A Fresh Start for A Historic Home

833 19th St.

Built in 1905 by Philetus P. Dawson and his wife Delilah I. Dawson, this fully restored Colonial Revival American Foursquare has modern amenities, a new poured concrete foundation, finished basement with 9 foot ceilings, and updated mechanicals to accommodate families of today.

Philetus P. Dawson was a hardware merchant in Des Moines and owned the Dawson Hardware Co., a late 19th and early 20th century enterprise in downtown Des Moines.

After several years owned by the Dawson family, the Dawson House became a rental property and was occupied by a series of Drake University fraternities and sororities. Pictured above is a photo of the house from the 1926 Drake University yearbook, “Quax,” as it appeared as Drake sorority Delta Gamma’s winning entry in a homecoming house decorating contest.

In 2019, the Dawson House was transported from a neighborhood near Drake University to its current location in Sherman Hill, Des Moines’ oldest neighborhood. It is within walking distance of coffee houses, restaurants, shops, downtown offices, and more.

We dreamt up this space long before it came to life, and we couldn't be more grateful for Laneways Development for helping us make it happen.

1905

Present Day

The Process

Staying true to the traditional character of a Craftsman, we salvaged and restored natural elements of the home such as trim and flooring. We felt that the contrast of dark trim would seem more appealing and less heavy to the eye. Finishes were well thought out to be a mix of new and old. You will see a continuous and intentional mix of white, black and green and golds throughout the home. The more modern clean lights help bring a different style perspective with the woodwork. Decorating with a dash of Boho pieces helped bring all styles together.

Sitting Area

Dining + Kitchen

For the kitchen, we decided on this beautiful putty-colored cabinetry, meaning a creamy, off-white color on the surround. For the kitchen island, we needed something that felt different with a bit more saturation. We decided to go with this really deep green-olive color and we couldn’t be happier with how it turned out!

Mudroom

Master Bedroom

Primary Bath

In choosing the finishes for the primary bathroom, we wanted to tie in unexpected details that would flow beautifully with the home. We knew we wanted the green tile to be the focal point of our bathroom. We love the look of it so much! It adds such a unique splash of color and texture and it totally completes this space.

Thank you for taking the tour! We will be sharing more of this project soon in later posts. A special thank you to Laneways Development for collaborating with us on this amazing project.

Spring Is Here: Boho Chic Home Photo Tour

We are back with our latest home stage project, a super charming two-bedroom ranch style home located in the Highland Park neighborhood in Des Moines! Spring is here and this was the perfect opportunity to break out all of our soft pinks and greens we’ve been saving up all winter. We worked with Steph Anania to dress up this gorgeous home and get it ready to put on the market. We are so grateful for the collaboration and we couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out!

This home has the most gorgeous look and feel, It's incredible, but we'll let the photos do the talking. 

Thanks for taking the tour! We’ll have more staging and remodel projects to share soon so stay tuned!

A Traditional 2001 Home Gets A 2021 Stamp of Approval

S. 49th

Street

Living Room

Before/After

You've got to see this pretty transformation!

Happy March everyone! We are back again with another incredible home remodel. If you haven’t been keeping up with our S.49th Street social posts, fear not, we are here to bring you up to speed.

49th was purchased to renovate then resale by Kruse Development. The challenge of this home was to bring it up to date while maintaining it's beautiful classic bones. We loved those classic details seen in the woodwork and the beautiful windows. Our goal was to bring more attention to those elements. We did this by highlighting them with lighter floors and paint. The living room as a whole was not living as grand as the windows and ceiling height had set it out to be! Underwhelming and awkward placed built-ins were killing the vibe. A centered fireplace, and symmetrical built-ins with matching wood shelving with the floor really helped this room breathe and brought back it's intended splendor. The cobblestone provided the perfect amount of weight to help anchor the room. And... oh yeah that beautiful budget friendly chandelier, like, really tied the room together.

BEFORE

You might have noticed in the before photos the amount of light fixtures in this home, we counted 13 in the entry, dining, living and kitchen. Eeek. We decided to cut back on the amount of fixtures and utilize the functionality and simplicity of cans.

AFTER

Overall we give this traditional 2001 home the now modern traditional 2021 stamp of approval. So bright, yet so cozy. We couldn't be more thrilled for the new owners!