Cottage Kitchen Makeover: The Plan

Once upon a time, I imagine my kitchen was cutting edge.

It’s all-wood cabinets, retro yellow, marbled formica, and above-the-sink wood valance tell me that she was a pretty little thing in the mid-1960s.

But the time has come to love my little cottage kitchen into the 21st Century. It’s dark and dated (and not in a charming way). We’re on a serious budget, so I wanted to share my DIY plan for bringing some modernity and beauty to this sweet little space.

My kitchen is 8×12. It’s tiny. But we don’t have Joanna-Gaines-knock-down-the-walls-to-make-space money, so we’re making what we have work. Our plan is to use affordable items from home improvement stores and some elbow grease to transform this old girl. We want to stay true to her cottage roots while also bringing in just a bit of industrial flair.

So here’s what we hope to accomplish:

• Painting cabinets — We’ll use Benjamin Moore Advance Satin in white to brighten the space.
• Open Cabinets — We’ll pull the cabinet doors off the upper bank of cabinets to display our ironstone dishes and other vintage pretties.
• New Hardware / Drawer Pulls — I really like these for the cabinet drawers and these for the bottom cabinet doors from Home Depot. The hinges kind of specific, so I’ll probably just spray paint them white reuse them.
• DIY concrete countertops — We plan to use Henry FeatherFinish Patch and Skimcoat from Home Depot. We just plan to use this over our existing formica countertops. If it doesn’t work out, then we’re not out a bunch of money and will go with some other budget material.
• Subway Tile Backsplash — We want to use a peel and stick option for simplicity, budget, and because the tongue-and-groove wood will make actual tile cumbersome.
• Remove the wood valance above the sink — so long, 1960s.
• New light fixtures — Removing the valance above the sink will expose a really nasty dome light that will have to come out pretty quickly, so I want to replace it with a pendant light. I love this lamp and think I can DIY my own version of it; I also love the warmth of a natural woven pendant light like this one from Target. I’m so torn! My dome light in the center of the kitchen is ugly but not replace-it-like-yesterday ugly, so I can probably live with it a bit longer. When I’m ready to replace it, I’d love to go with something close to the ceiling like this.
• New small appliances — We need microwave to fit up in cabinets to free up some counter space and and a new two-slice countertop toaster (our mammoth toaster/convection currently sits on top of our fridge; we’re saving it to go in our camper when we begin that remodel).
• New flooring — This improvement is probably quite a ways out. I would love to go with a wood laminate that matches the original pine flooring that we have through the rest of the house.

Our personal choice is to do home-improvement projects on a cash-only basis. That means that our budget is always very modest, and we may not always work with speed. I’ve spent my spring break prepping and painting the kitchen cabinets, but it will probably be a few more weeks before we can tackle the countertops and the backsplash. I’m already on the hunt for light fixtures and can’t wait to share some of my favorite cottage farmhouse light fixture finds.

The inspiration for our kitchen comes from one of my favorite bloggers, Natalie Freeman of Natalie Creates and owner of the Freckled Hen Farmhouse in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

One of the things I love about Natalie is her approach to home improvement. Like us, she has a budget that she strictly remains within and only makes improvements as cash allows. Her kitchen makeover was completed over time as her budget allowed.

I don’t want a stuffy, “fancy” kitchen because that just doesn’t reflect our family. But Natalie’s kitchen conveys the exact aesthetic we’re aiming to achieve. Her bright, airy farmhouse kitchen is cheerful, warm, and inviting in its simplicity.

Our kitchen makeover is really all about bringing beauty to our house. There isn’t much we can do about its cramped quarters or awkward layout. We can simply decide to be joyful about what we do have and improve upon it with some vision and a little elbow grease. That’s what the DIY-lifestyle is all about, after all.

Stay tuned; next week I’ll share the work of prepping the cabinets for paint. That’s right, an entire blog post dedicated to preparation. It’s just that important.