Our Rhode Island Waterfront House Tour
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Let’s take a tour of our newly completed Rhode Island waterfront home! Earlier this year, I shared a new house build project on Greenwich Bay that we were diving into and I am happy to say, it’s finished!
If you’re new here, this house project actually came to us through one of Jim’s friends, who heard about a waterfront property on Greenwich Bay in Rhode Island that had just hit the market in their neighborhood.
It came with a few challenges though as the city had placed the home in receivership, which meant they were pushing the homeowner to sell it after years of slow progress.
The previous owner had been working on it for (I think) eight years but had only completed about 20%. Eventually, the city decided to auction it off, and Jim ended up being the highest bidder.
When we first visited the property, the house was framed and partially enclosed. The back of the house, which faces the water, was still covered in plywood.
The previous owner had poured so much into it, hoping it would be his retirement home, so letting go was tough. Jim and I even shared a lunch with him before we closed, and you could feel that bittersweet mix of pride and loss he felt in passing it on.
We still have a lot of decorating left to do inside the house and so much landscaping to finish but we are 80% there!
I am hoping to photograph the house at some point with my tripod and camera but for now, my phone pictures will give you a good idea of the progress. I’ve linked 95% of everything we bought for this house but if you see something that I didn’t link, feel free to leave a comment or send me an email.
Entryway Foyer
The overall square footage of the house is just under 3000 square feet and features 5 bedrooms and 4 baths.
The entryway, which leads to the open concept living room and kitchen, features black slate stone in a herringbone pattern.
Stair Newel Post | Balusters | Handrail | Stair treads
We used exterior deck balusters for our interior staircase because we had a lot leftover from a previous job. If you were installing new balusters inside your home, you could use
We installed white oak hardwood flooring and red oak handrails and posts which we applied the same Bona whitewash product to neutralize the red and pink undertones of the red oak.
Why didn’t we just buy white oak handrails and posts?
To get this look in white oak would have cost three times as much so whitewashing the red oak (like we did on our floors) is an economical way to get the white oak look.
Interior Doors & Wall Color
All of the interior doors are from Horner Millwork and are from the Masonite Lincoln Park 1 panel shaker solid core collection. I love the simple clean lines and the black lever handles coordinate perfectly.
We painted them Behr Cracked Pepper which is a perfect black color that coordinates nicely with the Benjamin Moore White Dove walls.
Kitchen and Living Room
One of the best features of this house (besides the view) was the previous home owner had installed truss joist framing which means there are no load bearing walls in the home.
The open concept kitchen and living room overlooks the cove which is sandwiched between two marina’s on Greenwich Bay and the view is absolutely stunning.
Here is a screenshot from a video (sorry, I can’t find any pictures of the interior from this view) of the what this space looked like with the entire back wall enclosed with plywood.
The full view doors and windows took almost 8 months to arrive from the date of order and it was pretty amazing to see the amount of light that flowed in once Jim removed the plywood and installed the doors.
Fireplace insert | Coffee table
We chose soft grays, blues, and sand tones to emphasize the landscape views from outside.
The fireplace wall features Vinica Mugla White Marble Architectural Wall Tile from the Tile Shop and I love the texture it adds to the room.
The sectional is from Ashley Furniture Store in Rhode Island and the rug is from Home Goods.
Coastal wall art | Mid Century wood & leather chairs
Counter stools | Stainless steel hood | Living room chair | Island pendant | Wall art | Coffee table | Kitchen sink flush mount
Discover Surfaces in Millbury Ma installed Viatera Minuet quartz for our countertops and the color and faint veining is very simple and classic.
Island beverage refrigerator | Samsung smart refrigerator
We opted to not do a backsplash to keep the overall look clean and simple.
The Samsung refrigerator with a smart “ipad like” door is the coolest refrigerator ever! It syncs to Alex a, has app capabilities and so much more.
Based on the layout of the 2 windows in the kitchen, we didn’t have a lot of options for upper cabinets so we decided to install a stainless steel hood to create a sleek modern look and utilized the island for the microwave and pull out drawers for additional storage.
First Floor Bathroom
Oh the story behind this bathroom!
I won’t lie, it caused a handful of conflicts between Jimbo and I and well, it turned out great but there were a lot of compromises on both sides!
Toilet | Floor Tile | Shower Glass | Wall tile | Shower tile with black grout | Shower rainfall system
I will never forget the text Jim sent me with a picture of this black pebble tile saying it was for our master bath floor. I was not a fan and was like, you want a black floor in our master? Needless to say, we had two different visions.
My first question was, “are you planning to clean that tile floor?” 🤪
Cleaning the grout for this “flooring” would have been a nightmare so we compromised and purchased a black slate floor for our master vs. the pebble tile above.
