Farmhouse Kitchen Reveal

What started out as painting the kitchen cabinets quickly turned into a full blown kitchen renovation on a budget. The only main elements we changed were the sink and the stove but it doesn’t even look close to the same kitchen!

When Eric and I got married and I moved in, it was to a very nice, but not my style kitchen. The only thing that I really wanted to do at the time was to paint the cabinets. They were beautiful, custom oak cabinets. While they were certainly nice, and almost everyone tried to convince me to leave them, wood toned cabinets just aren’t my favorite.

Eric liked them but I finally convinced him they needed some paint. Actually, he finally just said it was my kitchen and I could do whatever I wanted in there. That was all I needed to hear and you can bet that he didn’t have to tell me twice!

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My Dream Farmhouse Kitchen Vision

The years before {and during…yes, it took that long} the start of painting, my vision for the kitchen starting coming together.

My dream home is an old farmhouse. The kind that is built out of wood and has stood the test of time. The kind that has seen storms come and go and felt the pitter patter of countless little feet running up and down it’s halls. A house full of memories and memories yet to be made.

I dream of high ceilings, wood floors, and the beautiful architectural touches that are completely void in our age of functionality.

Since I’m not in a position right now to go out and buy the house of my dreams, I try to add in as many elements of that era as I can to create that beautiful feel in my home. So this is my attempt at an antique farmhouse kitchen working with what I had and things I could change on a tight budget!

I really love antique farmhouse kitchen decor because not only does it look good but it can be functional as well! I really don’t have much in my kitchen as decoration that can’t also be used.

Before The Remodel

Don’t get me wrong, I started my married life with a nice kitchen. It has lots of counter space, tons of cabinets and storage, and a cute little window over the sink. It just wasn’t quite my style. In a place like a kitchen, where you spend so much time, it can make the work so much more enjoyable when you’re doing it in a space that you love!

Of course that’s not to say that you can’t serve joyfully no matter where or what your kitchen looks like!

Fresh, White Cabinets

I love the clean, fresh, bright look of a white farmhouse kitchen. It’s so cheery to walk into in the morning. And the chandelier casts prisms of rainbow light all over the kitchen which is so fun!

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The oak cabinets were nice and pretty in their own way but definitely not my style. Sanding them and then filling the wood grain in before painting them was such a pain and not something I want to do again any time soon. It was pretty much a nightmare!

I tried using a roller to paint them at first but didn’t have the right kind, which I didn’t know at the time. It left a texture on the cabinets that I didn’t like so I ended up brushing them all for both the primer and the paint…big mistake.

Are white cabinets hard to keep clean?

I hear this one all of the time. “I love a white kitchen but I could never keep it clean!”

Here’s the thing: your kitchen won’t get any dirtier because of the color you paint your cabinets. The difference with white cabinets is that you can actually see the dirt and mess that gets on them. A quick wipe-down as soon as a drip occurs and you’re right back to clean cabinets. Yay for farmhouse kitchens with white cabinets!

The Nitty Gritty

Take it from me, wood toned cabinets get every bit as dirty but they’re sneaky little buggers and hide the dirt so well. I had no idea how dirty my cabinets were until I started cleaning them to sand and paint. They were GROSS!

So here’s the answer: If you want your kitchen to actually be clean, paint it white. You’ll see the dirt and clean it up. If you want to hide all of the dirt so that you never have to clean your cabinets but have the illusion of clean, go with a wood tone!

I went with white and I love it! I do like the look of some kitchens that have white upper cabinets and colored lower cabinets, so who knows what the future holds. But I can tell you one thing for sure, I won’t be painting any cabinets for a very long time!

Painted Kitchen Hardware

I went with the cheapest solution for updating the hardware which was a bottle of spray paint! It’s not a permanent solution and some wouldn’t even consider it since the paint tends to rub off it high traffic areas. It’s been a perfect solution for us though.

The kitchen hardware was antique brass before, so even the places that have rubbed off a little don’t bother me. I’m totally ok with the lived in look!

If you want to change to drawer pulls, here are some black ones that are almost identical to mine.

Painted Formica Countertops

Another cheap update I went with was painting the formica countertops instead of changing them. The formica was an off white that looked quite yellow after painting the cabinets such a bright white.

I really wanted to rip all of the formica out and put something beautiful and tough like quartz…until I started looking at prices. I looked at a lot of DIY countertops like concrete, tile, and wood but eventually settled on just painting them until we can afford to go back and do quartz.

Painted formica countertops are definitely not for the perfectionist. They get stained and you have to be careful to not slide heavy stuff across them. You do have to be a little mindful and more careful with painted formica countertops, but overall I’m pleased with such a cheap temporary fix and would definitely do it again.

Bead Board Backsplash

The bead board backsplash may not seem like a big or noticeable thing, but it made a huge difference in the look and feel of the kitchen! Bead board is one of the easiest and cheapest ways to add authentic farmhouse style to a kitchen. It has such a timeless charm!

Our formica countertop and backsplash was all one piece so instead of doing major demolition, I figured out how to install the bead board straight over top of the formica. There were a few questionable moments but I love the way it turned out!

A fun fact…I finished nailing the last board up 2 days before our second child, James, was born. I’m sure it was quite the comedy show to watch me half standing and half laying on the counter trying to reach the backsplash around my huge belly. Now I wish I had gotten Eric to take a picture!

Antique Double Drainboard Cast Iron Sink

It’s a really close call between which is my favorite thing in my new kitchen…the stove or the sink. It would be like someone asking you to pick your favorite kid. I’m really not sure I can choose one or the other but I really love my double drainboard cast iron sink!

