Hi friends! Oh my word, life at the Marrs’ residence has been WHACK-O lately. {I feel like that’s saying a lot since things are always a bit chaotic over here}.
In case you missed it, we’re having a baby! We have now absorbed the initial shock {emphasis on SHOCK} and are full of so, so much hopeful excitement.
Y’all. A BABY.
I thought that door had been shut, locked and the key thrown in the sea long ago. But, here we are. 17 weeks along with little Luke. Yes, we chose a name. Dave and I both agreed and all of the kiddos also approved (unsurprisingly, the boys are adamantly set on Skywalker for his middle name).
Because we’ll now have five (F.I.V.E. <– I can’t even) kiddos, it feels like a good time to get started with the house renovations we’ve been wanting to do for the past few years. We currently have three bedrooms total in our house and, while we really do like cozy quarters, the math just doesn’t work for seven people. So, we’ll add a couple of bedrooms by bumping out dormers on the second floor and, while we’re already making a big mess, we’ll go ahead and renovate our kitchen and add an actual laundry room (cue the Hallelujah chorus!) and a family closet (more to come in a later post on this because I’m so excited about it and can’t wait to share).
{A little back story – when we first moved and renovated the farmhouse, we weren’t planning to live in it. At the time, we had just built our “dream home” in our town’s downtown historic district and had no plans to move. We had planned to either rent out the farmhouse or maybe use it as an AirBnB. However, as we worked to restore the farmhouse, we fell in love with the quirkiness of the space, as well as life on the outskirts of town. Now, we are fully settled into farm living and couldn’t imagine not having space for the kids to roam and explore or having all of our beloved farm animals}.
I figured I would start by sharing the plans for our kitchen with y’all. Again, this space was originally intended for an AirBnb-type kitchen so storage and overall space was very limited.
We started rather abruptly on the renovation and I just realized today that I don’t actually have any recent “before” photos of the space. These will have to do…
As we thought through what was most important in our kitchen, Dave and I both agreed that we really want the space to serve and welcome people in. Our kitchen is without a doubt the heart of our home and where we spend the majority of our time, especially when we have company. It has always been fairly tight in the kitchen, therefore, we really wanted to open up the space in order to be able to use it as we intended.
We also agreed that sitting down with family and friends over a meal is more important to us than having a kitchen island. So, we scrapped the dining area in order to utilize that space for the kitchen and we will move our dining table into the center of the new U-shaped kitchen where the island previously was.
Our new kitchen floor plan (the marked island is actually a table):
I’m really excited about how much this will open up the entire space. We’ll switch out all of the current windows (and reuse those in the new bedrooms) for cabinet height windows along the left wall above the sink and the back wall beside the range. I opted against uppers because I think the full u-shaped kitchen of lower cabinets and the one full cabinet next to the fridge will be sufficient and I’d much rather have more windows + natural light.
As I thought through design touches for the space, my biggest goal was ensuring the kitchen feels inviting, light and airy. I really want to stay away from anything formal or serious. Our family and our home are far from serious and we want each space to reflect us.
My mood board for the kitchen includes a light gray/greige paint on the cabinets, sconces above the wall of windows where the sink will be, the most gorgeous La Cornue black range (that I’m still trying to convince Dave we need in our lives…he is currently unconvinced, however, I’m not giving up) and a custom-made wood table (Dave’s already hard at work on this one) with a light natural-fiber pendant above.
Here’s a closer look at my inspiration photo for space. I love the overall feel of this space. It’s gorgeous and classic, yet, casual and inviting, with just the right touch of modern elements.
The new white oak floors were installed as of yesterday and the whole house already feels lighter and brighter. I cannot wait to see it all come together!! We have a deadline of June 25th, when Luke is due to make his debut in this world, so we are working hard to get everything finished up as quickly as possible so we can settle back in to our new-to-us space!
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