Painted French Country Kitchen Reveal

Our kitchen has gone through a MAJOR transformation.. When we bought this house I knew the orange cabinets really had to go. Ideally I would have loved to 'Gut' the kitchen and start over.. But I don't have an extra 60k so we choose to 'Tweak' it instead. All together we spent $1800 to completely makeover this kitchen. The cabinets were professionally Painted in Benjamin Moore Linen white. We added larger more pronounced Crown mouldings, Changed the cabinet Hardware and Added new Oil rubbed bronze Pendants and ceiling lights. 

We had all the Kitchen cabinets professionally painted for $750. We choose Benjamin Moore Linen white, Its a light creamy white, Perfect for Freshening up the entire kitchen. I debated painting the cabinets myself as I have painted cabinets in the past.. but with a new little one, and packing up our previous house I felt it was best and EASIER to pass it off to the professionals. Plus the price was very reasonable considering they take the doors off and spray them front and back. And then re-install them for you. Yay!

I just LOVE how it all turned out!!

This is how it looked in the middle of the Reno's..Since we were already adding all new larger crown mouldings we decided to raise the Decorative Hoodfan for a more detailed staggered look.. BUT we ran into a bump in the road.. because the current decorative hood fan wasn't protruded enough.. it budded right up to the cabinets ..we were unable to connect the crown to it.. Sooooo we lowered the hoodfan back down to its originally spot and added a thin piece of wood under it , so that way when we added the larger crown all around the cabinets we ended up achieving the detailed look I was going for.

We had electricians add lights above the kitchen breakfast bar. When we purchased the house it only had 1 pot light on the left side above the breakfast bar.. It looked very random?? The pendants lights are new from Home depot , they were originally a satin nickel colour, we spray painted the metal Oil rubbed bronze. They look like ones I wanted from Pottery Barn but were out of my price range.

 

 To add a little French Country flair and draw the eye upward to our new crown, My husband made me a Vintage looking Wood box and I stencilled it with the words 'Farmers Market'. We trimmed our decorative hood fan to create a pannelled look.  We got thin wood strips cut at our local hardware store. The outer box detail is made of 1 1/2 inch wide wood strip pieces, with two inside strips measuring 1 inch wide.

The previous Mirrored backsplash got covered with white beadboard wallpaper.. Yes wallpaper!! Plus who wants to smash a mirror and possibly get 7 years bad luck! .. not me!! The wallpaper covered the mirror great, you would never know.. I have used beadboard wallpaper before in our previous home. Its super durable. I painted it in Benjamin Moore Cloud white to make it look more finished. The cloud white flows but its not too matchy matchy with the cabinets. We kept the laminate counter tops due to budget restraints but I feel like they look better already with the new painted cabinets.

See our Full Decorative Hood Fan Tutorial HERE

 This was a ready-made moulding we bought at Rona. We painted the inside with a little bit of left over chalk board paint and our daughter loves it!!

The hardware got changed out for the Restoration Hardware Crystal knobs from our previous kitchen and added Oil rubbed bronze pulls from Home depot on all the drawers.

The main kitchen ceiling track lighting got switched out for a more traditional semi flush mount hurricane light from Pottery Barn.. It was a splurge! But well worth it.. Lighting makes a huge difference not only in the look of a space but also in the functionality.

More details on our Kitchen Island / Furniture transformation to follow

See our Full tutorial on our small space Kitchen Island HERE

Thanks for looking, hope you enjoyed!.. See our previous home tour here

You can see how our kitchen looks now HERE.. Thanks to a Recent Reno ;)

 Don't Miss a post... Follow me by Email or Bloglovin!

Our New House Preview.. & all the Plans!

So we are on the move again.. Hopefully for last time (For at least for 5 years.. My hubby jokes about making me sign a contract!)..I have a passion for renovating and new spaces. I feel like I can make anything our home.. But I always forget until we are in it what a Nightmare moving can be.. Its just the results can be so fun and enticing ;) 

Our Previous home was beautiful but it felt very very isolated.. It was located in a ski resort area ..Brrr!! So for our new house we bought in town..yay! And with having a new lil one.. we needed civilization or at least I did!! The new house doesn't look as grandeur on the outside as our last place, but it offers us the separate spaces I was craving.. A separate office, a fourth bedroom and a separate dining room. And lets not forget the huge selling feature.. The beautiful backyard oasis and walk-out basement!! The Basement and yard sealed the deal and made the move easy peezy.. It really was a no brainer for our family! 

