnest, and CozyCottageStyle if you are looking for some coastal inspiration ideas.
The Entry Way in the Beach House
I did want to share a little history about our home in Ventura, Ca. We bought this house seven years ago. It was in good condition but needed quite a bit of updating.
I hired a contractor and did a pretty big remodel. I managed to complete it in less than three months.
The remodel consisted of: gutting and complete remodel of the kitchen and two bathrooms, replacing windows, adding hardwood floors, replacing doors and all moldings, replacing fireplace and building a mantle, replacing the staircase ballisters and handrail, adding shiplap to the upstairs ceiling, replacing the front door, redoing the ceilings in the downstairs family room, and more.
I chose a beachy farmhouse look for the remodel and painted a lot of abstract paintings for our home myself.
As you can see below, I painted this triptych for the stairs. I love it.
The Upstairs Family Room
The upstairs family room, seen below, went through a major change. We lightened it up, removed some faux beams, added a shiplap ceiling, and replaced the fireplace. Oops, we also added wood floors.
(I am not sure how I managed to take this photo without noticing the charger on the floor. Oops.)
The next photo is a “before photo”. I took this photo during the inspection (while we were in escrow).
I also painted this painting which is 5′ x 5′. It was so much fun to paint!
Here you can see where we replaced the banister. The original one wasn’t to code and I didn’t like how it looked either.
The couches are all slipcovered and are the Extorp collection from Ikea. For tips on how to clean these slipcovers, click here.
Shop This Room
This is what the family room looked like when we bought it.
The reason we bought this house is because of the views and the fact that we can hear the waves crashing all throughout our home. That sound is the most calming sound ever!
By now you have probably figured out that the accent color I chose is aqua. Duh.
The Kitchen
During the remodel, we didn’t change the footprint. The kitchen is tiny but it, of course, it works great. You just can’t have more than two cooks in the kitchen.
Shop This Room
Here is what the kitchen looked like when we bought the house.
I do love to collect sea glass whenever we are here at the beach. These vintage jars in the windows are so colorful!
The Bedrooms
We have two bedrooms on the second floor. I made headboards for all of the bedrooms with sand fencing. I stained it, cut it, and screwed the fencing into the wall.
Shop This Room
A lot of the decor in our home is from the local Flea Market in Ventura.
Upstairs Bathroom
Here is the bathroom on the second floor. I love it and the marble tiles I used were fairly inexpensive.
Shop This Room
It’s. hard to believe, but this is what the bathroom originally looked like.
This is our deck on the front of the house. We spend a lot of time out here and I love having dinner up here.
This couch is in our master bedroom. It’s the Ikea Extorp sofabed.
Now we are heading downstairs.
Here is the “before view” of the staircase.
First Floor Family Room
We have another family room downstairs. And before you scroll down to see the before photo, I just have to say that the ceiling that was in here was … well … quite unique. Removing the ceiling was the first thing I had our contractor do!
Shop This Room
See, I told you it was unique. No comment.
I did find some Beach Boys vintage album covers and framed them with Ikea inexpensive frames.
Notice how all of the album covers just happen to fit my color scheme.
First Floor Bedroom
The downstairs bedroom only needed some paint, a new floor, and some furnishings.
The “before view” of this room just wasn’t my style. It was way too dark!
First Floor Bathroom
As you can see, the bathrooms are very similar.
The before photos of the bathrooms are similar too. Yikes.
I did want to mention my favorite part about the remodel.
We were traveling for a few weeks during the remodel when we got back I drove one and a half hours almost every day to manage the remodel,
Somehow no one else in the family saw the house during the remodel. It was basically a surprise to my husband and our three sons.
When I finished the remodel, I brought Matt and Michael (two of our grown sons) to Ventura to see the remodel. They walked through the house with tears in their eyes and said to me, “Mom. I can’t believe you did this for our family. It’s incredible”.
I will never ever forget that moment. Ever. (And it made all of the stress over the remodel totally worth it!)
Thanks for joining me for a tour of our beach house.
This is my happy place. I love it so much.
Pin the image below to your Decor or Coastal decor boards on Pinterest (just click the Pin button in the top left corner). You can also follow along with me on Pinterest!
