Beautiful White Kitchen; Before and After

Beautiful White Kitchen; Before and After by Ashlee

Hi there Remodelaholics! I’m Ashlee from Prairie Cottage and I am super excited about guest posting today. My little blog chronicles life in my small (999 sq feet to be exact), 1942 cottage in Oklahoma and all of the projects I have been tackling to make it my own. 

I recently redid the kitchen in my cottage and I am loving every minute of the finished product. It is definitely my new favorite place in the house. I have to say though, there were definitely highs and lows throughout the entire process (aren't there always in renovations), but at the end of the day, it was totally worth it.

BEFORE

 

AFTER

  Here's another example of what my kitchen looked like before the redo:

The original cabinets had definitely seen better days. Many layers of old paint had been given a quick-fix coat of white before I moved in, but the cabinets were still banged up, chipping and overall very shabby (just shabby, no chic). I also hated the strange square trim panels in the center of the doors, they just looked odd. Plus, there were the dirty old countertops, backsplash, and the teeny tiny sink we installed when we moved in. It was basically an RV sink people (the cut-out that was existing was too small for a normal size sink). Then there were the green walls, which I actually thought I liked until I painted the kitchen its new, softer, color.

Here is the after!

What was most important to me during this process was keeping as much of the original charm and character of the home as possible and also achieving the vintage, cottage feel that I love.

It definitely would have been easier to get all new cabinetry than to fix the existing, but new was way out of the budget and why would I trash one of the only major original features still left inside the home? So, with the help of a co-worker, my boyfriend, and my Dad we were able to get off the many, many layers of paint and give everything a new look with some BM enamel paint in White Wisp. I also removed all the weird square trim, to give the cabinets a cleaner look and added new door knobs and bin pulls on the drawers. 

I also got my coveted apron sink from Ikea, which I adore. For anyone out there considering a farmhouse style sink, this one is amazing, large and affordable! In order to accommodate the new sink, we had to build a slight bump-out in the lower cabinet, which I made look more like a custom piece of cabinetry by adding wood feet underneath and then accentuating the area with a curve detail in the new countertops.

The subway tile backsplash was a must for me, even though it is all over the place these days. It fits perfectly with the era of the house and drives home the vintage, cottage feel.

 

 The final details were to paint, add a pull-out faucet to my awesome new sink, refinish the existing built in cutting board and of course all the other little details that go into redoing any space - like accessorizing!

I hope you have enjoyed taking a peek at my little cottage kitchen and I hope you will stop by for a visit. You can read more about the kitchen redo process here, here and here. As well as the source list for everything here. 

Thank you again to Cassity for having me!

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