Over the past summer and fall of last year I was really busy… really busy. We moved into our home just about four years ago and have been slowly making changes to suit our family better. While I feel like we’ve done quite a bit, we definitely did our biggest project last year.
Two of the rooms we spend most our time in were, in fact, my least favorite rooms of the house. That doesn’t make sense, right? That’s why I was determined to renovate it and make it our own space.
Before Pictures of Our Kitchen and Dining Room
I had a conversation with a friend that went something like this. “I love the farmhouse look, but everyone’s doing it. I don’t want to be like everyone.” She replied, “Lindsey, you LIVE in a farmhouse. Your home was built in the 1920s and it is the ultimate farmhouse, so do it if you want to do it.” I don’t know why I needed to hear this, but I did.
While I wouldn’t call our kitchen and dining room’s new style completely farmhouse, it is farmhouse inspired. Simple, somewhat rustic, and barn doors… so yes, definitely inspired by the trend.
I’m also nowhere near an interior decorator, but I’m super happy with the way the rooms turned out. I am in love with the oversized island that my husband custom built. I’m also totally in love with the color pallette and how our built-ins turned out using it.
One of the biggest changes is definitely the wall color and covering up the wallpaper border. Oh yes, I didn’t even worry about trying to pull the wallpaper border down from the 12 foot ceilings. I talked to the paint expert at Lowe’s and he suggested that I could paint right over it!
In fact, I used the same primer for all the maroon trim as well as the dark green as well because it was very hard to cover up those dark colors without it.
You might notice that the curtains are GONE. I was tired of drab, dark curtains and love being able to let natural light shine through the windows. The rest of the family, however, wanted something to be able to hide behind. We decided to tint our home windows and it’s worked out great!
You cannot see inside at all, however it did darken the rooms just a tad. I still like it better than curtains, though!
I also picked these paint colors out to eventually go with off-white cabinets. Eventually I would love to paint our cabinets, but as you can see, there are a LOT of cabinets so it’s a project that I’m putting off for now.
Also, my husband designed the island for a future project, as well. We measured everything out and planned so that if we decide to cut out our current cabinets at the place of the sink and window, we can simply move everything over to the island [kitchen sink, dishwasher, and trash can cabinets] in order to cut out that part of our kitchen and install french doors that open to an outdoor deck.
That’s another lofty project, but it’s one that we would love to do one day!
That’s one reason, along with price and labor, that we decided to put barn doors on our island. Plus, it looks great with the farmhouse style that we’ve adopted in these two rooms!
I still have some decorating to go, as I haven’t really shopped for decorations, but if I find a piece that I think will look good, I buy it, but I wanted to share the transformation with everyone to hopefully inspire you to make that jump and redo a part of your house that you might not love totally.
There’s no reason not to make your home your own!
While I do love beautiful styled rooms, one thing you have to know is we live in our house. There are 6 people who are in and out of these two rooms more than any other in the house everyday.
We also eat dinner at our dining room table every single night, so although they’re beautiful, we don’t have place settings because we don’t want to move them every day!
A couple of areas that we added into our dining room that weren’t there before is a piano bench. My husband also built this, thanks to these great plans, and it ties the color and farmhouse X in perfectly.
I also really wanted a small sitting area since I often like to sit and relax in the morning with a cup of coffee or a quick rest while cooking dinner. I’m in love with how the small chaise lounge fits in with the rest of the room and is still tucked away enough to not look out of place in a dining room.
Sources of the new farmhouse kitchen look:
Let me know if there’s anything you’d like information on. I’ve tried to share links to the main items I used in this farmhouse kitchen renovation, but if I missed something, let me know!
- The primer was the key to covering up the dark colors on the walls and trim. I also used it on the walls to cover up the wallpaper border. We used Valspar Bonding Primer from Lowe’s.
- Paint Colors: I used Valspar Signature in Satin Finish for both main colors. The darker blue on the island and accent wall is Midnight Fog and the main wall color is Azure Snow.
- Island Cabinet Barn Door Attachments. We found Amazon was cheapest for both these and the full size door attachment.
- Full Barn Door Hardware in Dining Room [we used original door]
- Small Pendant Light above kitchen sink.
- Sabo Indoor 5-Light Shaded Chandelier over dining table from Wayfair
- Ada Chaise Lounge from Wayfair
- Maxwell Vintage Modern Blue Rug under chaise lounge [Mine is the 5×7 size].
- Distressed Floor Lamp from Kirklands
Kat
Thursday 12th of August 2021
Thanks for the inspiration! I used the Midnight fog paint for my bathroom vanity - turned out lovely!