Anyone else get realllllly bored in those early quarantine days? Keith, the kids, and I left MS before quarantine was fully enacted (after they shut the University down) and decided to be bored at my parents house instead of at ours. It was a fantastic decision. I can’t imagine having to stay sane at home with my two under two for several months. My admiration goes out to those of you who did.
While hanging at my parents, my mom and I got a wild hair (total boredom) and decided to ask my dad for a long awaited kitchen facelift. They’ve lived in their house for 15 years and when they built it, they cut some corners aesthetically to stretch their budget a bit. My dad assured my mom that down the line they would 100% remodel the kitchen to fit her style. But here we were 15 years later and still the same old kitchen. There are a couple before photos below.
As you can probably tell, my parents live in a log cabin. A real, linkin’ log style, every thing is wood, log cabin. While the style of the kitchen works for some (like my dad) my mom always dreamed of a white farmhouse style kitchen. She made plenty of compromises when building this house to accommodate my dad’s style, so we figured it was time to cash in on that old promise.
To our surprise, he agreed and we got straight to work. We painted the cabinets ourselves. Honest truth? It was miserable, but we saved a TON of money doing it this way. We chose to use an oil based paint in the Benjamin Moore color Swiss Coffee. It’s one of my all time faves and on every wall in my house.
Why oil based, you ask? It is honestly the WORST to work with. It’s so sticky and clean up is a pain. BUT. we chose oil based paint because completely sanding down these oil based sealed cabinets seemed like a very daunting task and one we couldn’t stomach at the moment. Plus oil based paint lays super smooth because of the long dry time and you don’t see any of those pesky brush strokes.
It took us over a week to paint. First we de-glossed them using a liquid de-glosser. We did two coats of this to be sure! Then we did 2 coats of the oil based paint. The 24 hour dry time between each of the coats made it go a bit slower. And because we had to do both sides of the cabinet doors, it took longer than usual. But once it was done the difference was INSANE. It looks so bright and clean! Exactly what mom always wanted.
We also had new countertops installed. This is where the bulk of the budget went. After lots of research and chats with professionals, we settled on choosing a quartz or quartzite stone. Mom loves the look of a natural marble but didn’t want the maintenance. My dad and brother are certainly not easy on any of the surfaces in their home and with the kids climbing up on everything, mom didn’t want to worry about scratching, staining, or sealing.
We shopped around bunch and found a few quartz options from Ceasarstone that we loved – this Statuario Nuvo. And we also fell in love with a few slabs of both Tahiti and Mont Blanc Quartzite from a local spot. In the end, we chose the Tahiti Quartzite because it was the most cost effective and the size of the large slabs allowed us to also replace the counters in both my brother’s and the upstairs bathroom for just the cost of installation! 3 birds, one very large, very expensive stone. For those of you interested, the installation and stone cost my parents around $10k.
We we even added a waterfall mitered edge along the bar area and B’s Custom Stonework even made us a lazy suzan out of our remnants. We couldn’t be more excited. Mom has had those tile counter’s for 15 years and laminate in our home before that, so this is a HUGE upgrade and one she very rightly deserves!
Our next step was hardware and fixtures. We were actually able to order all of these items from Amazon, believe it or not! For the hardware, I wanted a library bin pull or something industrial looking like that. I LOVE these that we found on amazon. They look hand made to me and are a bit rough and raw which works really well for my parents house. It looks like the black are out of stock, but I linked our second choice as well. We went with simple square knobs that complimented the pulls.
It took us quite some time to convince my dad to take down his bucket lights. They had their moment, but it’s time for something a bit more streamlined. We chose these glass pendants for over the bar and a rectangular cage fixture for the main kitchen light. This was the step that honestly made ALL of the difference in the space. In addition to the original buckets, the light in the kitchen was a $20 light from home depot that my dad spray painted. It didn’t give off good light and with the house already being dark, it was just dreary. But now, it’s bright, light, and so gorgeous!
We chose a new faucet as well. This one is under $100 on amazon and the quality is actually fantastic! The matte black is so chic and compliments the rest of the house perfectly!
As you can see, we chose to retrofit the cabinets to include a farmhouse sink. This was another one of mom’s dreams. After LOTS and I mean LOTS of back and forth, we chose this short apron front natural quartz sink from Lowes. It had a deep bowl but a short apron which meant we didn’t have to remake any cabinet doors. We could just cut out the drawers and slip it right in. Why not porcelain? Well several reasons. It was harder to find a shorter apron with a deep bowl and porcelain can scratch and crack. The quartz felt like a great, durable option. It was also a matte finish which worked well with the rest of the space. We LOVE it so far!
Let me know if you guys have any further questions! There are more photos of the after below. I’m not a professional and the lighting is low in my parent’s house but it still looks SO much better!
it looks SO good!! So impressed, miss Kassy!