It’s finally here! Our kitchen renovation is complete and I am so excited to share it all with you.
I am SO excited to finally be sharing this post because that means the kitchen is DONE. If you’ve been following along for the last few years, especially on instagram, then you may already know that we started making plans to update our kitchen pretty much as soon as we moved in at the end of 2020. The kitchen was outdated, felt kinda cold and dark, and did not at all match the vibe of the rest of the house.
Originally, we planned a pretty massive renovation. We were planning on removing walls and possibly even taking out the ceiling to make it lofted. But…the further we got along in the design process and once we started getting estimates on that kind of renovation in our house, we decided to pull the plug. You see, the kitchen was part of the very original house – we believe it was built sometime int the 1700s – so each of the kitchen walls were once exterior walls.
And the walls of this house are extremely THICK stone, I’m talking the entire span of my arm! They are so thick that actually when we had a few mini splits installed, they had to hire a third party drill to get through the walls, it was crazy. (but hooray for AC!) Alas…to make major changes to the structure of this room would cost a lotttta money. So we decided instead to do a total 180, embrace this room exactly the way it is, and see what kind of changes we could make within the existing layout.
I absolutely LOVE how it turned out, and don’t regret going with this smaller renovation at all! Before we get to how it looks now, let’s take a peek at the before:
before…
And now, the after…
the range
First, we have got to talk about the range! It is the focal point of the kitchen and my favorite appliance I’ve ever owned (next to my espresso machine). It is a 48″ duel fuel Ilve Range in matte graphite with brass trim. It is an absolutely stunning Italian range that comes at a very good price point in comparison to the other to of the line ranges out there.
Not only is she a beauty, she’s a workhorse too! She’s got 6 burners plus a griddle, two ovens, and several different cooking settings for the oven. Are you roasting veggies? Broiling meat? Baking bread of cupcakes? There are specific settings for each to ensure your culinary creations turn out fantastic. It even comes with a spit so you can rotisserie your own chickens…it;s basically a home cook’s dream!
backsplash tile
When choosing tile for this kitchen, I wanted to go with something that had an old world feel – something that may have been in this kitchen originally at some point. I absolutely love antique delft tiles, but not the price tag lol! I found this artist on Etsy that hand paints each tile (!!) at a more reasonable price. I decided to opt for just the corner painted tiles instead of mixing in tiles with images (she has those too) so that the range could remain the main focus of this nook. I could not be more in love with how this wall turned out!
cabinet color
The cabinets were originally painted white, and while I do usually love white cabinets..this room just really needed a little color to warm things up. I chose Farrow & Ball’s lichen green and it is just perfect. It’s soft and muted while still making a statement, and although it’s green it adds so much warmth to our farmhouse kitchen.
wall color
Paint is one of the easiest way to change the look and feel of a room, and it certainly did in this kitchen! I really wanted to bring warmth into this space while keeping it as bright as possible, so I went with Benjamin Moore’s marble white for the walls. It is a super creamy white with a decent amount of yellow which really brings an antique vibe. For the trim I knew I wanted to contrast with a darker color instead of standard white, so I went with Benjamin Moore’s carrington beige. It’s a beautiful muted tan color with a green undertone so it matches the cabinets really well.
On this wall we also installed a peg shelf to add interest and a bit of storage, and painted it to match the trim. We love this hanging basket I scored at antique shop for mail or important papers, and also my garlic keeper sits up here on this shelf. What even is a kitchen without fresh garlic at the ready?
countertops, sink, & faucet
I went back in forth in my mind many times on whether or not to go with honed marble for the countertops, or a more durable quartz that had a marble look. I love the lower price point & durability of quartz (especially with small children in the house that I like to include in the kitchen), but I just couldn’t find any that I really loved. I love the look of honed marble & also love that ti is not shiny and reflective, which it seemed most quartz options were.
But then I found this quartz and I absolutely fell in love! The base is a light grey, not white, so it really looks close to marble. It’s not nearly as shiny as the other quartz slabs I looked at so it seemed much closer to the look of honed marble. The subtle veining is absolutely beautiful and I just adore these countertops, especially knowing there’s no maintenance involved and no need to be super careful with them.