Vanity | Mirror | Faucet | Clear globe sconces | Hardware | Shower Doors | Flamingo Artwork (Etsy) | Floor tile | Wall tile | Gold hardware
To utilize the wall tile above, we decided to add an accent wall in this bathroom and soften the look with a floating white oak vanity with brushed gold hardware.
I’ll share a post dedicated to this bathroom soon once it’s fully decorated (I’m on the hunt for simple towels that won’t fight with all of the patterns and possibly a shelf for above the toilet) and explain how everything came together in this space and the compromises we made. 😉
Related: Read this post, 10 large shower tile ideas, if you have a bath remodel on your mind.
2nd Floor Hallway
The second floor has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.
Jim built added a built in ironing board in the hallways and made a cute door to coordinate with the one panel interior doors from Horner.
The ironing board and iron fit perfectly behind the DIY door that Jim made.
If you love this ironing board setup, you find it here on Amazon.
If you are looking for interior doors with clean simple lines, the 1 panel Logan is perfect from Horner Millwork.
Master Bedroom
Waking up to the view from our master is so nice!
This room is also a work in progress as we still need to find artwork, an accent table for the swivel chairs, a throw rug for the side of the bed, throw pillows for the bed and a handful of decorative items to tie everything together.
We installed light filtering top down bottom up shades on every window and blend perfectly with the window trim.
Blue swivel chairs
Upholstered platform bed (blue/gray) | White quilt | Night stands | Swing arm night stand lighting| Blue bedding from Homegoods
I am on the hunt for a large piece of artwork for above the bed.
If you have any ideas, I left the comment section below active so feel free to send me some ideas!
Master Bathroom
Our master bathroom features modern coastal finishes with an open concept shower.
Glass Shower wall | Toilet | Black slate flooring | Pebble shower floor tile | Gray ribbon shower wall tile | Shower head
This bathroom does not have a closet so we installed nutmeg colored floating shelves for towels. I plan to get 2 low height baskets for the shelf on the vanity as well for storage.
Backlit Mirror | Vanity | Lighting | Faucet
Queen Guest Bedroom
I am on the hunt for two lamps and throw pillows for this queen bedroom.
I LOVE the lightweight quilt and blue heron artwork from Etsy.
The night tables and headboard are both from Wayfair | Blue and white bedding is from Homegoods
Bunk Room
This room is a work in progress.
We need to hang this surfboard on the wall above the top bunk and find a small area rug for the floor to complete this room.
The wood bunk beds, two navy duvets are both from Amazon.
I still need find a handful of items to complete this room but it’s almost done!
2nd Floor Bathroom
The guest bathroom on the 2nd floor is a mix of white and gray with nautical accents.
Lighting | Shower door | Vanity | Tile
To accentuate the vaulted ceiling we installed a full tile wall with an open tub shower combo.
The swing door on the tub is a nice alternative to a shower curtain especially when the ceiling height is higher than normal.
Finished Basement Living Room
The finished basement includes a tv room with a buffet wall for a microwave and small refrigerator, a full bathroom and a king bedroom.
The hallway that leads to the tv room features a handful of interior doors that access a laundry closet, and two utility closets.
The leather reclining sofa is from Ashley Furniture Store in Rhode Island.
King Guest Room
This bedroom is in the lower level and still needs an accent chair for the corner, wall art for above the bed and a couple of throw pillows.
We purchased the same hydraulic lift bed as the master bedroom but in gray for this bedroom.
Finished Basement Bathroom
Vanity | Sink | Countertop (we bought a white remnant top from Discover Surfaces in Millbury Ma) | Faucet | Lighting | Towel bar set | Mirror
Vanity | Sink | Shower wall tile | Shower doors | Toilet | Floor tile | Waste basket
Phew, this blog post took me about 8 hours to write and source all the products! I may have missed some so if you see something you like that I didn’t link to, leave a comment or shoot me an email.
I joked on Instagram last week that Jimbo nearly gave me a financial heart attack, when he found this “deal” and convinced me it was a great opportunity. Don’t tell him I said this but he was right, I’m so glad he pushed for it! I’m grateful for this new home and all the potential it holds!
More Posts – Our Modern Coastal Home
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This area is so rich in nautical history, quohoging, fishing and the revolutionary War. I suggest going into some of the shops in Newport and Jamestown for ideas. The Christmas tree shop 🥲🤨 was a great source of nautical decoration, reasonable priced and one didn’t feel bad tossing at the end of the season. I used Bella Costal designs. I found that I had to choose carefully on somethings because it can get too beachy. Think a Mariner’s compass would be nice. I have some pictures of our boat under sail and your section of the cove at sunset. My neighbor is an artist.
Thank you for the info Paulette! That’s a good idea on the compass 🙂
Are you going to sell this house or to rent it out?
Interested from Germany
Angela
we are keeping it 🙂
I love it all! You guys do beautiful work. I don’t blame you for keeping it! It’s gorgeous 👏
thank you susan 🙂