Garrison Colonial Makeover: How We Transformed Our 1960's Classic

Looking for ideas to inspire your garrison colonial makeover? We purchased our 1960’s garrison colonial in a Boston suburb in late 2014. After a major renovation, done in phases, our formerly outdated home is now a cheerful and comfortable place for our family.

What’s a Garrison Colonial House?

How do you know if your home – or the home you’re looking to buy, is a garrison colonial?

Garrison colonials have two stories, and the second story hangs over the first floor just a bit. They’re quite boxy, with a center entrance that opens into the main stairway, and smaller, closed-off rooms.

*Photo of our home from our town’s archives, circa 1950-1960*

Our Garrison Colonial Makeover – Exterior “Before”

The previous owners lived here for 40 years (read more about that here) so the home needed lots of love to bring it up to our level of comfort and appearance.

Garrison Colonial Makeover - original exterior

Every room in the house received refinished floors, paint, and ceiling lights (there weren’t any ceiling lights before!).
We also replaced all of the hollow-core slab doors
Completely gutted the master bathroom and kids bathroom
Remodeled the powder room ourselves
Converted the original dining room to a TV room
Moved the laundry room
Built an addition to create a new kitchen and mudroom
Replaced the roof
Painted the exterior
Ripped up hedges to create a casual front garden
Did a lot of decorating!

Whew! There’s still more decorating to do and room reveals to share, but I hope you’ll enjoy seeing our progress and get inspiration for your own garrison colonial makeover.

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Exterior Progress

Garrison colonial exterior makeover. Cream with white trim, black shutters, and blue door. — That’s our doggie peeking through the curtain next to the door!

What’s left to do:

Replace concrete walkway and damaged steps
Continue landscaping
Re-pave the driveway

Updating a 1960s Garrison House Interior

The rooms in our Garrison colonial are smaller, have lower ceilings, and are more closed off than in modern homes. Open floor plans and soaring ceilings just weren’t a thing back then!

So, our home renovation efforts focused on opening up spaces wherever possible and using decorating tricks to make rooms appear brighter and larger.

The Kitchen: Before

The original 1960s colonial kitchen was in rough shape! The cabinet doors wouldn’t stay closed, the drawers were falling apart, and there was very little counter space.

To make matters worse, the most frequently used entrance by the garage went right into the kitchen – there wasn’t anywhere to hang a coat, let alone space for shoes and backpacks!