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Hello everyone! How are you? I haven’t blogged for awhile and you may have been wondering if I’ve dropped off the face of the earth. Ha! Honestly, there’s been so much going on in my life lately that I haven’t sat down to write. (My daughter’s wedding, selling of our home, our recent move - I’ll share more about that in a future blog, etc.) However, today I had some time so I thought I would share some exciting news with you that happened earlier this year.

If you follow me on IG, you may remember that we sold one of our Airbnb’s in Frederick, MD last summer in the midst of the pandemic (The Bungalow). Then in the beginning of this year (Jan. 2021), we felt the nudge to look into purchasing another investment property in FL. (You may remember that we have one property in the Dunedin, FL area already.) After looking around, we ended up finding and purchasing a house in Clearwater, FL which is only 5 min away from our Dunedin, FL Airbnb. (NOTE: My brother and sister in law are investors in both of these FL properties.)

It made sense for us to look in a similar location so that we can utilize the same people to help with services (companies that we use for cleaning, lawn care, pool maintenance, etc.) I’ve been working on a blog post re: How to start an Airbnb Business and I’ll let you know when that goes live because so many of you ask me about this.

The new Airbnb is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home and has a fenced in yard along with a beautiful lanai. It is a short 5 min drive to downtown Dunedin where there are lots of great restaurants and shopping. It’s also close to Clearwater and Honeymoon Island beaches- both are our favorite!

The great thing about this home is that the interior was already fixed up so all it needed was a bit of staging.

The outside of the home required work…new irrigation and sod, trees trimmed and other landscaping needed to be added. We also built a lanai - which comes off of the kitchen area so that guests can enjoy the beautiful, warm breezes of Florida.

Here are a few pictures of the outside projects:

My husband and brother worked hard on this yard!

Outside of Clearwater Coastal Cottage Airbnb - BEFORE

Outside AFTER:

Clearwater Coastal Cottage Airbnb - After (Added landscaping, irrigation and sod)

We placed them large river rocks around this palm tree and they add great texture to the landscaping!

Here’s a view of the lanai that we built over the concrete patio slab.

This patio set is from a local outlet and the coffee table is a road side find. The rug is linked here.

The cute natural pouf adds a great place for kids to sit or play.

Okay, so let’s move on to the inside of this property. Like I said, it didn’t need too much work - just a bit of painting and furniture.

Here are some BEFORE pics:

Interior AFTER:

I tried to give it an “classy coastal feel” similar to Serena & Lily with a little bit of Pottery Barn mixed in.

Entryway:

I painted the front door - SW Attitude Gray and added a tree stand from Vasagle Furniture along with an entryway rug.

Living Room:

I added a light gray sofa with clean lines and two darker gray sitting chairs. The tv stand is from a thrift store. The curtains and rug help to tie in the muted colors.

Eat-In Kitchen:

This table expands to accommodate 6 guests. These rattan chairs are from Ikea but I found some that are similar (from Wal-Mart). The bench near the table can also be used for extra seating.

Instead of heavy looking shades over the sliders, I decided to hang light-weight cotton curtains. These provide privacy and yet allow the space to remain bright. Do you notice how high I hung them? I love hanging my curtains 3"-4” below the ceiling. This helps give the illusion of bigger windows.

I found this cute rattan microwave cart from a thrift store and thought it would be perfect to hold the microwave. Here is a similar one.

I hung white shelves above the microwave to bring in height. The print on the shelf is from Heather Hancock Art.

Kitchen:

I placed cafe curtains on the windows for privacy and added a jute rug to bring in some warmer tones.

I’m always looking at items that are easy to clean like these white bar stools. These are not only pretty and practical…but they’re comfortable, too!

I found this boho shelf from Homegoods. Here is a similar one.

Bedroom #1 - Queen Bed and Bath

This rug and pictures help to tie in the neutral vibe of this room. This dresser is from a thrift store and so is the hanging light (which my sister in law found).

The navy chair provides a nice place for guests to read.

I love mixing vintage and new into our Airbnb properties. This vintage looking bath mat adds a bit of character to this bathroom.

Bedroom #2 - Queen Bed

This room needed a bit of character so I painted the bottom section of the wall and added pictures above the color blocking. The wood platform bed and wood end tables bring warmth into this space and the white lamps help to break of the back wall. Adding pillows for color pops are an easy way to help tie things together as well as by adding rugs. (Gray pillows; rose lumbar pillow)

Bedroom #3 - Twin Beds

This is the largest of the bedrooms so we decided to put two twin beds in here as well as a sitting area and desk for kids (or adults) to use.

Here are a few links for the products in here: twin beds, coral throw, boho wall hanging, rug, curtains, table (desk), hanging plant holders.

Laundry Room:

2nd Bathroom:

A quick tip to make your bathroom seem larger….hang your shower curtain closer to the ceiling. For this look, I simply hung the same type of curtains that I used on the slider. I folded them over and added clips. I also ordered a longer shower curtain liner.

I love that this property has a beautiful cactus in the backyard. It was actually blooming during the time time we were fixing up this home!