Houzz Tours
Before and Afters
Vacation Homes
Houzz Tour: Condo Destroyed by Hurricane Harvey Comes Back Strong
A designer helps owners of a demolished waterfront condo in Texas create the getaway they’d always wanted
Before: This (unfortunately blurred) photo shows what the condo looked like before Harvey hit. The door on the left is the front entrance; the enclosed area to the right is the kitchen. Though the style and finishes were past their prime and the layout was choppy, the homeowners had never wanted to spend money on a remodel since the condo functioned fine.
Before: Harvey changed all that, of course. Here’s the home post-hurricane and after a remediation company came in to remove the debris. This angle shows the front door to the left and the window in the kitchen area to the right.
After: Here’s the same space now, with the kitchen open to both the front door and the adjacent dining area. The color palette for the remodel is beach-inspired and incorporates the blue of the water, the white of the surf and the tan of the sand. The engineered quartz counters, for example, are meant to evoke wet sand, while the glass mosaic tile backsplash in watery hues brings to mind the sea.
Shiplap and cabinet paint: White Dove, Benjamin Moore; island paint: Moody Blue, Sherwin-Williams
Shiplap and cabinet paint: White Dove, Benjamin Moore; island paint: Moody Blue, Sherwin-Williams
One challenge of the remodel was that the unit’s exterior walls are built of cinder block. To run cabinetry along the wall shown here, the contractor had to drill into the cinder block and attach furring strips, then hang the cabinets from the strips. The shiplap in the dining room was hung the same way.
The hood above the range — hidden under shiplap — couldn’t be vented to the outside because of the cinder block. Instead, it sucks up air and odors, pushes them through a filter, then releases the cleaned air back into the room. “You’re not going to be searing steaks on it — it won’t clear that kind of smoke,” Turner says. But for a getaway home, the owners are OK with that.
For the cabinets, Turner chose classic Shaker style, deliberately avoiding insets, beadboard and any other detail trending now, reasoning that simple Shaker has staying power. The square bar pulls have a brushed brass finish.
The homeowners use the island for most of their meal prep, taking advantage of the easy work triangle from sink to stove to refrigerator and back to the island. A dishwasher is to the left of the sink.
The hood above the range — hidden under shiplap — couldn’t be vented to the outside because of the cinder block. Instead, it sucks up air and odors, pushes them through a filter, then releases the cleaned air back into the room. “You’re not going to be searing steaks on it — it won’t clear that kind of smoke,” Turner says. But for a getaway home, the owners are OK with that.
For the cabinets, Turner chose classic Shaker style, deliberately avoiding insets, beadboard and any other detail trending now, reasoning that simple Shaker has staying power. The square bar pulls have a brushed brass finish.
The homeowners use the island for most of their meal prep, taking advantage of the easy work triangle from sink to stove to refrigerator and back to the island. A dishwasher is to the left of the sink.
The tall cabinet to the right of the refrigerator functions as a utility closet and pantry. “With 1,000 square feet and a very small kitchen, we had to use every inch of space we could to get storage and functionality,” Turner says. The homeowners keep their cleaning supplies on one side of the cabinet and dry goods on the other. Turner fronted the cabinet with multiple doors because a single door of that height would have sagged or bent over time, she says.
The dining table is color-matched to the island and finished with a dark translucent wax to deepen and antique it. The chandelier is made of raw oyster shells.
The dining table is color-matched to the island and finished with a dark translucent wax to deepen and antique it. The chandelier is made of raw oyster shells.
Turner choose wood-look porcelain tile for the floor to echo the look of distressed beach wood. Rather than use shiplap on the ceiling, she had it painted a warm tan-gray (Sherwin-Williams’ Worldly Gray) to create color balance, with the color and depth of the floors and ceiling paired with white walls.
Turner selected a simple, semiflush wine barrel and iron chandelier for the living area so as not to compete with the flashier oyster shell fixture.
Ceiling paint: Worldly Gray, Sherwin-Wililams
Turner selected a simple, semiflush wine barrel and iron chandelier for the living area so as not to compete with the flashier oyster shell fixture.
Ceiling paint: Worldly Gray, Sherwin-Wililams
Before: Here’s how the living room looked before Harvey.
After: Here’s the living room now. To get plentiful seating while keeping the flow open, Turner chose a cozy sectional in a warm greige and a swivel armchair in casual blue-gray linen. Woven bamboo shades warm the room, and wall art depicting a cresting wave (to the left of the window) and a modern jellyfish (on the right) reinforce the beach theme.