For the sink, we went with this 30″ fireclay sink and I love it! It’s beautiful and also massive so it’s a breeze to do dishes in. Such a huge upgrade from our previous stainless steel sink! It’s a drop in sink so easily worked with our existing cabinet layout, and I actually really like the seamless look of a drop in vs. a farmhouse sink.
For the faucet, I knew I wanted a beautiful bridge faucet that would give an antique feel. I chose this brass faucet and I absolutely love it! It’s stunning, can’t recommend it more! We also got this brass sink strainer to go with it and complete the look.
cafe curtains
To the back wall of our kitchen I didn’t make any major changes, other than adding these cafe curtains to the windows. I absolutely love this amazon shop, they have the most beautiful French inspired linens at great prices. I love how the green ties in the cabinets, and I’ve always been a huge fan of anything toile related. We also had a custom radiator cover made and painted it the same color as our trim. It almost looks like it’s just an extension of the beautiful window trim now, I love how seamlessly it blends in.
the dining area
Not too much changed in our dining area, other than the paint upgrade! I also have been loving this beautiful table cloth from that same amazon shop, I go through phases where it makes me happy to use it and other times where I feel like it’s not worth the upkeep with all my little kids lol! It’s such a nice touch though and helps brighten up this space versus just the dark wooden table. We purchased this table used from the previous owner of our house, I do love the look of it..but the rustic wood planks on the top (with lots of nooks & crannies) are a magnet for crumbs and food. Would not recommend if you have children who make lots of messes!
This area also has an opening to the butler’s panty, what was once an old exterior window. It has the same curved plaster around it like the other windows in the kitchen, except gives you a peek into the next room instead of outside! It’s the perfect spot to display my aria diffuser, some books and flowers, and to tuck in our little sonos speaker so we can have all the cozy folk music playing while I cook. Hands down one of THE best investments we’ve made for our house – background music changes everything.
the fireplace
While the fireplace didn’t undergo any changes, this historical stunner certainly deserved a shoutout. We believe this room was the original kitchen, and that they used this fireplace to cook back in the day! It has a standard fireplace, a bread oven, and a rotisserie, how cool! I did attempt to remove a patch of the white paint to see if it was possible to expose the original brick, but it was a total fail. So the white remains! The mantle is a big beautiful slab of wood, and I decorated it with local antique store finds.
the butler’s pantry
The biggest update we made to the butler’s pantry was removing the original frosted window and creating an opening. The pantry was an addition built onto the original structure at some point, and one of the old exterior windows remained all this time. While I loved that it was original, and usually try and keep anything and everything original, it was frosted and strange and just straight up didn’t look good.
So we removed the old window (rope pulley system and all!), added in all new trim, and to add a little architectural feature and interest to this new gaping size – we built a transom window to sit at the top. I love transom windows, and we have a few original ones in our house, so we built it to look exactly like those. To tie in the old window that used to be there, we used pieces of the original trim to create the panes. It now feels SO much more open, and I love that it gives. you a peek into the adjacent dining room.
The next biggest changes was updating the ugly grey tile floor from something with a bit more flair. I chose this antique inspired tile with a simple floral pattern – it is on the busy side but since this is a small space, I think it looks great tucked in here. It feels reminiscent of Victorian tile (I love the look of mosaic penny tile) and I feel like this gives that look without having to install all those intricate details by hand.
We also painted the cabinets in here Farrow & Ball’s lichen to match the kitchen, stripped and re-stained the butcher block to knock out a lot of the orange (we used this stain color), added a bead board backsplash, and painted the walls & trim to match the kitchen. We also moved our refrigerator to the pantry to free up space in the kitchen; this was a decision I mottled over for way too long and in the end I’m SO glad I did it. It’s really not inconvenient at all (I mean all of our dry food storage is out here too) and freed up the space we needed in the kitchen to do what we wanted to in there.
So that’s it! The heart of our house, all shined up and looking a lot prettier. I hope you guys enjoyed the unveiling of this space, and let me know if you’d like to see more home related content in the future!