Kitchen

The (Mostly Done!) Kitchen

If you’ve been following along, you know we’ve gone back and forth a lot on what to do with this kitchen. Here are the posts, in case you’re in need of a catch up: Kitchen Tour (right after we closed on the house) Open Shelving Inspiration (before I decided on the single shelf look) The…

If you’ve been following along, you know we’ve gone back and forth a lot on what to do with this kitchen. Here are the posts, in case you’re in need of a catch up:

 photo DSC_0591.jpg

Kitchen Tour (right after we closed on the house)
Open Shelving Inspiration (before I decided on the single shelf look)
The Rough Initial Plans (only about 50% of this ended up happening!)
After painting out the floors and the brick range surround
A big recap of thoughts and plans and details on the Shaker-style cabinet DIY
Black concrete counters DIY and single shelf inspiration

 photo 58.jpg

I finally decided though that we would just work with the existing layout and cabinets and use my favorite concrete overlay technique to make this kitchen work for us until we can do a big upgrade.

 photo 51.jpg

I’m still hoping for a full kitchen reno sometime down the road, but at least for now, the space feels clean and bright! DIY wins again! :) Here’s a little more on what we ended up doing and where I bought everything…

One of the splurges of the reno was this farmhouse sink from Signature Hardware. We had some sort of funny dimensions to work with and this one was the least expensive of the options that would fit right. I love the clean lines! I also bought the faucet from Signature Hardware and had a local plating company (Papago Plating) strip off the lacquer finish. I love it.

 photo 54.jpg

The black concrete counters are holding up really well and I love the dramatic look. The waterfall edge is so pretty, and I think with the creamy white cabinet color and the lighter gray on the floors (Ben Moore’s Galveston Gray), the black is not too dark for the space.

 photo 61.jpg

My favorite part though is the little shelf we built with pine boards that I covered in concrete too. I hung them with simple black gloss brackets from Home Deport with brass screws. I wanted the brackets to just sort of go away, which they do! The shelves are super sturdy though too. We have all sorts of heavy things on top (tons of plates on one side and a 20-lb cactus planter on the other!) and it’s sturdy as can be.

 photo 52.jpg
 photo 56.jpg

You can see in this photo too that we beefed up the trim on the doors and added trim to the windows (there was nothing there before). I LOVE how the trim addition completely changed the space!

 photo dDSC_0595-1.jpg

We made a few changes to the lighting too. Just getting those super frilly and outdated pieces out was a huge improvement! 
 photo dDSC_0611.jpg
We took down the too-low ceiling fan and the chandelier over the table area and replaced them with two of these lanterns I picked up for a song in New Jersey before we moved. I painted the pink parts white and sprayed the sleeves gold.
 photo IMG_4785.jpg
 photo 55.jpg
I think a little white paint and round bulbs can make any fixture prettier! :)
 photo 57.jpg
I got three of these brass tilt cone sconces from Cedar and Moss. They are beautiful.  I really love them and think they are a steal for the price!!
 photo 53.jpg
One of my favorite little details of the space ended up being the cabinet hardware! I really wanted something a little different. I searched high and low and finally, finally stumbled on these white milk glass bin pulls. They are so perfect. They just sort of glow! We used brass screws to install them to the drawer fronts, so brass accent is there, but it’s subtle.

 photo 63.jpg

 photo 66.jpg
 photo 54.jpg

It’s (clearly) not perfect. We did this project fast and furious, but the improvement to me is huge. We are loving it and are so happy we could make the room work for us for as long as it takes to save up for the kitchen of our dreams. :)
Join the Conversation

66 thoughts on “The (Mostly Done!) Kitchen

  1. Great work as always! A few questions on your cupboards, did you paint the hinges? Did you use oil or latex? Semi-gloss? Thank you for your help.

  2. Jenny!
    What an amazing transformation! You have an amazing talent :)

    I have a question about the shelf you made – did you cover the pine board with concrete before you installed? It looks like you installed the back panel and covered that with the concrete and then put the top piece on with the brackets afterwards but just wondering if you drilled right through the concrete?
    Any info would be fantastic – I'm going to try this out on my own home and LOVE the shelf idea for extra space and knic knacs!
    Again – Bravo!!

  3. What I love most about your house is that it is so full of color and yet it all plays so well together. Honestly what is your secret to getting all of these bold color choices in your house to play nice together! Also what type of brackets did you use for your shelf that make them so study? I want to do open shelves in my kitchen but I am afraid they won't hold the amount of weight as well as look good! Please share your bracket source!

  4. Hey, jenny, love your "new" kitchen. The scones are beautiful and the black countertop looks great. Where did you get the window trim? It is exactly what I need for new windows in our Edwardian house. Thanks!

  5. I know this is an older article but I fell in love with those pulls but Crown City Hardware seems to have taken a sabbatical so I had to use antique milk glass bin pulls. My kitchen has several different types of hardware (Christopher Peacock look) so I only needed 6 and now I have the last 6 milk glass bin pulls in the world. Yours are beautiful. If you ever decide to do something different please give me a chance to buy your pulls. I actually have enough I just want to have a few for breakage and such. Your kitchen came out gorgeous.

  6. Hey there, I’ve been trying to find more of the milk glass bin pulls and wondered where you found them?! I have 5 black and 1 white (that I’ve found at antique stores) but need 12 more whites to finish my kitchen any help would be appreciated!

© Jenny Komenda. All Rights Reserved.
Site by