Before (When We Bought the House) // After First Renovation // Our Kitchen Today
Honestly it feels really good to look at these three photos and realize what we’ve accomplished in a year. It was at the end of last June that I shared our first kitchen reveal and today I am happy to share an update on what we’ve done since then. The crazy thing is most people don’t realize how much work we’ve done. Most people seeing our house for the first time usually say something like “so what have you changed?” Sigh, where do we even begin?! It’s always nice to look back at what we started with once in a while. It has been a lot of hard work over the last year not just in the kitchen but in every room of our house. The projects never stop but it is very rewarding to create spaces we love and enjoy. Here’s more info on everything we’ve done in the last year. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the post for a video as well.
Paint & Hardware
The most obvious and recent change is the paint color and new hardware. After using Farrow & Ball paint in our bedroom we just fell in love with it and as we flipped through their catalogue of colors we discovered Inchyra Blue and knew it was meant to be. It’s the perfect mix of blue, grey and sometimes even green that lends a calming vibe to the space. It’s country farmhouse meets beach cottage and I love how the color looks different throughout the day depending on the light. For the kitchen we chose the Modern Eggshell finish which has a very subtle sheen. I’ve talked before about how much I love Farrow & Ball paint but it really is better than anything we’ve used. I said in the podcast this week, I don’t know any other paint you could use with the windows practically shut on a hot summer day and not be suffocating from fumes. It’s a great quality, eco-friendly product. Once we started painting I realized we really needed new hardware because the old drawer pulls were a bit too aged. I went with a simple gold champagne drawer pull and I love how they look. You can see the entire process of painting the kitchen on @thecozyranch Instagram.
The Floors & Barstools
We actually whitewashed the floors last summer but I haven’t shared an update on the kitchen so I wanted to include that here. Aside from paint, that made the biggest difference in the kitchen. The space just looks and feels lighter and brighter. You can see more on how we whitewashed here and Craig talks through the process in this podcast episode. We also got these barstools from Perigold (back in stock in October). I put sheepskins on them for a little extra cushion.
Countertops
When we initially installed the butcher block countertops we did a light sanding and coated them in a food safe oil. What we quickly realized is that if we wanted them to last we needed to coat them in a water-based poly. Since we aren’t using them to cut anything on we decided to use a water-based polyurethane. The island still isn’t coated with anything (just butcher block oil) and it’s holding up well, but we plan to sand and coat it this summer. We get a lot of questions about these countertops. There’s more about them in our initial post here but we really love them. They are such an affordable alternative if marble or granite isn’t in your budget.
Kitchenwares
This might seem like a trivial update but with open shelving this makes a big difference. The space was feeling a bit cluttered and disorganized so I wanted to streamline our glassware and dishes. We initially had plates and bowls from IKEA but they just weren’t great quality and were covered in scratches after just a few uses. We had them for about a year and I finally decided to invest in some dishes from Anthropologie. I decided to go with the old havana collection in white and I really love it. They’re simple but still have style and the quality is great. I also stocked up on these Amici Bee glasses and got these Anthropologie mugs. I added some artwork to our open shelves and of course our favorite cookbooks are on display.
Lighting
We ended up swapping out the pendant lights because they clashed a bit with the rest of our decor and we wanted something that would basically blend in. We found these super affordable pendant lights on Wayfair and I really love how they look. They’re just simple and clean looking and we installed a dimmer to control how much light they give.
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