A 1980s fixer upper in Oklahoma gets DIY updates to become a dream modern farmhouse.
It’s always inspiring to see someone transform their entire home through DIY projects. But is that possible for the rest of us? According to blogger and homeowner Astra Spanbauer of At Home with Astra, the answer is yes.
In the living room, Astra replaced the original carpet with vinyl wood flooring, installing it herself, of course. “I like the durability of it, having kids and pets, I didn’t want something that would get scratched up and ruined in real life,” she says.
When she first moved into her Shawnee, Oklahoma home in 2018, she knew very little about power tools or DIY projects. “I knew it would be a lot of work to update [the house],” she says. “My ex-husband was very handy, so I thought it was great that he would do all these projects. And then we got divorced. And it was a fixer upper, so I had to figure out how to get the projects all done.” Little by little and step by step, Astra has become a DIYer and has turned her home into her dream farmhouse, customized for her and her children.
On the front porch, Astra has painted the front door and added a hanging swing. The brick siding, however, is original to the home. “We had a Salvation Army that burned down in the ‘70s,” she says. “The owners who built this house went and got the bricks and used them. The wife hand cleaned them brick by brick.” Astra built herself a fireplace in the living room. “I had a wood burning fireplace, but it was sealed off permanently by a previous owner,” she says. She wanted an electric fireplace she could use, so decided to build this version in front of the original. “That way, if anyone in the future wants to do the wood burning fireplace, they can just take this part out,” she says. You can see the original brick of the first fireplace above the new one, which Astra wanted to keep visible.
Learning Curve
The home was built in 1979 and had an interior design to match. “It was a 1980s dream when I bought it,” Astra says. The house has 3,600 square feet, and all of it needed 21st-century updates. “I wanted to figure out how I could do it on my own without spending a lot of money,” she says. “I’m the kind of person that if I see someone else doing it, I figure I can do it too.” Astra started with painting and since then she has tackled big projects that have included plumbing, tiling, laying flooring and even gutting walls.
right I The staircase in the entryway received a big modern farmhouse update. “I wanted to do something with the staircase because that’s the first thing you see when you come in,” Astra says. “I wanted to make it a more modern farmhouse.” She took out the spindles and replaced them with wood slats. The stairs had carpet, so she took that off, painted the treads black and added a shiplap lookalike paper on the risers. But as gorgeous as they are, Astra may still do more in the future. “I may change out the wood slats for metal balusters,” she says.BeforeThe original 1980s kitchen had a gap between the upper cabinets and ceiling. “[The gap] was such a waste,” Astra says. “I knew I could fit cabinets up there, storage for items like seasonal dishes. So, I built boxes in the garage, put them on top of the cabinets, trimmed them out, and added doors.” Astra replaced the rest of the cabinet doors as well, so they would all match. “It makes everything feel so grand,” she says.
But that doesn’t mean she’s done it perfectly every time. “My skillset has definitely grown significantly in the last 5 years,” Astra says. One of her biggest “fails” was in redoing her kitchen countertops in 2022. She decided to pour concrete countertops. “I love the concrete, but I didn’t do a good job,” she says. “I didn’t get the consistency right, so it was lumpy.” She had to completely redo the island, but the other countertops were better, so she left them. “They’re fine to anyone else, but I know how good it could have been, so I see all of the imperfections.” Astra has since poured more concrete countertops for her outdoor kitchen, which turned out much better because she’d had some practice.
Astra has redone her kitchen twice now. “I love it,” she says. “It’s exactly what I envisioned: the tile, the white kitchen, the wood accents, the cabinetry.” The countertops are concrete, which she poured herself. The island was her first attempt, and she hated the result, so she took it out and replaced it with a DIY epoxy countertop. “I put plywood on top of the concrete island, trimmed it out, then did the epoxy,” Astra says. “It’s held up really well.” BeforeAstra built these sliding barn doors that hide away her pantry between the kitchen and the first dining room. “Those ones are really easy,” she says. “They’re just giant wood pieces with trim. Hanging them is the hardest part.”
Modern Farmhouse Vibes
Besides the practical results of updating an aging home, Astra has been able to add farmhouse style into the design. “I like farmhouse and modern farmhouse,” she says. “I’m starting to lean more toward modern than I was before.” These modern touches include black doors against white walls, high contrast finishes and trims and a mostly neutral color palette.
