DIY bloggers update their home, with help from a TV design pro

Last year, Bruno Bornsztein and Alicia Lacy did something controversial: They painted the dark-stained woodwork in their century-old Dutch Colonial a crisp white.

That might not sound like a radical act, but Bornsztein and Lacy arent just any couple. They publish the DIY and home decor websites Curbly.com and ManmadeDIY.com, and their own home improvements are shared with thousands of readers, many of whom werent thrilled when Bornsztein revealed their plans for their woodwork online.

Our readers are purists when it comes to woodwork and think its a sin to paint it, Bornsztein said. But its our house, and well be living here for 30 years.

The couples home makeover has been a labor of love. When they bought the 1907-built St. Paul, Minn., house, it offered a wealth of DIY potential. It had been vacant and neglected, with visible water damage. But it also offered a good floor plan, a beautiful coffered ceiling and a fireplace with a Mission-style Craftsman mantel. Four bedrooms upstairs offered plenty of room for the family, which, at the time, included a toddler and a baby on the way.

We love old, unloved houses and want to fix them up, Lacy said. Were the crazy cat people of old houses. We went into it so blind, but we were optimistic and driven by the potential it had.

With Bornsztein as general contractor, they demolished and gutted the main floor and part of the upstairs, put in a new furnace, and rewired and replumbed the whole house. It was backbreaking, painstaking work, he recalled. We had to take down each one of the trim pieces of the coffered ceiling, number them, and put it all back together.

Then they made the controversial decision to paint the woodwork, to make the space brighter, younger and modern, Lacy said.

With the main living spaces updated, the couple focused on the dinky kitchen tucked into a back corner. The cupboards and walls were lemon yellow, and counter space was minimal. To expand the kitchen and create a Minnesota must-have mudroom, they built a 600-square-foot, two-story addition on the back of the home. Upstairs, the extra space gave them a spacious master suite with a walk-in closet and bathroom. At the last minute, the couple decided to vault the ceiling in the bedroom. The raised roof and window added some cost, but makes a big impact, Bornsztein said. The room feels bigger and more special, Lacy added.

Being a DIY guy, Bornsztein pitched in on every project, hiring some out and enlisting friends to help with others. He stripped, sanded and painted woodwork, hung wallboard, laid tile and did demolition.

Im handy to a point, but Im not comfortable with building a whole new structure, he said.

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DIY bloggers update their home, with help from a TV design pro