This farmhouse sink is a total workhorse and so practical. It would be super hard for me to go back to a sink without drain boards now!

This is actually the second double drain board sink that we’ve put in. When I say “we”, I actually mean my patient and skilled husband. He wasn’t too thrilled about changing it out more than once. The first was beautiful but wasn’t cast iron which is what I really wanted.

I found the cast iron farmhouse sink that I have now on facebook marketplace. It’s kind of a funny story. We went and looked at it but I decided not to get it because it looked like the stains weren’t going to clean out. I was the crazy lady who showed up with a whole bag of cleaners to try. The top porcelain finish was completely worn off and it was in pretty bad shape.

The Regret

After coming home and thinking about that beautiful sink for days, I decided to take a chance on it anyway. I called the lady back and she told me it had already sold. I was so disappointed! Then my sister in law showed me that the listing was still up, so then I was disappointed and aggravated too!

I accepted reality and just kept looking. Then Christmas morning my husband pulls up on the tractor with that sink hanging from the front end loader! After seeing how much I really liked the sink, he had gone back and bought it for me as a surprise!

It’s not perfect, and it stains really easily, but I sure do love it! It’ll be a lifer here unless I find one just like it in perfect condition. Even then my husband might rebel about changing the kitchen sink again.

I found an antique inspired Kingston Brass faucet on Amazon that I really liked. They also have similar ones that mount on different style sinks.

Antique Chandelier

I had such a hard time picking a light to go over the sink! I looked and looked but I just couldn’t find anything that felt right. Finally mama asked why didn’t I put up a chandelier.

It was an option I had considered. I’ve seen chandeliers over kitchen sinks before and always like them.

The problem is that I have a hard time visualizing how something will look before it’s done so I just couldn’t decide. It was time for the light and I still hadn’t found anything so she brought over a chandelier to try and I loved it! It looked so great and fits my style perfectly.

Antique O’keefe and Merritt Gas Stove

The stove. THE STOVE Y’All! They just don’t make things like they used to. This is another facebook marketplace find that we made a road trip to Texas to buy in July of 2019.

It’s an O’keefe and Merritt gas range that dates to the early 1950’s. It has 4 burners and a huge griddle in the middle between them. Hello pancakes! It has an oven on the right side and a grillevator broiler on the left side. The bottom drawer on the left is storage and the bottom right is an access door for under the oven.

It looked to be in decent condition but hadn’t been used by the previous two owners so we had no idea if it would work, but we knew at the least that it would need some maintenance and major TLC.

The thing about these antique stoves is either they’re restored and really expensive or else they usually need a lot of restoration and TLC to get them back into tip top shape. The good news is that they’re really basic and fairly straight forward to work on and get at least the basics working! Since we were on a really low budget, I learned everything I could about how these old stoves work and how to restore them yourself.

DIY Vintage Stove Restoration

If you’re interested in antique stoves or want to get your own, I highly recommend this facebook group. It’s a treasure trove of vintage gas stove information and there are some super knowledgable people in there. Also, this blog, where she has detailed posts of her step by step restoration process. These two resources are where I learned everything I needed to know to take my stove completely apart, rebuild the valves and put it all back together.

There were times during my DIY stove restoration project that I seriously questioned my sanity. I wanted to throw it out the back door a few times. And sometimes I felt like a dummy when I got something put back together only to realize it was wrong.

But I did it! With minimal help from anyone else. And I’m pretty proud of that achievement which makes cooking on this beauty every day even more satisfying!

Custom Kitchen Island

My kitchen island is a very special custom piece that I will cherish not only because I love it, but my daddy made it for me!

My dad has gotten into building rustic cabinets and things and really wanted to build me an island. He came up with the idea to use an old barn door as the top complete with the hinges and handle.

It came out so perfect! The dark wood tone is perfect and the rustic-ness of the old wood is the perfect balance to the feminine elements like the lace and chandelier.

Trash Can

Is it weird to include a trash can in a farmhouse kitchen renovation? Oh well, if it is then it just confirms what we’ve known all along…I might not be completely normal. But who wants to be normal when you can have a repurposed galvanized tank for your farmhouse garbage can? Not this weirdo!

But in all seriousness, I found this old galvanized part to some sort of tank or sprayer at a barn sale. I wasn’t sure how well it would work but it was the closest thing I found and my mama convinced me that it would be perfect. Once again, she was right! The lesson here is listen to your mama!

If you want to see our barn sale treasures from when I found my garbage can, you can watch that video here. I actually have a whole barn sale playlist on YouTube that you can see here.

Under The Sink Curtain

Instead of putting the 2 doors under the sink back on, I sewed up a cute little ticking curtain to add some texture and softness to the kitchen. I really love the way it turned out and I’m excited to be able to change it out for the different seasons!

Vintage Muffin Tin Gallery Wall

Last but not least is my wall of antique muffin pans. This was actually really difficult to photograph and get a good picture of!

I’ve been collecting these little muffin tins for years, even before I got married. I had this vision for a wall display and love how it came together. I even found some old square head nails in the barn to hang them up with!

Farmhouse Kitchen Before and After

There are definitely a few things I would have done differently but I’m so happy when I look at where my kitchen started to my charming little farmhouse kitchen that I walk into every morning now!

Thank you for stopping by to see my new farmhouse kitchen! I wish you could come sit with me and talk while we shared a warm, fresh loaf of sourdough!

If that sounds good to you as well, come over and join me on Instagram for the next best thing @thislovelylittlefarmhouse. I’m able to share a lot more candid, behind the scenes life moments and I’d be so happy to connect with you!