The second dining room is where Astra and her kids eat their everyday meals. She has two vintage pieces here from her favorite local antiques store: A hutch where she displays décor, and a dresser she turned into a buffet with a coffee bar on top.In her office, Astra built some built-in shelves around a showstopping vintage piece. “It’s from the courthouse,” she says. “It used to have legal debriefs on long legal paper, so the drawers are super long. At the bottom there are a few cards with the original writing.” She knew she had to have it the first time she saw it, even though it was only later that she found out the history of the piece.Asta’s desk in her office is a DIY, which she upcycled from an existing office desk that felt outdated. She took off the tabletop, used the bottom cabinets and built a new tabletop with a spruce pine fir board, which she stained herself.Before
Astra also sprinkles in some vintage amidst her modern farmhouse design. “I have this one local shop [that] I love,” she says. From Roger’s Vintage Depot, Astra has bought furniture and other décor elements to add to her home—many of which she has repainted herself to get the custom look she wants. A few of these include the lockers in her dining room, the vanity in her primary bathroom and the buffet table in the second dining room.
The entryway in Astra’s home has 25-foot ceilings, and she wanted to update the whole space. “My whole house was brown when I bought it,” Astra says. “I started with paint, of course.” Then she wanted more interest, so she added an accent wall. “I used 1×2 wood strips,” she says. “I went 20 feet up with those, then built [the design] off of that.” Astra added a gallery wall that she changes out seasonally.Astra’s son, Asher, lives in this fun boys’ bedroom. “It has two beds because he wanted somewhere for his best friend to sleep when they have a sleepover,” Astra says. She added herringbone wallpaper to the back wall and made the bed frames herself.When redoing the primary bathroom, Astra ripped out both the original shower and bathtub. “It was one of those huge, jetted tubs from the 1980s,” she says. “The jets didn’t work; it was big and took up a bunch of space.” She instead replaced it with a sleek freestanding tub, which leaves more breathing room and makes the window feel larger.Before
And what will she do when she runs out of spaces to DIY? “I’ve already done the kitchen twice, so I’ll find something else to do,” Astra says. “I’m also going to start doing client work, so that will be very exciting. I’ll incorporate that into what I’m sharing on Instagram. I’ll work with clients on design consultations, and if local clients have DIY projects they’re doing, I can help them. Or I can consult [with remote clients] on DIY projects they can do.”
Astra’s story is a good reminder that it is possible to get your dream modern farmhouse, even if you must create it yourself from what you’ve got already.
This formal dining room is where Astra hosts during the holidays. Her design in this space is simple: a patterned jute rug, farmhouse table and upcycled lockers from a local antiques shop. “They were old purple school lockers, and I painted them,” she says.The piano in Astra’s living room is vintage, an Estey from 1868. “I got it from Facebook Marketplace,” she says. “They sold it to me for $50. I looked it up online, and it’s worth $15,000. It has a couple [of] keys that needs to be fixed, and it needs to be tuned.” Other than that, it’s usable. “I don’t play, but I love the way [pianos] look,” Astra says.The mudroom contains storage space, as well as the washer and dryer. The fun vintage sink is original to the home. When Astra started redoing this space, she painted the door a dark green and added a wall of tile. “I started out with the larger tile, and when I got to the sink area, I realized they were really big [for that area],” she says. “So I got the smaller version so it’ll still tie in.”BeforeIn the primary bedroom, Astra added a DIY floor-length mirror, as well as a sliding barn door that leads to the primary bathroom.BeforeThe primary bedroom looked very different when Astra originally bought the home, with dark blue walls, brown wood trim and carpet. Astra has slowly updated the look, and it now boasts an accent wall, plenty of white for a soothing background, and a farmhouse-friendly bed frame.
To see more from Astra Spanbauer, who was our 2022 Brand Ambassador, hop over here for her DIY projects!
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Victoria is a brand advisor, marketing strategist, writer and editor. She was the editorial director of American Farmhouse Style for almost 10 years, and now enjoys writing occasional articles for the magazine and receiving the beautiful copies in the mail.
Victoria is also a wife and mom to three little ones: two on earth and one in heaven. With any (not so spare) time, she devours books, dabbles in fiction writing and works on her house. As a home décor enthusiast and DIYer herself, she knows what a little paint and patience can do for a room!
