Modern Farmhouse Kitchen

Hi friends!

I thought you might like to see what we’re up to, design-wise, at the moment.  We’re remodeling a cute little 1978 kitchen (okay, maybe it wasn’t that cute). But it originally belonged to Waylon Jennings (am I right, Jan?).  It’s the home’s original kitchen but was shabbily rehabbed in the early 2000’s in order to make it more palatable for buyers who like shabby rehabs.  I mean, buyers who like the house enough to overlook the lipstick-on-pig situation.  Basically the rehab was just painting the original cabinets black and adhering foot after foot of faux travertine to the surfaces.

Enter Holly Thompson Homes and a sledgehammer (specifically, it was Dave with a sledgehammer).

Here’s what we were dealing with:

Here’s the long wall of the kitchen and a little of the island.  Above the cabinets, there is space to stash anything you want to look at and never reach.  The opportunities are endless.  A hospital TV?  Sure.  How about an a/c unit? Definitely. Or a toy train set that runs at Christmastime. Yes!  Even a pet bird or guinea pig would get years of enjoyment out of those little cubbies.

Even with all the possibilities, our client considered the open soffit squares to be “weird”. “Crap” even.  So it was one of the problems we addressed when we re-imagined this kitchen.

Here’s another before pic.

Like you, I love a good place in the kitchen to store ivy.  But the client wasn’t interested in keeping it like this, even though she could also store off-season wrapping paper here.  So it went on the list of things to change.

Here’s another situation (along with Dave and Jan, our very dear client):

When it comes to pan storage, having them hanging right in your face is about as convenient as you can get.  And how clever to have them suspended from the vaulted ceiling with chains!  Still, we decided to incorporate new cabinets with roll-out storage to keep the pans out of sight.

This was the breakfast nook.

This is a great example of how ketchup and mustard colors together don’t really make you happy.  And add a table-set from Wal-Mart (with a chair max weight of 75lbs), and we could stand to do some updating here.

Last issue to be addressed:

This is the larger pantry, topped with a darling faux-tin panel. It’s actually covering a cubby reaching from the kitchen, straight through the wall, all the way to the living room.  A perfect pass-through for when you’re playing keep-away.

After taking into account these above assets, we came up with a design plan to address them, plus give the kitchen extra storage and some style.  The client liked rustic style with lots of wood and coziness.  We decided to clad two of the breakfast-nook walls in cedar, stain the floors dark, and replace the cabinets, countertop, backsplash, and lighting.  We remodeled the pantries, too.

Here’s the progress:

Dave changed the soffits to fit two rows of cabinets and no rows of ivy.  The top cabinets have seeded glass for displaying vintage glassware.  Countertops are quartz that looks like marble but without the maintenance.  We did a bookshelf on the side of the island for cookbooks (or apples), and made an overhang for seating.  The cabinet colors are pretty modern in order to balance the rustic cedar on these walls:

The cedar is really rustic but toned down from its original color with a wash we made out of vinegar and steel wool.  The floors are stained espresso and the schoolhouse chairs are from Pottery Barn.  The lighting is vintage.

Here’s an up-close of the barn light above the sink.  Dave had to create a box clad in cedar above the window in order to center the light, because there was a structural piece that couldn’t be moved.

I love the barn light and farmhouse sink!

That little pantry you see used to have black doors with handles in the shape of a spoon and a fork.  We changed the door to a cedar one, to pull in the rustic wood but still have clean lines and a modern shape.

Today the backsplash started going in!

I LOVE this tile.  It’s off-white with rustic edges.  The top is smooth but textured and it has a little sheen to it.  It also has a little midcentury look, which I love.

Here’s one more view.  Tomorrow Dave will grout the tile and install the beautiful brass faucet!  Cabinet hardware from Pottery Barn.

I love the dark floors!  The larger pantry is getting furniture-style doors that are stained darker than the floors.  They are amazing!  Also, the back of the island is getting cedar as well.

That’s all for now!  And I wanted to thank our client, Jan, for being so fun to work with and for giving us so much freedom with this project.  She let me make a lot of choices without knowing what it was going to look like and it was so fun to surprise her!

Also, thanks to James at the Cool Springs Pottery Barn in Franklin for helping us get the stools and hardware!  It turned out that they were both back-ordered and impossible to get, but he made it happen.

More soon as we get this project finished.