Blessings and Raindrops

seeking joy in the midst of the ordinary

farmhouse renovation. {the kitchen}.

Alright guys, it’s time to start these renovation posts already. I’ll kick it off with the kitchen since it is the heart of our home and where we spend the majority of our time. 
I wish I had taken more “before” photos. For some reason, I thought I had taken a few before we moved the house, but I can’t find them anywhere. The oldest photos I have are from February of last year, after the big move…
February 2013. 

These photos were taken after we {I always say “we” when I clearly mean “Dave“} removed two layers of ceiling tiles. There were large acoustic ceiling tiles at 7 feet and then another layer of ceiling tiles were removed a foot below the first. Finding the cool beams and wood underneath was like finding a buried treasure.  Don’t you just look at these photos and think, “Score! Buried Treasure!”? Me neither. Dave kept assuring me that it would look great eventually. He clearly has the ability to see the “vision.” Me? Not so much. I just see a big mess. {That’s probably a life lesson of some sort…}
We also changed the layout of the kitchen, removed all of the cabinets, and added windows in the dining nook. 

September 2013.


A lot of progress had been made at this point. We covered all of the walls in wood wainscot with plans to paint it white. We were able to repurpose a few extra cabinets that Dave had to create a large island.  

These windows were all new and added during the renovation.

The entry way in the back of the house. We kept the siding with plans of painting it white, as well. We also kept the original back door.

These cabinets were added along a hallway wall to create pantry space.

November 2013.


Ben and Dave hard at work…



The entry way received a few old lockers for storage {before paint}.

And, after a coat of paint…

The “pantry” cabinets painted.

Also, we were able to keep the original wood floors after we found them underneath the black and white checkered tiles.

Dave also built this new staircase. The original stairs were a rod iron spiral death-trap.

May 2014 {“After”}.

I absolutely love the open shelving. I was worried I wouldn’t like it and would find it hard to keep clean and organized. In reality, it makes my life easier because we use just one set of dishes {instead of a mismatch of several different sets} and they are within easy reach for use and for clean-up.

And, I am officially obsessed with my farm sink. I have wanted one for as long as I can remember but we have never been able to incorporate it into our other houses because of the placement of cabinets. It was worth the wait. 🙂

The floors turned out so amazingly beautiful. I love all of the nicks and dents that have been created over the past one hundred years. I can only imagine how many pairs of feet have walked on these floors. Pretty cool.

Y’all. We splurged on the coffee maker. And, it was completely worth it. In my book: coffee = joy.

We actually “bought” all of the appliances in this home with reward points from a loyalty program that Dave uses for work so we didn’t feel as guilty when we decided to splurge on the greatest invention of all time: a Bosch built-in coffee machine {built into the cabinet pictured on the lower right}. It makes me smile just looking at it. We used to come out here before the house was finished just to drink coffee. Seriously. It is that good.

The “pantry.”

At one point when we first moved in, this was all organized and neat and photo-worthy. That lasted 2.5 seconds. Now it’s messy but I can close the cabinet doors and pretend it’s not. Except that I just shared a photo of the mess…  

I love the natural light in this space. We had considered getting shutters for the windows in here but decided to go with cellular blinds that can be pushed up to let in all of this gorgeous light.

This chalkboard has hung in our laundry room for several years. This verse has been the first thing I’ve seen as I walked in the door for the past two years, ever since Beth Moore read this exact verse after I had been guided to these words in a desperate search for God’s hand in our journey.

The laundry room back entry. {Notice Nathan’s artwork displayed so nicely? He is slightly obsessed with duct tape and hangs random pictures all over the house}. 

That’s it! I wish you all could just come on over for a hot cup of coffee and a chat. Thanks for coming on a little tour. More to come soon. 🙂

You can read more about this old farmhouse HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Paint Colors:
Kitchen cabinets and walls: Benjamin Moore’s White Dove
Kitchen Island: Sherwin Williams Riverway
Staircase railing: Sherwin Williams Porpoise 7047

Comments

  1. Aimee says

    Beautiful! I've wondered if going cabinet-free would be worth it. I love how open your kitchen looks (and I love the light too!)…

    • jenny.marrs@yahoo.com says

      You won't regret it! They are so much easier than I expected. Now, we still have other cabinet space for storage stuff and all of the boy's cups and plates so that helps. Thank you!!:)

  6. WICK says

    Whoa. That looks awesome. My wife was thinking of taking the cabinet doors off in our kitchen….I wonder if she'd rather go this route. The shelves look very nice!!!

  7. Jessica Bauer says

    This is GORGEOUS! I am a little bit obsessed with these photos of the exact picture of my dream kitchen – from all the light to the colors to the walls to the cabinets. I may or may not be showing my husband for future reference. Excellent work! (ps: found you on the AWB linkup!)

  9. Tessy Fuller says

    I am so ready to come over for a chat and cup of coffee. That built-in Bosch makes this girl swoon. I love how everything turned out. Love the color of the island.