{Home Makeover and Baby Daphne} Chesapeake, Virginia Newborn and Baby Photographer

We just moved to Chesapeake, VA from Springfield, VA this past January and it is the first time we have owned a home since 2013. There's always some stress that goes along with purchasing and owning a home but I was excited to have a place that we could make our own for the first time in a while. Our new place is gorgeous and spacious with lots of room to hang up all of my beautiful portraits of my own sweet babies. There were a lot of home improvement projects I had in mind when we bought it, which included repainting several rooms and refinishing the dark kitchen cabinets to create a lighter and brighter space. The previous owners were huge fans of burnt orange, brown, copper, and yellow and I prefer a lighter and brighter space that's a little more toned down. I drove down to the new place for a week with my four kids after we closed on the house in December to begin some of the painting projects. Trying to paint while caring for the children, homeschooling my girls, and supervising as they "helped" paint was not working...it took an entire day to paint our small laundry room. I quickly realized that I was going to need to hire some help to get everything done before the move! LaFountain Professional Finishes was recommended in the Chesapeake Moms group on Facebook. Brian did a fabulous job painting, refinishing our kitchen cabinets, removing the old and installing a new backsplash in our kitchen, and creating a magnetic metal wall in my photography studio for hanging backdrops. When we met he mentioned that he and his wife were expecting their second daughter in a few months. I was really happy with the work he had done already and had several other painting and refinishing projects in mind so we worked out a trade of his services for a newborn photo session for their upcoming addition. Little Daphne made her arrival on March 22nd and we got her in a few days later for her newborn portraits. Daphne and her 18 month old big sister Brinleigh did a great job for their photo shoot and I love how it all came together! Here's a peek into some of the home improvement projects we've been working on and a look at some of my favorites from Daphne's newborn session!

The kitchen was one space that I felt had a lot of potential but I really wanted to change up. Replacing the copper backsplash with white subway tile, refinishing the cabinets, refinishing the floors, and updating the chandelier gave it a major facelift. I love how it turned out!

We had not originally planned on updating the master bathroom. It was neutral enough that I was fine leaving it how it was. Shortly after moving in, however, our children flooded the bathroom floor by intentionally plugging the shower to make a bath in the shower 🤦‍♀️. As a result the tile had to be replaced and a fresh coat of paint was needed as well so we went ahead and updated it a bit along with having the vanity refinished. I love the marbled tile done in a herringbone pattern and the fresh paint brightens the whole room up! Wall color is {Emmie's Room} by Magnolia Home by Joanna Gaines.

Eventually I'd love to replace this vanity or add some drawers to the middle space but for the time being the cabinet refinishing makes a huge difference!

In our last home the living room was really dark with almost no natural light. This light and bright room is my favorite room in our new house now. We had the carpet replaced with wood floors, added a shiplap accent wall, and changed up the paint colors. The bluish gray is {Rainy Days} by Magnolia Home by Joanna Gaines and the white is {Winds Breath} by Behr. I love how our family pictures, framed in the reclaimed barn wood frames and lightly distressed Paisley Couture frames that I offer my clients, complete the room! I only offer products that I love!

I really disliked the paint colors in the master bedroom. It is a very large space with a 15' vaulted ceiling but the dark color made it feel more like a cave (the before photo doesn't do justice to how dark it was before!). We had the walls painted in {Emmie's Room} by Magnolia Home by Joanna Gaines and it dramatically changed the space. This color is such a pretty light gray with a sea green tone. It goes perfectly with our farmhouse style furniture and decor.

Fresh paint, a new light fixture, cabinets, a wood counter, and some decor items took this laundry room from hideous and dingy to gorgeous and bright. This is the room we enter the house through so I love that it's pretty now! The counter is so pretty but it's also a great spot for me to stack and sort laundry as I fold it right out of the dryer. I always replace the yellow light bulbs in a new house with daylight bulbs. It makes such a difference to have nice clean lighting when snapping pictures of the kids around the house.

And now on to this sweet baby girl! Her mama requested soft colors but left the rest up to me so I had a lot of fun designing some super girly setups with sage green, soft yellow, mauve, and off-white. I was so impressed by how well her big sister cooperated. You just never know what you're going to get with toddlers. My own baby boy is 16 months old now and I can't imagine trying to get him to sit still and pose with a newborn. I struggle to photograph him solo because he can be quite the stinker and does not like to be contained for even a minute!

If you're looking to book a newborn or baby session in the Hampton Roads area, I'd love to meet with you to plan the session of your dreams and create some beautiful art to complete your space. Contact me today for more information: bellaroseportraits.com/contact