DIY Den Renovation: Updating My Den From 1968
Fun fact: My house was built in 1968. While that’s not necessarily bad, it does mean that we needed a lot of updates… and a lot of budget-friendly DIY.
Honestly, our house had (has) more issues than we knew, but we’re slowly doing what we can to improve and update it to be a more functional and beautiful home. For this particular project, we knew exactly what we were getting into.
The Before: 1968 Shag Carpeting, Fake Wood Paneling, and Stained Wallpaper
Sadly, the only FULL before photo was a video of my dog playing around – not something you could see the room in, but I considered putting it in here anyways. So, the only “before” images you’ll get are ones where we already started the demo.
Here’s the first picture of the project:
VERY dirty brown *matted* shag carpet, wood paneling and wallpaper on the walls, a disgusting ceiling (picture below), and a lot of water damage from a giant fish tank that was left topless.
The den itself was a DIY project by the previous homeowners, done back in the late 60s over the old carport. But, while the wiring was awful (thank god we’re from a family of electricians and had professionals available to help), the fireplace was truly a feature we didn’t want to let go to waste.
The Demolition of Our Outdated Den
The demo made us realize that our overestimated estimates for repair and replacement were actually spot on. We had WAY more sub-flooring to replace and even a few beams below the house to repair and replace too.
Plus, there was this random hole in the wall by our brick fireplace:
I was pregnant with my first at the time and tried to stay out of the way. Luckily, my husband had his two friends help out! Between them, my family, and his family, it took us about a month to completely flip it around! This was partially due to time, funds, and skill.
Also, they were not very safe with their processes (I would not recommend them).
Repairing The Den: Walls, Flooring, Insulation, and More
Next, we repaired and replaced the walls, floors, and even insulation. The most time-consuming part was putting up new drywall – which I think ended up being put weirdly, but it works!
Drywall is an absolute pain to put up and mud, but it’s a necessity (most of the time) and more budget-friendly than the other options available. This was our first real DIY project (excluding our bathroom; we don’t talk about the bathroom).
Adding The Flooring and Paint
Ultimately, for this first round of renovations, we choose dark grey paint and an acacia laminate plank flooring. Painting another time consuming task, but we actually knocked out our flooring in one day!
Moving on to the flooring – the laminate we used was on last chance sale and is now out of stock, but this color from Home Depot is the closest thing I could find: Russet Hickory 7mm Laminate Flooring.
I’ll be honest: we did not think of how all the colors would “work” together when we started this project—we really just wanted a den that worked.
Updating Our Sliding Glass Door
Replacing the sliding glass door was one of the most expensive aspects of our 1960s den update. The door didn’t lock, lost tons of heat, and could barely slide! We picked out a Pre-Hung Steel Patio Door with Built in Blinds like this one from Home Depot for the replacement.
Check out the before and after:
The *ALMOST* Finished Den Remodel
Okay, so we – at that time – we were really in love with how our den turned out. For good reason, too! It was a HUGE improvement and made the space livable and safe. But, in 2021, we decided to re-do AGAIN, but here’s how the almost finished remodel turned out:
I worked at GameStop right before we did this and I would take home TONS of posters after a game would launch (which you can too, just talk to the manager). My hubby thought it would be a great idea to do a wall of posters and talked me into it. We found the couch at an overstock store in Charleston.
The rest of our furniture was gathered from our time in the apartment beforehand, friends and family, and Walmart.
Here’s a photo of it essentially undecorated:
What Our 1960s Den Looks Like Now:
We did a bit of an update in November of 2021… Nothing major, just some new paint, updated furniture, and actual wall and tabletop decorations. Here’s the final look:
I’ll publish a full breakdown post of what we bought vs. what we built soon! But, overall, I love how light and open it feels now! We’re actually using our space and thanks to some mad decor and design skills of a friend, we placed our furniture in a completely different way than me and my husband would have thought of!
Plus, Austin built this super cool DIY Pallet Wall TV Mount from scratch! You can read how here.
Hoping to update our 1960s bathroom soon! Keep an eye out!
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