A year later folks…it’s finally done! The kitchen was the first thing we ripped out when we got the keys, and the first thing I had started dreaming about when we walked through. I had always wanted an airy open concept feeling and knew in this space we needed to solely do floating shelves. They aren’t for everyone, but I have a thing for pretty dishes so it’s also a great way to display what I love. On top of that, we have vaulted ceilings and I knew there wouldn’t be a good ending point to install upper cabinets. In our old house we sprayed all our maple cabinets white, which I LOVED, but in this house we knew the “all white” wasn’t going to fly as easily with toddlers, animals, and well…farm life. We decided on a “greige” color and are very pleased with the outcome. For the floating shelves we went with solid maple wood. I love white and red oaks, but they are considered an exotic wood and cost a lot more $$$. The maple and the stain we chose most closely resembled the oak look I had been envisioning. Having a big island for seating AND storage was very important to me, we made sure we could fit 4-6 people at the bar, and actually eat most of our meals up there since the clean up on the quartz is a dream. It’s a GREAT option for messy toddlers. Our quartz is white with black/grey veining and ties in with the color scheme I had envisioning. The barstools I found at West Elm and think they are perfect for our space. They also are super comfy and clean really well! (Major mom bonus right there).
The kitchen sink area is my favorite. I finally got my large white porcelain farmhouse sink that I had been blabbing to Reid about for years. I chose to do all “champagne brass” for the hardware in the kitchen because its modern and helps bring in some fun warm character. Our lights above the kitchen sink window we had added in (along with a lot of our other electrical work done to the house). I found these on Amazon for a total steal and they are my favorite lights to date.
The most fun part of the kitchen for me was decorating the floating shelves. I was able to pull out all my favorite dishes, books, plants, etc and set them up exactly how I wanted to see them every day. I also made sure everything I had on the shelves was practical and items we use on a daily basis.
And now for our final project…vertical shiplap!!! All of our cabinets had been installed last spring right after we moved in and demoed the entire house but we hadn’t gotten a free minute to finish the kitchen until this summer, and it was well worth the wait! Since real tongue and groove shiplap is at least 1″ thick (and expensive) we would’ve had to redo all the electrical outlets and trim work on top of working with really heavy lumber. We decided to get 1/4″ satin plywood boards and cut 5.5″ strips of shiplap ourselves. This is a little more labor intensive but if you have a table saw it really is a great affordable option!! We did floor to ceiling shiplap on both of the full kitchen walls, and painted them all the same color as the rest of our house interior, “Simply White” by Benjamin Moore.
I LOVE this fun section of the kitchen…patterned tile above the range! We knew doing thin wood would get destroyed over a stove so we decided to do a statement piece and tile this whole section up to the ceiling. I really am happy with how it turned out! With all the grey and white this brought in a fun pop of character. We went with a dark charcoal grout to save me some cleaning sanity!
All of our appliances are Maytag, fingerprint resistant stainless steal. Our kitchen faucet is Delta (I think Delta is by far the best to use for all things kitchen and bathroom). The farmhouse sink and vent hood are off Build.com. Most dishes are from Crate & Barrel, and all plants from Bayview Farm & Garden local on Whidbey Island. If you have any further questions please feel free to message me! As always, thanks for reading!