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It’s so beautiful Leslie. Very relaxing and calming. And of course you can’t beat having the ocean as your backyard! 💕 Ventura
Leslie, WOW! I love what you did here. The house was so dark before and you brightened everything up so nicely. I did a beach decor home a couple of houses ago and my accent color was aqua too! I would absolutely love to have a beach house one day. Oh to hear the waves…..what a dream!
Thank you for inviting me into your home. I would love to share a glass of wine with you and listen to the waves🥰
Awesome
Giving me too many ideas lol
Love it
Just gorgeous! What size beds are in the boys room? The starfish shadowbox link does not work, where did you find it? Thanks so much for sharing your homes with us!
I have seen this beach house many times in your pictures and each time, I enjoy it more and more. I love your style and following along. I especially love the camera you previously placed out on the porch to be able to see the ocean anytime you want. ♥ I would do the same thing if I had a beach house. Sending love from Indiana…. where we don’t have beaches but cornfields. 🙂
Love this! Every time I drive through Ventura I think about popping in for a glass!! Do I recall you were about to do some more work on the beach house? I can’t imagine what you’ve dreamed up!
Absolutely beautiful! I love seeing how you accent spaces with the aqua blue! You do such a beautiful job Leslie! So happy to join you for the Coastal Home Decor tour this week! Every one of you are inspiring! Hope you have a wonderful weekend friend! – Jen @cozycottagestyle
Leslie, For a house that was in good condition upon purchase, you did a MAJOR renovation! The results would make a person wonder if it was even the same house, well done!. That master bath door is totally awesome as are the mouldings you used around the house; also love that apron sink in the kitchen. The new stairs and banisters look so much better; taking out all those beams really opened things up and I really hope they were the fake ones! I can’t believe all that brown tile (not that it was horrible), it made everything so so dark along with all the dark cabinets and black on the railings…and that very unusual ceiling that almost looked acoustical???? Is it standard to have all that carpeting in a beach house…seems odd given tile/wood floors would be so much easier to keep clean?? You were a true trooper with this remodel Leslie, well done.
One of these days you should do a posting on the little things you might have done differently, if any.
Leslie, it is such a warm, homey, and picture-perfect remodel. You should be proud.
May I ask what wall paint you used in the dining room? It appears almost a creamy white?
Thanks so much for sharing and how lovely your sons are so loving toward you. God is good!
Wow! The after photos are literally a breath of fresh air. Beautiful.
Would you please give a list of the paint colors your used in the beach house?
My family has a beach house in Grayton Beach, on the 30A corridor, along the Panhandle of Florida. We have owned it for 20 years, my grandchildren have grown up there, spending summers, Spring Breaks, Christmas holidays in the Gulf of Mexico and pool in our backyard.
I love the colors you used to decorate your house and plan to use aqua and Navy accents when redecorating some of the bedrooms in my house.
Thanks for sharing your Happy Place. I so identify with that expression, bc my beach house is my Happy Place.
P.S. I too am the mother of 3 sons, and one of mine is named Matt.
Can you please explain in detail how you got it done in three months? Serious question. Thanks!
Leslie:
I would watch your show on HGTV in a heartbeat! I’d set it to record so that I’d never miss an episode!. You are truly talented. My hat’s off to you!
Love, love, love.
Love it! What is that creamy white color on the walls and brighter white trim color?
Beautiful!!! Would also like to know color on walls.
Oh my word, you did a fabulous job with that gorgeous beach home! You are truly blessed to have such heavenly views, and such a pretty home when there. Just wow. Thanks so much for sharing this. Well done, ma’am!
Leslie, it’s amazing! Your son’s reaction says it all. Kudos to you … such a lovely getaway for your family! xo
Your beach house is absolutely stunning!! I really like your color choices and the bathroom tile is gorgeous.
Thanks for sharing this beautiful space;)
I SO love your paintings Leslie, the colors are so calming , you are blessed with so many talents , you’re SO inspiring and of course your home is simply BEAUTIFUL ♡♡♡
I love the colors of your beach house. I’m updating our beac bedroom and would love to know your paint colors…especially the wall with the triptych and the first floor bath. LOVE your art/ paintings style! Thank you sooo very much!