Reader Redesigns
Reader Redesign: Farmhouse Kitchen
Something about renovating a farmhouse just sounds so idyllic to me. And Joanna’s farmhouse kitchen renovation doesn’t disappoint. She and her husband took it from closed off and dated to open and, well, check it out yourself…
Hey guys! I live in Texas and my husband and I are in the middle of renovating our 125 yr old farmhouse. We have been married for ten years, have four kids, and have lived in 9 homes. All of which we bought, lived in, and flipped. After we move into the farmhouse, I am done. I hope.
When my husband first showed me this house, I walked right out of it and said there is no way. Two weeks later we were signing papers and it was ours. I had to get my game face on so that I wouldn’t freak out. There was so much potential especially in the kitchen area and this is where I decided to focus the most. The kitchen had a huge brick wall (you can’t see it in the before pic) and it just felt so dark and dated.
We decided to take the brick wall down to counter top height so the kitchen would be open to the rest of the house. I wanted a clean palette in the kitchen because when life gets crazy with four kiddos, it seems to all happen in the kitchen. My kitchen tends be the pit stop for school bags, paperwork, mother’s day out crafts, etc… I wanted the space to feel clean even when things started piling up. Brazilian black granite and white subway tile is as clean and simple as it gets.
We lightened the space up by painting the existing cabinets and brick white. We also added glass to the cabinets that framed out the sink and we replaced the window above the sink. My big affordable farm sink came from Ikea. I chose an afforable, durable laminate floor- clean up is so easy with these!
I went to a used restaurant supply place and found a stainless steel island with wheels, got if for a bargain!
This house ended up being perfect for the six of us. I am glad my husband had the guts and vision to get past the obvious! – Joanna
If you want to see more from Joanna and her husband Chip, here’s her blog. And in the favorite-part arena, I could stare at the awesome sloped beams for at least an hour. And Sherry loves the big window over the sink and the contrast of the dark window treatment, stools, and counter with all that white.
Reader Redesign: Bring Your Tuxedo
As much as we love a white kitchen, there are so many other fun options out there, like my sister’s wood cabinets + white appliances combo and “tuxedo” kitchens (a combo of dark and light cabinets). So when Rita’s makeover landed in our inbox, we couldn’t believe how much she changed her space for the better, and especially liked her two-tone cabinets. Here’s her letter:
Hi Sherry and John, We recently finished renovating our kitchen. The challenge was creating a kosher kitchen (two sinks and separate spaces for meat and dairy) while keeping it looking clean and uncluttered and keeping the cost down. The original kitchen was beige-on-beige laminate with very little counter space.
The only thing that wasn’t torn out was the window above the sink! The wall between the dining room and kitchen was removed, the dinette area was deleted, and that’s where the breakfast bar now sits. The large picture window was made shorter to accommodate the long counter with a second sink.
This kitchen is all about contrasts… white upper cabinets and dark gray bottom cabinets, a rough reclaimed wood dining table and shimmery capiz lighting fixture, sleek white counter tops and a dark limestone tile backsplash.
The cabinets are shaker style Diamond cabinets from Lowe’s (I’m thrilled with the quality). The brass pulls are Martha Stewart for Home Depot and the counters are quartz. Light fixtures over the breakfast bar and sink are from Schoolhouse Electric. The natural light that pours into the kitchen most of the day is awesome although I still need window treatments–I’m thinking of roman shades.
The new pantry sits where the original refrigerator used to be.
There are also two “sides” flanking the stove–one for meat the other side for dairy.
Here’s one of my favorite things–I found the idea on Pinterest.
It was totally worth the months of plaster dust and living with no sink or stove for a while. Our new kitchen is not only beautiful but a pleasure to cook in and I feel blessed to be able to work in it everyday. Thank you, Rita
No, thank YOU Rita! Because in addition to that awesome cabinet color combo, you have actually made me – a dude who likes power washing – appreciate gold hardware. And Sherry’s pretty much in love with everything, but the gold fixture over the sink (speaking of which, you can read all of the full sources on her blog) did her in. Thanks again for sharing your kitchen! What do you guys think? Got a favorite part? Who’s digging the secret TV?
Reader Redesign: Woods & Wellies
This nursery that Dave and Carrie created for their daughter had us smiling from the second we saw the first picture. Not only is it bold and playful, it also has some sweet personal touches and a lot of handmade/DIYed goodness going on. Here’s their letter:
Hey S & J, We recently welcomed our first child into the world, Everly Harper. Before we even knew Ever (that’s what we will lovingly call her), we knew we didn’t want a typical nursery for her – and we definitely didn’t want anything close to what the room looked like when we bought the place.
My wife was inspired by a woodland themed nursery that we found through your site years ago, and the following is what we came up with. We knew we wanted to save money where we could, and we both love a good project, so we tackled whatever we could on our own over the last few months.
We started by painting the walls with Behr Ultra Premium Plus Flat Enamel (color-matched to the Sherwin-Williams color Grizzle Gray ) and then hand painted the birch trees in some leftover trim paint (Behr matched to Sherwin-Williams Extra White). We covered the old half hardwood / half painted subfloor with carpet tiles and then layered the white shag area rug from Target over that. The curtains and hardware are from Ikea, but we ended up hand painting those yellow stripes (Yellow Gold in Behr U.P.P.) because we couldn’t find reasonable yellow curtains that we loved.
The changing table/long dresser is a vintage dresser (thanks Craigslist!) that we sanded, and then stained, painted and polyurethaned. We added the changing pad frame and insert (Pottery Barn kids) which can later be removed so she can grow up with the dresser. The crib is new from Walmart.com.
The canvas on the wall is actually vinyl that we had our birth announcement photo printed on. I built a frame out of leftover lumber and stretched the vinyl like I would stretch a canvas. The local company that printed it for us is PrintLeader, based in Buffalo, NY. The photo itself was taken as part of a “Trash the Dress” shoot we did with our favorite photographer Erin Oveis Brant. We found out a few weeks before we had planned to shoot a five year wedding anniversary gift to ourselves that we were pregnant, so we asked Erin if she could incorporate some pregnancy announcement photos into our day. She was actually the first person we told, and those boots were our first purchase for the baby!
The Hunter boots are now a part of the décor until she herself can kick up a little mud of her own! Most of the other accessories have been collected over the last 10 months – like a fox and mushrooms from Target, a fabric wrapped tree from Anthropologie, and a diaper pail from Ikea.
So thanks for inspiring us on a daily basis, and thanks for letting us share our room with you! We hope Ever knows how much love we put into it! Best regards, Dave & Carrie
We love not only how this room looks, but all of the awesome thought that went into it. Everly is a lucky lady. And if you want to see more, Dave and Carrie have a photo album that shows off more corners of this colorful “woodland” room. Thanks for sharing guys!
