Are you ready for the kitchen reveal!
HERE she is!! Isn’t she lovely?? I’m so in love.
Let me first tell you why we decided to change it! I wanted to tone down the farmhouse decor. After building our AIRBnB cabin, I learned to love a more minimal style. I realized the clutter of my farmhouse style was suffocating. So I saved the rustic pieces that I loved and incorporated some new items, real plants, and elements that leaned more toward a classic rustic feel (as I like to call it).
I love how our kitchen has evolved over time! I can honestly say I was completely happy with it in each photo. Design is much like us as people, it starts one way and then slowly changes as time evolves. I’m fining for me that as I change, so does my taste for design. Take a look at how it’s evolved over the past 3 years.
Here we had no beams. This was right after we moved into the space. One thing is for sure our bar stools have changed the past three years.
See what I mean? See the new barstools? I went for under the counter stools, but the truth is, they got lost under the island and were a pain to fetch out! Also, each time I bought a wood based stool, they didn’t hold up! So we made a change and you’ll see it below.
This was our first big DIY in the kitchen. We put up faux beams ourselves and stained them to match the wood open shelves. We also finally found a barstool that was comfortable, stylish, and wipeable! I remember thinking, “I love these stools, but they may be a little too modern for my farmhouse vibe.” HA! Little did I know this was the first purchase that was leading me to love a different style.
Here is one final view of the before kitchen all decked out in farmhouse style for my book. I love how it looked here. Bright and shining with fresh flowers and greenery. But the dark in the wood accents really got to me.
Like I stated above after building our cabin, I started loving a more simple elegant style and wanted to change the width of my open shelving. To be honest, I didn’t really get a say in the type of wood or width of my shelving when we built originally. I was naive and told them I wanted wood open shelving. I didn’t necessarily follow up with them and when we came in one day it was done that way. That’s ok though, we loved it for a good three years. In the mean time, we got good at DIYing and Richard was able to totally update the shelves and beams himself.
So lets talk about what we changed. First, we changed out the dark cup hardware and knobs to an antique gold bar on the drawer and a smaller bar pull on the cabinets. I’m telling you the cheapest way to update a kitchen is with its knobs. I get all of mine on Amazon, and think I spent under $50 to update them in the kitchen. I will link everything below. I also updated the faucet to gold to match the knobs and found a great one on Amazon as well.
After the hardware was updated, we took down the old shelves. It was a task because they were screwed and nailed and nailed some more into the shiplap along the back wall. Richard was able to take them down and perfectly patch and repaint over the holes they left behind. This is why Rich and I work so well together. Where he is patient, I am not and vise versa! I would not have taken the time to make that back wall look as nice and he did. Thanks babe!
When deciding on new shelving, we knew we wanted to go to a lighter wood color. I love the the warmth it gives without being overstated. The dark shelves we had before were all you saw when entering the kitchen. They made the entire space look heavy. So we went with poplar wood. We went to a local lumbar yard and got 3 inch thick poplar for the shelves and then cut them down at home to match the lengths we needed.
Richard then hung them with these rods from amazon. I was so surprised at how easy they worked. They hold plenty of weight too and make your shelves look like they are floating. They come in many sizes. My dishes are up there and heavy and it’s holding up fine!
After the shelves were hung, we tackled the beams. Since we had already hung them it was fairly simple to go over them with popular wood. We essentially just wrapped them again the same way we did before. This time we used thin one inch poplar pieces. Here, is a great link to a faux beam tutorial on Pinterest from Classy Clutter.
We also decided to paint the hood white and trim it out with the same poplar wood to help it look more custom. I loved changing the dark hood to white. It made the space open up that much more.
We also updated the kitchen dining nook by painting the nook our staple white, Alabaster, by Sherwin Williams. I updated the chairs by spray painting them a matte black. I also got a new table because we gave ours away to a friend who lost his home in a recent tornado. Luckily, we found this great one at a local thrift shop. I changed out some pillows and most importantly changed the lighting.
Kichler and Build.com were so awesome to work with and help me with my lighting. We changed the one above the dining nook and the main one above the island. They are open and airy lights and are the perfect accent to this more modern kitchen. They are also giving me a coupon code for you guys, good through June 14th. Use code RachelK25 for 25% off. Both items linked below.
I also updated the shelves with some old and some new items and will link the ones I can below. Overall we are so excited for the clean fresh change! I hope you enjoyed the tour! Here is one final look!
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