It’s done!
The final step of the kitchen remodel was completed yesterday when Kirk hung the open shelves.
We started our remodel journey in January and it has been a long process — but it was so worth it!
I am over the moon excited about how it all turned out. Kirk kinda likes it too! 😉
Our cottage kitchen has never been remodeled in all it’s 35 years. The original owners built the house themselves, and that included the cabinets in the kitchen.
Here it is with it’s original homemade cabinets in December 2012.
When we purchased TheCottage in 2004 the cabinets were the same knotty pine as the walls. You can see a post about the first time I painted the cabinets here.
It was the cottage feel and knotty pine that drew my heart to this cottage in the first place. I still love the knotty pine touches we kept … and the sunroom still has the original knotty pine. The room was just feeling a bit dark.
So we gathered up some courage and painted the knotty pine … and ripped out the old linoleum, and berber carpet …. and cabinets … and started from scratch creating our dream cottage kitchen.
The island top is Silestone that looks very much like Carerra marble (which is way more expensive).
We purchased the stainless Broan vent fan on Amazon, as well as the stainless backsplash behind the stove. Saved some big bucks by ordering online.
We also kept the painted wood walls as the backsplash instead of going with tile or other options … we are very glad we did … it really kept the cottage feel.
One one end of the island we kept open shelves for my cookbooks (and dog treats). The other end has doors and three shelves. We decided to change up the cabinetry for the island to add interest and bring back some warm wood tones to tie in with the knotty pine beams in the room.
The open shelving is from IKEA with brackets from Home Depot that we reused from before the kitchen remodel.
The perimeter countertops are …. wait for it….. Formica! We did a straight edge to match the island edge. Nothing fancy … just perfect. When a kitchen designer came to see the finished kitchen, her first comment was “I thought the perimeter countertop was stone!”
The sink is an undermount in the Formica, so it is rimless. Not necessary to choose solid surface counters to get an undermount sink!
Since I wanted a stainless vent fan over the stove, we designed to put the microwave in the island. I’m so glad we did! It is still very easy to use. That drawer under the microwave … so deep…. so awesome.
*Runner from HomeGoods.
To tie the room to the fireplace area, we designed built-in cabinets to flank the fireplace. The wood countertops also tie to the island and beams.
The open shelves are still a work-in-progress …. still unpacking some items, still tweaking and moving things around. Expect to see changes on those now and then.
I’m really loving the green depression glass in the new kitchen. The two pieces on the top left shelf were my mother-in-love’s. I think of her everytime I see them. My dad’s mom had green depression dishes in their summer cottage that I spent many summers at as a kid. I sure wish I had those dishes now!
It’s so bright … so easy to cook in, has great work spaces/surfaces.
We are “staycationing” this week with all our kids …. we think TheCottage is the perfect vacation spot!
What do you think?
