Modern Split Level Design
Not all, but some links in this post are affiliate links. Using them does not cost you more money, but helps TII continue to share valuable content with you, so thank you in advance for your support. Read our disclosures.
We are excited to finally share ALL the design decisions surrounding The Modern Split flip – from top to bottom! Because a good bit of projects you’ll find on the flips page actually wrapped up weeks, months, or years ago (We’re sort of playing catch up), it was difficult to find links to some of the products we actually used, so I sourced similar products when the exact ones were not available – some with better prices than when we bought them!
Let’s Start Outside The Modern Split Flip
Two-tone Grey Paint
At the time of this project’s construction, strong grey tones attracted me. Classic French Grey (SW) a color selected by Hannah Smith, a budding designer we worked with for the Browning House flip, became color of interest for this split level renovation. The color she chose was beautiful, but it concerned us how Classic French Grey appeared on this particular house. A two-tone design ended up being the compromising decision.
Light French Grey (not shown) was the complimentary color to Classic French Grey on the color deck. Unfortunately, it didn’t look quite right in person. My mother once told me a good way to find the perfect complimentary lighter shade is to ask the paint store to use a percentage of the subject color to create the new one. So that’s just what we did.
The light grey you see on this two-tone design is actually 25% of French Grey, 75% white. The darker grey is 100% French Grey.
Outdoor Wood Features & Accents
We are big believers in wood design elements. Accents such as these soften the look of a room or in this case, the exterior! Although I’m forgetting where we found inspiration for the horizontal line theme, you can bet the credit can be given to something I saw on Pinterest. Plus, it was such a nice visual change next to vertical board and batten siding.
We incorporated horizontal lines into three places:
- the privacy fence
- a front door wood feature
- wood accent “retaining wall” defining the two sides of the house
*wood accent at the front replaced a retaining wall that previously held up the earth on the left side of the house, to keep water away from the basement. After re-grading, a retaining wall wasn’t as necessary, so this mainly was for visual interest.
The custom metal house number sign is from an Etsy shop that is now closed, but here is a similar one.
Modern Split Deck Design
I can’t take credit for this back deck design: it was all Uriah. He thought it would marry tile selections inside to the outside. How did I get so lucky to marry this guy?
Time to Step Inside: Interior Design of the Modern Split
*Interior Wall Color: Light French Grey by SW
I knew I wanted to use matte black finishes, but also couldn’t stop dreaming about incorporating gold, too. So I chose to mix metals FOR THE FIRST TIME!.
Let’s start with the kitchen:
This matte black kitchen faucet and modern single basin sink looked amazing on the crisp White Quartz. Although the exact chevron backsplash is no longer available at Lowes or Home Depot, I found a super similar one on Amazon!
Now, Let’s Talk Hardware
We went with these Schlage door handles, in a matte black, with the exception of the front door, which was in a satin nickel finish.
Gold hardware on white cabinets is not my favorite combo, so I chose this antique gold bar pull for the grey island cabinets and the same pull, in a dark gunmetal finish for the white perimeter cabinets.
… And Lighting
This beautiful chandelier from West Elm perfectly incorporated matte black and gold.
Glass globe pendants with a touch of gold brought the kitchen & dining lighting package full circle.
And I can’t forget about the adorable honeycomb entry light from World Market at the entry!
These Anthropologie animal hooks made me melt – thankfully I bought them on sale.
Unfortunately they no longer carry these exact items, but no worries: I found a similar one!
Remember what this space used to look like?
The MODERN SPLIT Master Bathroom
Speaking of bathroom finishes, let’s talk about the master. Leftover backsplash tile helped us bring that chevron marble and grey tile full circle in the shower niche, while gold circle mirrors and tall black sconces continued the mixed metal theme throughout the home. Find that post in the final reveal!
We used this 3 x 6 white subway for the shower, flipped it vertical and kept a subway pattern. If I could do it again, I’d choose a 3 x 12 subway for scale.
The Basement Bathroom: Small Bathroom Design
If you remember from reading the Modern Split Progress post, this bathroom’s footprint was incredibly small, yet needed to be able to function as if it were full size because it served the basement bedroom.
Sources:
You can find the cheapest subway tile at home depot: brand we use is Daltile. We used a dark grey grout, here, but now prefer a light grey grout.
This particular small bathroom design was my baby – by far my favorite thing in the whole house.
We scored this barnwood from an old North Carolina tobacco barn on FB Marketplace and hired Myers Woodworking, who happened to work out of our old neighborhood in Cary, to make a custom floating wood vanity out of it.
Flooring
The main floor and upstairs all had existing red oak hardwoods. Although they required splicing in new boards when the walls were gone, a darker shade of stain made it seem as if it had always been this way. We used Dark Walnut by Minwax.
That’s a wrap, friends!
In case you may have missed the first “before” post in The Modern Flip series, then you can make your way to the “in-progress” one, then the final reveal.
Don’t forget to watch for website updates as we continually add our past flips to the Favorite Flips page and you can always follow progress of current projects on Instagram!
