Kitchen design ideas and sources from our quick kitchen refresh.
This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase from one of the links, I may make a small commission at NO EXTRA COST to you. Thank you for your support so I can continue to share projects and home design ideas! See my full disclosure here.
Sources
I’m not sure how we ended up in this situation, but my goal was to organize the spice cabinet and the next thing I knew – BAM! We took out half the cabinets, installed floating shelves, and painted the whole kitchen. So yeahhh. I guess we accidentally did a little kitchen renovation/refresh.
Yes, I have big plans to tear out this entire kitchen and redo it.
And, yes, maybe I already have the entire thing designed and know exactly what the plan is.
Maybe.
But we’re not quite ready to tackle that yet. So we just went with a few changes to make it feel more like us and help the space flow better. Even though it’s not the end goal, we’re so happy with how it turned out!
Here’s the before and after:
I’m not sure why they staggered every-other cabinet at a different height, but it really made the ceiling feel shorter and cramped a lot of the natural light around the window over the sink. Removing a few of them and adding open shelves made the whole house feel taller.
Now, I’ve always had mixed feelings about open shelves in the kitchen. And it’s never been an option since our first house had a very small kitchen and minimal cabinet space. But this kitchen is a whole different ball game. There’s plenty of cabinet and storage space, especially since we upsized from a kitchen less than half this size. As I was rearranging and organizing the cabinets and drawers, I realized the only items I had left to put in the cabinets around the window were our nice dishes and glassware. So, rather than hide them away, we went for the open shelves.
I grabbed the brackets and read oak lumber from Home Depot. To keep things simple, I cut the boards to the correct length, gave them a quick sanding, sealed them with water-based satin polycrylic, and attached them to the brackets (I used heavy duty anchors anywhere the brackets don’t hit a stud).
I was nervous to try out floating shelves, but now I don’t think I’ll ever go back! They’re one of my favorite projects I’ve ever done for a kitchen – it makes the whole space feel less cluttered. I’d like to do open shelves in all my kitchens forever and ever and ever! But only if it makes sense … I’m all about practical and functional design. Though I think I may be hooked 😉
** TIP: If you like the natural red oak color, I highly recommend using a water-based finish so it won’t amber the color at all. Polyurethane or other finishes will add a slight amber tone, which comes out pretty orange-y over red oak.
We also gave the whole space a fresh coat of paint – Benjamin Moore Soft Chamois in eggshell. It’s the perfect soft creamy white. One day I’ll paint that yellow backsplash, but I left it for now since this was already such a spur-of-the-moment project. I mean, I was supposed to be organizing spices and this is where we ended up … but anyhoo, it doesn’t clash quite so badly anymore since the walls are neutral rather than bright blue.
We had a magnetic knife holder for the wall in our last kitchen and have been missing it ever since we moved, so I added one next to the stove. I also grabbed a new scrubber brush with dispenser, a couple amber glass bottles for hand soap and dish soap, and a ChrisLovesJulia x Loloi runner. It’s the little things like that that make a space feel put together.
All in all, it ended up being a fun spontaneous project. And it’s always a good reminder that you don’t have to gut an entire room to make it new. Sometimes all it takes is a few changes, or switching things around, and a fresh coat of paint!
If you missed it, head over to check out my kitchen organization post to see how I organized the spice cabinet (and a few other cabinets and drawers). Yes. I did eventually get to it. A couple weeks late. But I got there 😉
And don’t forget to follow along on Instagram to watch all these projects come to life in real time!
| Tylynn |
Please let me know if you have any questions and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
