You guys, I don’t know if I took some crazy pills a few weeks ago or what, but I decided that I was going to participate in the Spring 2017 One Room Challenge (ORC)! This is my first time participating and to say I’m nervous would be an understatement! In the next six weeks, I’m going to be transforming my kitchen and dining room and sharing the journey with you each week.
My kitchen has been on my “to-do” list for years. It has just never been my style, but I’ve lacked the courage and a real plan the pull the trigger and start remodeling it. This year, I finally came up with a vision of how I wanted it to look and can’t wait to get started.
My house is an open floorplan, so our dining room is just off of our kitchen. In fact, when you walk in our house, you can see just about every room. It would be silly to not make over both rooms at the same time, so I’m increasing my workload just a bit. I’ve already made a couple of improvements to the room like adding faux shiplap and changing out the old chandelier, but that’s about it.
We added the stone to our kitchen island a couple of years ago, which was a huge improvement over what originally looked like a UFO landed in our kitchen. The rest of the kitchen has just sat in limbo while I tried to decide exactly what I wanted to do. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, right?
The first thing to go will be the granite mountains. I’ll be honest. We said “no” to this house SO many times before we bought it. One of the reasons was the granite mountain backsplash throughout the kitchen and dining room. Nevermind the fact that there was green carpet everywhere, the kitchen also used to be red, and the now shiplap wall in the dining room was some sort of mixture of purple, with what looked like sponge painted black and silver.
The cabinets are knotty alder, which are I know makes some people cringe when they think of me painting them, but it’s just not the look I love. It will be A LOT of work to fill each and every one of those knots, but I’m so looking forward to having a bright white kitchen!
Our dining room cabinets serve as our pantry and also hold our “fancy” drinkware. The drinkware is stored in the inset upper cabinets, so I’ll be replacing the faces of those with glass.
Because I love the modern farmhouse look so much, the kitchen will reflect that when I’m finished. I have been inspired by so many kitchens over the past few years and have pulled together different elements from each one. Here’s a few I’m using for inspiration.
Modern Farmhouse Kitchen Makeover/ Bless’er House
Kitchen Tour/For the Love of a House
Kitchen Makeover/shared on Polished Habitat
Cottage on Tyler/Liz Marie Blog
These kitchens are so gorgeous and I am finding so much inspiration from them! Here’s a breakdown of my plan.
- Remove old backsplash
- Install white subway tile
- Fill knots and paint cabinets
- Install cabinet hardware
- Install pendant lights over the island
- Replace cabinet fronts in dining room with glass
- Cabinet/drawer hardware
- Paint walls
- New chairs for the dining room
I can’t wait to see the transformation over the next six weeks and I hope you’ll be following along with me! Make sure to follow me on Facebook (for Facebook Live videos) and YouTube where I’ll also be sharing the kitchen makeover journey. Hopefully not too many bloopers! Also, be sure to check out all of the other room transformations in the One Room Challenge, over at Calling It Home!
Welcome! You are brave for tackling this big project for your first One Room Challenge. I admire that. 🙂 I am looking forward to following along!
Stacy G. recently posted…Ay yai yai! It’s a big one: One Room Challenge Week 1
Haha, Stacy. Yes, I guess it’s go big or go home! I’ve seen so many beautiful room transformations in ORC over the years and it inspires me!
Cannot wait to follow along Katie!!!
Thank you, Kristi!
Your inspiration photos look great. Can’t wait to see the progress. Wishing us all good luck!
Thank you, Julie! I’m so excited to get started!
This is going to be such a dramatic transformation! I love your inspiration. Those mountains are too funny. Sometime I wonder why people think something is a good idea. I’ll be following along as I transform my dining room.
Nancy
Yes, I’m so excited for the transformation, too! There were/still are A LOT of things with our house where we were scratching our heads and wondering how they thought that was a good idea, but we’ll get it to where we want it eventually!
The granite mountains, lol! You have a great space for sure. Is there a skylight in there above the island? I can’t tell, but it looks bright! I support the paint job for the cabinets, too—it’s your house and you have to do what makes YOU happy!!
Aren’t they lovely??? 😉 No skylight, but we have vaulted ceilings and a soffit that bounces the light back so it is a little brighter. Once the cabinets are painted, it will be so much more inviting. The current color just doesn’t make me happy when I’m in the kitchen.
I’m here to cheer you on Katie! I love the ORC and I loove white kitchens even more! Pau ting those cabinets will be worth every ounce of sweat! You have a huge room to work with and it’ll be stunning in a months time!
Thanks so much, Kendra! I am so excited to finally check this project off of my “to do” list!
Good luck! I’m glad you decided to jump in, it’s so much fun! I love a white kitchen and can’t wait to see what yours looks like when you are done!
I can’t wait to follow along with your One Room Challenge. Your kitchen is going to be beautiful, I love the plan 🙂 You are brave it’s such a huge undertaking in 6 weeks, but you got this!!!!
That is definitely one of the most unique backsplashes I’ve ever seen lol! I agree that the white cabinets are going to look so pretty. Good luck on your first ORC–it is addicting! 🙂
Wow! This is going to be a huge transformation. I love all the ideas you have. I am participating for the first time too, and yes nervous is an understatement. lol I will for sure me following your progress and can’t wait to see how it turns out.
Looks great! Can’t wait to see how your overall makeover will turn out. Looking forward to your next post.
It is a lot to take on at once but I think you are going to be so happy that you did two rooms at once. It will definitely help you to create a cohesive flow between the two rooms. I love all white kitchens because they always make the space feel bigger, they are easier to clean, and they go with nearly all of the kitchen home decor you could desire.
Wow, this is a BIG project! I thought we were nuts taking on a bathroom reno, lol. But the transformation will be well worth it after the 6 weeks! Looking forward to following along.
Beautiful!Can’t wait to see how your overall makeover will turn out.
Just discovered your site and I love it! and I’m so excited for the transformation, Good luck.