Turner liked the distressed mango wood coffee table for its bit of green, which connects with the green hue of the taxidermied dolphin fish mounted on the wall. The fish was the only item of the condo’s decor that survived the storm, though it did require repairs. After the hurricane, the homeowners named the fish Harvey.
Turner liked the distressed mango wood coffee table for its bit of green, which connects with the green hue of the taxidermied dolphin fish mounted on the wall. The fish was the only item of the condo’s decor that survived the storm, though it did require repairs. After the hurricane, the homeowners named the fish Harvey.
Before the hurricane, the condo had no fireplace. The owners thought it would be nice to have one, especially during the holidays. Turner found an electric insert that generates real heat, and its flames change colors from blue to purple. She had a shiplap surround built and created the mantel from a piece of driftwood she found washed ashore after the hurricane. As a safety feature, the owners can disable the fireplace when they rent the condo out.
To the left of the fireplace is a doorway that leads to the downstairs bathroom.
To the left of the fireplace is a doorway that leads to the downstairs bathroom.
The bathroom vanity is custom and topped with the same tan-gray quartz used in the kitchen. The glass backsplash has the same colors as the kitchen backsplash but features a fish scale shape. Distressed beach wood on the mirror echoes the wood on the mantel and range hood.
The shower wall tile is the same porcelain used on the floor throughout the condo. Turner chose a tile for the shower floor that looks like river rock, and she added a shower niche in the same tile as the vanity backsplash.
Because the vanity wall is cinder block, the sconces had to be mounted on side walls.
The shower wall tile is the same porcelain used on the floor throughout the condo. Turner chose a tile for the shower floor that looks like river rock, and she added a shower niche in the same tile as the vanity backsplash.
Because the vanity wall is cinder block, the sconces had to be mounted on side walls.
The iron staircase was the only part of the condo that remained intact after the storm, though it did become coated with rust and had to be sandblasted. “It looked like something you pulled from the ocean,” Turner says.
To the left of the staircase is the microwave wall and coffee station, as well as a door that conceals the water heater.
To the left of the staircase is the microwave wall and coffee station, as well as a door that conceals the water heater.
Turner used the same shower floor tile from the lower bathroom for the vanity backsplash here, as well as on the shower floor. The floating vanity is whitewashed mango wood (the same wood used on the living room coffee table). The black mirror is designed to look like a ship’s porthole. The wall paint is the same Moody Blue used as an accent in the kitchen and dining area.
For the guest room Turner reused the palette from downstairs but reversed the colors, with Worldly Gray on the walls and White Dove-painted shiplap on the ceiling. The bedside pendants are handblown blue glass and were originally meant to be hung lower, but the electrician snipped the wiring a bit shorter than Turner wanted.
Before the renovation, the condo had two bedrooms, but the homeowners have a daughter and like to invite guests to stay in the condo, so they wanted a third. Turner combined what was originally the master bedroom closet with a small linen closet to form this 107-square-foot bunk room.
The top bunk is a twin and the bottom is queen-size. It’s the only place in the condo where Turner departed from the beachy blue, white and sand color scheme.
The top bunk is a twin and the bottom is queen-size. It’s the only place in the condo where Turner departed from the beachy blue, white and sand color scheme.
Before: Here’s the master bedroom before Harvey.
After: Turner added shiplap to the bed wall and used Moody Blue paint on the adjacent wall, which has a sliding door that leads to a balcony overlooking the water. The headboard is distressed wood. Two gold-leafed driftwood lamps elevate the room’s decor.
More
Data Watch: The Cost of the Summer Hurricanes
How Much Does It Cost to Hire an Interior Designer?
More
Data Watch: The Cost of the Summer Hurricanes
How Much Does It Cost to Hire an Interior Designer?
Who lives here: This is a vacation condo for a couple and their little girl
Location: Port Aransas, Texas
Size: 1,000 square feet (93 square meters)
Designer: Lauren Turner Design
When Hurricane Harvey hit in 2017, this condo in Port Aransas (off the coast of Corpus Christi, Texas) was demolished. The devastating storm ripped off the condo’s roof and blew out the windows, leaving the drywall crumbling. The floors, subfloors, walls, finishes and electrical all had to be removed because of the damage.
The condo owners had been planning to remodel their main home in Austin, Texas. Instead, they decided to use their savings to cover what insurance wouldn’t and make the condo the weekend getaway they’d always wanted. “It was as close to a new build as you can get without having to do the foundation and framing,” designer Lauren Turner says.