If there's one thing serial home renovators Kevin and Laine Berry can't resist, it's an old house with a history. So, when a stunning Victorian fixer-upper in Laine's childhood town of Conway, Arkansas came up for sale over a decade ago, they embarked upon a passion project, turning a dilapidated building into a truly charming home.
Click or scroll to see the stunning transformation...
The husband and wife team have renovated old homes for over 20 years now. When they first started out, Laine also ran a bridal salon and Kevin helmed an advertising agency, but restoring old homes is their passion and, these days, their primary focus.
They call what they do 'home rehabilitation' and are also educating others about the process. "For both of us, restoration is our love and our passion," explains Laine.
Growing up in Conway, Arkansas, Laine used to pass this stunning Victorian house on the way to and from school. "I never saw a living breathing soul around the house, so I didn't even know if anybody lived there," Laine recalls.
With the couple already owning a 1933 colonial revival nearby, they drove past the abandoned home every day, hoping to eventually make it theirs and start their ultimate fixer-upper project.
Eventually, in 2011, the house came on the market and the couple bought it for $106,000 (£78k). However, there was a catch as it was being sold as a teardown.
"Our foundation guy crawled under the house after we'd purchased it and said, you haven't bought this house have you?" explains Laine. He then went on to tell the couple that they couldn't go into the house again until they had built a new foundation.
After years of hard work and renovations, the home, which the couple nicknamed 'Scottie' is unrecognisable. The exterior has been remodelled from a dingy and broken home into a pale blue dream, while the inside is just as stunning.
Let's take a look at the breathtaking home transformation with some before and after pics...
Old photos show the porch as it was before Laine and Kevin got their hands on it. Unstable due to the crumbling foundations, the space, which was surrounded by overgrown weeds, needed a refresh.
Today, the porch is the perfect place to relax for the couple when they aren't busy renovating houses. Framed by the original windows, it's one of the things they are most proud of.
"It sounds like we had to take everything out, but we were able to keep all of our historic windows. That's a big thing here in the US, everybody's always pulling out their historic windows and there's no reason to do so," says Kevin.
Before the restoration, the staircase was completely enclosed. "When we bought the house it was dark and awful, like a dungeon," says Laine.
The second floor was closed off, so the Berrys opened it up and restored the stunning spindles to open up the hallway, making it a light and bright space.
"One of the things that we love about homes of this period are the central halls where you can have a long hallway connecting the front door and the back door," says Laine.
That's exactly what the couple chose to do. After unblocking the stairs, they moved a small powder room that was in the way of access to the back door and opened up a 'breezeway'.
Today, the stunning space features a mural on the wall and white hardwood floors. Laine and Kevin thought that they'd be able to keep the original floors in the house, but sadly they weren't able to.
"We were so excited we pulled up the carpets and found the original hardwood floors. We thought 'we're going to be able to keep them' but then our workmen kept falling through because of the termite damage," says Laine.
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With most of the home uninhabitable, Kevin and Laine had to start demolition as soon as the house was safe to enter. "We discovered that it basically was being held together by the carpet and the panelling that was on the walls," says Laine.
There were also several large holes under the carpet, some that reached down three feet!
Sitting just off the entryway is the formal living room. It's a light and bright space with a mix of new and old furniture. When it comes to finishing the house, Laine has a strict rule, "if we lay on it, or we sit on it, it's bought new," she explains.
Everything else is chosen carefully and pieced together from estate sales, thrift shops and car boot sales.
As with most old houses, Scottie was full of hidden surprises that Kevin and Laine found by repairs and maintenance. The couple discovered disguised ceiling space under panelling which stopped short at just nine feet.
"Kevin went to make a little repair in the ceiling and discovered that the ceilings were not nine feet, they were 12," says Laine.
Today, the difference in all the rooms is vast but is especially noticeable in the master bedroom. The only sleeping space in the house, while the Berrys use upstairs to store furniture for their other fixer-upper projects, it sits just off the hallway.
It's a cosy space with an original fireplace and the couple have decorated sympathetically, with vintage suitcases and beautiful artwork above the mantelpiece and surrounding the dressing table.
After buying the home in 2011, the home was uninhabitable due to the termite infestation and unstable foundations. However, one thing it did have was a working toilet. Despite that, the bathroom, of course, needed an entire update.
"We lived with my in-laws, they were so gracious. But what was supposed to be a six-month jaunt with them ended up being almost a year and a half," explains Laine. The first 16 months of their huge project cost them an estimated $120,500 (£96.2k).
After moving the bathroom from the back of the house, the couple decided that they wanted an ensuite in their master bedroom. As usual, with a vision in mind, they decided that this would be the perfect space with its original windows, fireplace and double doors.
"We have one full bath behind that space because it's just the two of us and I don't want to see any more toilets!" explains Laine. Sitting behind the master bedroom, it's the perfect retreat.
When they started restoring old houses over 20 years ago, Kevin and Laine didn't document their journey. But in more recent years they've gained a huge following on their Instagram with their latest projects.
With a broad knowledge of restoring period features and maintaining the character of old homes, Scottie was no exception, and they set to work on restoring this old fireplace.
In fact, the couple are so passionate about bringing historic houses back to life that they started Our Restoration Nation, a website dedicated to showing people their projects and creating a community of people who want to learn how to save houses and preserve history. Their slogan is "There's no such thing as a teardown".
With stunning moulding and a marbled stone, the full restored fireplace makes the perfect addition to the bathroom with the freestanding tub and chiase for resting post-soak.
Before the house was condemned, the couple came in and made some amazing discoveries. "We came in and we pulled the 1970s panelling off the wall and found out that yes, there was a hole for pocket doors, but there were no pocket doors," says Laine.
A pocket door is a sliding door that disappears into a compartment in the adjacent wall when rolled open. They eventually found the missing doors hidden in the garage!
"We realised that they had taken our beautiful eight-foot pocket doors from inside the house and turned them into shelves to put oil cans on in the garage. We were able to salvage those, and put them back," says Laine.
Her favourite thing about the house is that it reminds her of how far they've come and what can be done with some preservation and restoration.
Steeped in history, the home once belonged to a local, who gifted it to his son as a wedding present. Today, the daughter still lives behind the Berrys and shares stories of her childhood with the couple.
"We found an instruction booklet for a big pot-bellied stove and she told us that they fitted it in the dining room and the first time they lifted it, it exploded. So there's just lots of fun history that we were able to uncover through the process," says Laine.
When Laine and Kevin moved in, the kitchen wasn't in a working state, so it was time for them to get their hands on it although, sadly, we don't have a before picture to show you. Kevin's favourite part of the house, the kitchen has been renovated to a modern standard with period touches.
"One of the things that I think we see people fail the most on when they're doing restorations, is they put this uber-modern kitchen in a historic house and it just doesn't flow properly," he explains.
Aside from the pocket doors in the garage, the couple also found their kitchen sink sitting in a pile of rubbish. After resurfacing it and putting it in the newly designed kitchen, it's the perfect addition.
Overall, the second leg of their project which included the new kitchen and moving the powder room cost them around $11,000 (£8.8k).
Upstairs in the 2,500-square-foot house, Kevin and Laine got their hands dirty and added two bedrooms and a bathroom.
"I think a lot of people get their spaces to a place and they let it sort of stagnate, but I think our homes are as living as we are, and they have to evolve and change. So it's constantly changing, there's always a new wall colour or a change in theme," muses Laine.
Since restoring Scottie, Laine and Kevin have renovated numerous historic homes in the US and they also have their hands full developing their community of like-minded people.
We can't wait to take a tour of their next finished project!
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