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Farmhouse Fixer: Kitchen Reveal!

When we set out to create the intention for our home, we desired to build a space that truly welcomes all; gathering family and entertaining friends! A space where everyone feels restored, relaxed and served.

I often think about how excited we all get about the season of Fall approaching. There is something about the anticipation of your favorite holiday traditions that makes one feel at peace. Fall is a time to get cozy beside the fire, bake your favorite pumpkin recipes and drink scrumptious apple cider or hot chocolate, letting all the aromas fill your home. Fall basically feels like a warm hug, and that’s what I wanted our home to feel like all year long!

We achieved this feeling by creating an open floor plan and a large kitchen island for guests to gather around. We incorporated neutral color tones and textures throughout the space to provide a light-filled, peaceful and relaxed setting. No matter the season, I hope our guests always feel at home here.

Let’s Show You What We Started With…

As you’ll see from the below photos, it was quite the journey to achieve our vision! Originally, when you first walked through the entryway of the home, you were greeted with an expansive long green wall and brick fireplace in the middle of the room. When you went around the side of the fireplace, you would enter a small dining room which led to a very narrow kitchen, and lastly, led to a family room. Everything was walled off and the layout didn’t seem to make much sense!

BEFORE
View of the “Kitchen” from the entryway!

We immediately went up to the rafters to figure out which walls were load-bearing, and which ones we could demo right away. After working with a structural engineer, we got the okay to create a completely open floor plan after making some adjustments in our framing. Check out my rough 3D design for our kitchen, below! (Check out how to make a 3D sketch, here!)

3D rendering of our kitchen.

What do you think, did it turn out similarly?!

What I would have done differently…

  1. Bigger Refrigerator! You’ll notice from the photos our refrigerator has still not arrived due to a “national refrigerator shortage”, and we ordered it 5 months ago! But knowing that our intention was to host guests in this space, I would have designed the cabinetry to frame a larger fridge/freezer.
  2. Add an under-counter wine fridge! Similarly, since we plan on entertaining our friends and family in this space, I would have added a wine fridge in the kitchen island for easy access to chilled beverages.
  3. Add under-cabinet and under-shelf lighting. I did not think about this when drafting our electrical plan or during our rough electrical phase. I regret it!
  4. Open windows instead of of picture window! Perhaps my biggest rookie mistake, our kitchen windows do not open! Ugh! Apparently, our window size was a custom size, and Anderson Windows did not make slider windows in that spec. In retrospect, I wish I would have pushed back by either 1) Re-framing the window to make it a standard size 2) Dug deeper to realize I was ordering a custom window in the first place. This was a huge lesson for me in having the confidence to ask questions, even if they sound stupid to my contractor or vendor.

More to come on why I chose each item, including our porcelain countertops! Thanks for joining me on this journey, guys!

xo

T

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4 thoughts on “Farmhouse Fixer: Kitchen Reveal!

  1. Absolutely gorgeous. I love reading your articles! We are about to go through the same process… would you mind sharing your stain on your cabinets! I might have more questions later on, but I’m in awe at your kitchen!!

    1. You are the sweetest! It was a custom stain, but let me see if I can dig up some info on how we created the stain since its been a while 🙂 I’ll send your way when I find! Feel free to message me anytime if you have questions on your remodel; best of luck!!