Nearly every day, I browse lovely sites and blogs featuring beautifully styled homes photographed in bright, natural light. They contain hard to come by vintage chairs whose owners have somehow picked them up at flea markets for pennies. Hand loomed rugs with ridiculous price tags that look like they’re from the flea market. Coffee table books stacked everywhere but coffee tables, by color and size. And close-up shots of painstakingly styled shelves, countertops, and windowsills, showing off a beloved collection of dust-free trinkets, “haphazardly” stacked artwork, well-established succulents, purposefully empty vases, and disposable time and money.
So when it came time to photograph Deep Eaves in her final, finished state, you could say I had expectations. However, I live in reality and not a modern home design site. Here in Jamaica Plain, as wonderful as it is, magical light does not stream through the windows. My modest budget could only buy so many props to fill 1,100 square feet on the unfurnished third floor – and the ones I did buy came from Ikea, Target, or West Elm’s sale section (let’s be honest, I’d shop at all three of those stores even with a bigger budget). And while most days I love that Lou and I don’t have a lot of “stuff,” looking through the lens of the camera my home furnishing inferiority, the empty dresser tops and sparse shelves left something (okay, lots of things) to be desired.
Of course, I don’t really care about the stuff. What really matters is that the photos shown here, taken by my dad, show off all our hard work. My dad visited for a long weekend and we spent a couple days shooting all the rooms from different locations, with different exposures, bracketing, and at different hours of the day. When he returned home, he spent hours on the photos, wrangling the shadows and bright spots so all that’s actually left is magical light. The only thing he didn’t do was work in any Eames chairs, Moroccan rugs, or art pieces. #photoshopfail
Here’s a selection of the photos with a few “befores” sprinkled in for fun. For the full set – only a few more than what’s seen here, turns out, visit the Flickr album.
Top of stairs entryway
guest bedroom
guest bedroom before
living room through to dining room to kitchen
living room before
stairwell going down from the third floor sitting room to the second floor bedroom
the space formerly known as the scary closet under the stairwell
Scary closet and stairwell before
new built-in with underwhelming amount of “stuff”
new built-in and entryway with vita light
entryway before (also, how many people can you spot in this photo?)
Flor covered stairs, perforated steel radiator screen
before: horrible mantel, linoleum, and carpet treads
pinterest-worthy coffee nook
kitchen
kitchen before
top of the stairs, third floor, and hallway to office
third floor hallway before
the master suite – bedroom
the dressing room in the master suite
master suite before
the sitting room in the master suite
window seat in the sitting room
sitting room before (FKA third floor kitchen?)
sitting room sans window seat before (FKA third floor kitchen?)
the office
the office before
third floor bath sink
third floor bath shower (waiting on shower glass)
third floor bath before
Deep Eaves & Empty Pockets 
Your transformation is stunning .. .we are just embarking on our project, and googling for ideas. thanks for the inspiration, and enjoy the beers! You surely deserve them!