The basement was unfinished which of course suited us just fine..it was actually one of the perks.. We loved the idea of getting to pick out everything ourselves and design it for our lifestyle!! See all the before pictures and the new plans for our new house below.. Come join us on our new decorating adventure..

The selling feature really was this amazing tranquil backyard.. you would never be able to tell this existed back their just by driving up.. Its our little secret! Inside the new house it was nice and spacious. It had the space we wanted at 3350 sq ft plus the unfinished basement space. But It needed LOTS of tweaking to make it 'OUR' style.. I kept referring to the house as a "Gut job".. Then I realized my husband kept cringing at the word "GUT" so I changed up my wording to "TWEAK" and he felt all better about putting in an offer ;) The house needed the roof repaired, all of the the carpets needed to be replaced, hardwood floors needed to be refinished. Then their was the list just to make it 'US'. The 'US' list consisted of moving the upper hall closet so we could extend the master closet to make it larger, painting most of the rooms and painting all the bathroom and kitchen cabinetry... And lets not forget the small stuff like changing the door hardware, cabinetry hardware and changing all the existing builder lights.. I am a pro at this now.. My hubby hates me!! Oh and refinishing the Basement but that's for later ;)

The current Hardwood flooring on the main floor is a Hazelnut colored Ash hardwood with a very shiny unrealistic plastic gloss finish. The Family Room had great bones. Love the size of the room and the vaulted ceilings with this huge picture window!!
The Family Room Plan's: Stain the hardwood to something a little darker.. Remove the wood blinds to open up the space and allow you to see the gorgeous treed view from every level. And lastly update the Drywall Mantel/ TV media unit, Ideally I would love to remove it altogether but that's not in the budget, so some sort of 'Tweaking' is going to happen to it to make it more Me Us ;)

The kitchen eating area is a great size.. big enough to fit our large Harvest table 

from our previous home and it's 8 chairs.

The Kitchen Eating Area Plan's: Lightening the walls and doors and adding beadboard to the existing drywall niche shelving display.

The Kitchen is not my dream.. but the cabinetry is in good condition and has nice detail so its all staying till we win the lottery!!! The Ceramic flooring has seen better days,  hopefully we can update floors in the next few years.

The Kitchen Plan's: Getting a much needed paint job. Painting the cabinetry a light creamy white.. and replacing the Mirrored backsplash.. Thats right MIRRORED backsplash.. I don't always want to look at myself on the best of days.. I definitely don't want to when I am cooking!! :)

The Office Plans:   It will get a nice coat of or two or three of neutral paint.. Color to be determined. 

The Master Bedroom Plan's: Replace the carpeting.. it is in dire need for new carpet.. The electric fireplace got sold on Kijiji. We will be painting the walls Benjamin Moore Elmira White from its original 12yr old builder paint and adding a striped wallpaper to our headboard wall as a accent.

 

The Master Ensuite Bath Plan's: To LIGHTEN things up!! Currently its not bad it's just not my preferred style. I prefer a little lighter, fresher ! We will be painting the walls, changing of the vanity lights, painting the vanity cabinetry White and adding shelving to the existing drywall niches. Down the road I hope to add trim to the existing vanity mirror or change it altogether.

Both the Guest Bedrooms had good bones but needed a few tweaks to

 make them more our style

The Guest Room Plan's: Adding all new carpets, new paint, new lighting, and the 

removal of the homemade valances. 

The Girls bedroom was stuck in a time warp.. This room will be our daughters nursery.  We will basically do the same sort nursery look as before... I just loved it and feel as though we didn't get to enjoy it nearly enough. The good thing news is her new bedroom is its way bigger than her previous bedroom plus it comes with an amazing walk in closet.. Sadly its even better than her Mommy and Daddy's closet!!
The Plan: Remove the current wallpaper, Change curtains, Paint walls a light Gray, paint out yellow ceiling border, Add beadboard wallpaper, Add chair rail trim all around the room and lastly add bookshelves on either side of window with a bench underneath.

The laundry room is a good size, it has inside entry to the garage. I just love the fact that it came with the white cabinets for added storage. The current paint colour makes the room appear dark and dingy so we need it to feel CLEAN!

