OUR PASSTHROUGH TRANSFORMATION + CEDAR SHAKE INSTALL

I’d like to formally introduce you to my favorite part of our home – our passthrough!

In case you missed it, I shared a full (phase 1) reveal of our exterior renovation a few days ago and I still scroll through that post to see all the crazy before and after photos. But one area of the home that I wanted to dive in a little closer and share more details about is our passthrough.

I always felt like this walkway from our house to our garage had so much potential just begging to be seen. The fact that it’s tucked back with a flat roof just makes it all the more charming to me and we finally had an opportunity to uncover its potential this summer!

Here’s how it looked when we moved in.

Now let’s go back a few months to earlier this summer….

We never used the door that was there before and I felt like a window made more sense for us in this space. So Chris swapped out the door for a window and I didn’t even realize how much more light the window would bring in than the door!

Then we resided the rest of our house and we found ourselves nearing the finish line of the renovation with just the passthrough to finish. I’ve always loved the look of cedar shakes and an accent wall with a different material felt like the perfect little peekaboo moment for our home’s elevation.

After nailing the window trim on first, Chris started installing the cedar shakes from the bottom and worked his way up. We kept a 5” exposure and spaced them 1/8” apart to accommodate for expansion. Nailing a ledger board on the wall was a really simple way to ensure that each shake was installed level and in line with the others.

For now the cedar is natural but I have hopes that it will weather into a beautifully aged gray patina. I’m currently testing out some techniques on how to speed up the aging process, but with how the techniques are turning out, we may let the cedar age naturally.

I can’t wait to landscape this little alcove next year. Fresh mulch and new plants will elevate this space even more, but for now we’re enjoying the view!