The plan for the laundry room:  Paint the entire room out in BM Cloud White.. and add in our current washer and dryer from our previous laundry room.

Main Bathroom is also in need of some updating and love ..

 the wallpaper was dated vinyl and was peeling.

The plan is to remove all the current wallpaper.. And paint the walls a nice calm colour. (Colour to be determined) Change all the towel hardware and Possibly add a wallpaper accent wall??

The current Hall is a little dark and gloomy. And the ceiling edges have all been painted in the wall colour (hard to see in pictures.. sorry!) I feel like it looks like a border on my ceiling.. and I am not a fan of Borders personally..

The Hall plans: Paint the upper hall, lower halls and Foyer walls in Benjamin Moore Edgecomb Gray. Paint out the ceiling borders to match the current white ceiling colour.

The plan for the Upper hall: Change the location of the linen closet to extend and enlarge the Master bedroom closet. Paint all the walls BM Edgecomb Gray.

AWWWW Finally the backyard.. nothing needs to be done here except the odd weed removal..overall its the only space that was updated and upgraded. It is heaven!

Stay tuned to see all our changes and 'Tweaks!!' up ahead...

Thanks for looking.. See our other Completed House Tours Here

Neutral Fall Home Tour

So Fall has officially arrived..Sept 23rd.  I was so excited this month to decorate for the Fall because my little one is getting old enough to kind of understand everything it entails like Hayrides, pumpkin picking and lets not forget trick or treating!.. So in decorating for the Fall season this year we kept it very neutral and natural looking.. Lots of beiges and whites... My fav! I have been busy making some fun festive Fall pillows by mixing some left over patterned fabric and stencilling words like 'Fall', 'Boo' and 'Harvest' on them.
Come and see how we decorated our Front Porch and House Interior... Join the Link Party at Thoughts from Alice.

On our Front porch we made this exterior bench using 2 straw bales as a bench and layering it with a ton Fall themed pillows. This straw bench is going to make a super cute Fall Photo Prop for my niece and daughter..  

 As you walk to the front doors I have a Antique window Frame with a hanging 'Autumn' Banner. The Autumn banner is made of Jute with scrap fabric bows tied on either end.

 Come inside and have a look.. I just LOVE these little white pumpkins..they are the perfect Fall accessory! I used them everywhere I could ;) I just bought this amazing Antique Dough Bowl two weekends ago at a local outdoor antique market. I got it just in time to decorate it for fall ;) I placed it as a Centerpiece on my kitchen Harvest table along with a Burlap ruffled Table Runner. To fill it up I used Spanish moss and paired with dried grass from my garden and these adorable small white pumpkins.

Our Mantel features a Burlap Fall Banner available here. Its a Mix of a Twig wood pumpkins, a vintage book, Rust colored ceramic pitchers and a Glass jug filled with dried off-white star flowers from our local garden centre.

To keep with the fall theme, just above our TV we displayed another Fall Vignette. We kept the rope in the glass jar from our summer display, I felt it went with the Rustic Neutral look I was going for. We placed the painted Deer wood planks I just painted over the nautical boat artwork that we had up there. And added a White medium sized pumpkin for good measure.

For our kitchen Buffet just some Simple change ups for the season . The daisies and hydrangeas got switched out for dried off-white star flowers. Inside the vintage tool box is a mix of dried flowers in glass milk bottles surrounded by small white pumpkins. For the Large glass hurricane vase, we switched out small white shells to Acorns.. which I painstakingly picked up off the ground while visiting my parents. What a in-expensive Vase Filler!!

 The best and easiest way to change up decorating for the seasons is through changing the Pillow covers!! I just love Burlap ones for Fall.. well I love it all year but it really goes perfect with a neutral Fall theme.

Dried Hydrageas are another cheap and easy way to fill a vase.. especially now since it's the end of the season. So if you haven't already.. go to your garden and cut the remaining flowers off your bushes.. Its the easiest way to I have found to dry them!! Another Fall change.. Filling an Urn with moss balls. ( clearance at Restoration Hardware) Moss is great natural addition to a home, plus they will transition you right into Christmas season perfectly.

Thanks for looking. Hope you enjoyed! I will be sharing more pics of our New house soon..