Prairie House Kitchen Reveal | One Room Challenge

After 6 short weeks, it’s time for our Prairie House kitchen reveal!

Hey friends!  It’s a little late, but I am so excited to finally be able to share our prairie house kitchen reveal with you!  I am happy to say that this kitchen and breakfast room look like a completely different space.  One of the reasons I fell in love with this house was because I knew we would have room in our budget to renovate this room, and standing in this kitchen for the first time, I already had the beginnings of a vision for this space.  I am happy to say that it turned out even better than I imagined!  We are thrilled with the results, and we have been enjoying this one part of our home that is fully updated.  I am sharing before and after photos throughout this post.  Just look at the photo below and you will see right away how far we have come in this kitchen.

Catch up On all of my posts for this One Room Challenge:

Week One, Week Two, Week Three, Week 4, Week 5

If you have not heard of the One Room Challenge (also called ORC), currently in its 16th season, it is a widely anticipated biannual event every April and October.  Each round, twenty design bloggers take the challenge and transform a space.  It is hosted by Better Homes and Gardens.  Wednesdays is the day for the design bloggers to go live with their progress, and Thursdays is the day for all the guest participants to go live.  You guys will be amazed at these reveals, they are just beyond words good!

If you found me through the ORC Link up, welcome!  I am so happy you are here!  My name is Nicki and I am the blogger behind Sweet Parrish Place.  I love to share our DIY and home decor shenanigans, along with some organization, fashion, travel and other lifestyle types of topics.  Thanks for reading!  

I remember the day our realtor and I stood here signing the contracts to make an offer on this house, and we started brainstorming about the changes I could make in this kitchen.  It was that conversation where the idea to have custom cabinets with glass doors built on top of the existing cabinets, to go all the way to the ceiling.  And seeing this idea come to life has been just amazing.  I decided to leave some of the upper cabinets with solid doors so that I could have some more storage to hide the ugly things we all need a place for,and then the glass cabinet doors allow me to display some pretties.  Adding these upper cabinets has made this kitchen seem twice as big.

The kitchen island has also undergone a huge transformation.  I had to share this photo of my husband and our realtor signing the contracts on this house, because this was the day that this whole idea took root.  We dropped the island down to one level, and we enlarged it by adding the bookshelf on the one end.  We also added a couple of inches of width, from the front to the back of the island, by adding the quartz counter tops.  I actually wanted to add two more additional inches, but that would have require another slab of quartz, so I calmed myself down and settled for what I had.  And I simply love our new kitchen island.

The barstools were in our old old house (two houses ago), and I had saved them in our attic for a future kitchen, and now here they are!  They got pretty beat up in our move.  So I painted them using Rust-Oleum chalked spray paint in charcoal.  I had planned to strip down the seat part to the natural wood and bleach it or something, but I ran out of time.  I do still plan to do this to the seats at some point though.  In order to stay on time with this reveal (which still turned out to be late), I just painted the barstools and left the seats the way they were.  I do have to say that I fell completely in love with the product I used to paint them though.  the Rust-Oleum chalked spray paint was wonderful to work with, and the finish is smooth as butter, it almost looks like a factory finish.  It is THAT GOOD!

Our entire downstairs has high ceilings, so the original cabinets with all of the blank space above just did not do this kitchen justice.  By adding the above cabinetry, I feel that the kitchen is finally able to fully shine.  The only thing that was changed about the existing cabinets is that the crown molding at the top was removed to allow for the cabinets to be built, and then everything was painted white.  The carpenter who built the above cabinets did a fantastic job at matching them to the existing ones.

Truth be told, I would have loved to buy a new stove, microwave, and dishwasher, but that was not in the budget for this renovation.  We decided to work around those existing appliances, replace the refrigerator, and wait for a bit to change out the rest of the appliances.  I admit that I am looking forward to the day that we can replace the rest of them too.  I can’t wait for the day that the black microwave above the stove is replaced.  But for now, I am satisfied.  I feel like I made it work by adding some other pops of black around the adjoining breakfast room, and by painting the island in a dark grey.

Painting the island in this color went a long way towards making the black dishwasher work here.  After I saw this island in the new darker color, I think I decided to stick with a dark colored dishwasher.  But this dishwasher is truly on its last legs.  So, if it were to die tomorrow, I will not be sad.  Are you feeling me, ladies?

The farmhouse sink just happens to be the sink that dreams are made of.  I have to admit, I had to force the issue on the sink with the husband.  He really didn’t want to spend the additional money for it because it was not included in the cost of our renovation.  But I stuck to my guns and I didn’t back down.  I found what I felt was a good price on this farmhouse sink, and I bought it.  And funny thing, as I am sitting here writing this reveal post, the husband just made the comment that he LOVES the new farmhouse sink.  So – winning, HA!  He always comes around in the end, as so many husbands do.

The rug you see here in front of the island has actually been replaced.  Unfortunately, the rug I ordered did not come in on time for me to get it into the photos, but I really love the rug I selected!  I’ll share that one last little update soon!

There were originally three small pendants above the island, and my contractor helped me make the decision to replace them with only two lights that were significantly larger than the existing lights.  I chose these farmhouse lanterns and I love them so much!  and although there is one less light, they still put out more light because each lantern hold three lightbulbs.  I also had these lights put on a dimmer, and I love being able to dim the lights in the evenings for ambiance.

The chandelier over the table was here when we bought the house, and I actually really like it, so it stayed.  I think the farmhouse lanterns coordinate well with the chandelier.

I love that this sink came with the metal rack in the bottom.  This sink is huge, and we are able to use the left side of it as a drying rack.  So for the first time in my life, I don’t have a dish drainer sitting on my counter top.  I have always been one to have a dish drainer, and I was happy to put mine in the Goodwill bin!  I also love the new faucet I selected.  I went with stainless steel to coordinate with the cabinet hardware and the refrigerator handles, and I love the spray shield technology it has.  I can rinse things like silverware and glasses with minimal splatter.

This white refrigerator is exactly what I wanted for my new kitchen.  I originally found this KitchenAid refrigerator on Pinterest, and Lowe’s was able to order it for me.  This was not on the sales floor, so I am glad that I asked if they could order it.  I love the clean lines and the fact that it doesn’t have an ice or water dispenser on the front.  It does have a water dispenser inside the door, and it is no problem to reach into the freezer and scoop ice into a glass.

We also had two garbage bins added into this cabinet next to the sink, and I am so happy that I made this choice!  All my life, I have had a garbage can sitting somewhere in our kitchen, and having it hidden like this is a dream!  I highly recommend adding one if you have the cabinet space.  It holds two trash bins, and we use one for garbage and one for recycling.  It has worked out perfectly, and it keeps the dog away from the trash too.

I love having this bookshelf on one end of the island to display some pretty things and hold my cookbooks.  The back side of the island is drywall, and the contractors had to match all of this when they enlarged the island and added the shelves.  Initially, they painted the baseboard white back here, and I asked them to change it to match the grey on the island.  I feel like keeping the trim the same color as the island makes it look seamless and more like a piece of furniture.

We went with quart as our counter material.  This particular quartz is called carrera, in case you are in the market for one.  One thing that I did keep from the original kitchen is the hardware on the cabinets.  I had planned to replace it all, but when the contractors finished painting, I still hadn’t selected hardware, so I had them go ahead and reinstall the old hardware, and as it turned out, I really like the way it looks with the white, so I decided to keep it.  And I was actually lucky enough to find more of the hardware to add to the new cabinets at Home Depot.

You might remember this table and chairs from our old house.  I actually made over this set last winter.  In our previous home, i had the leaf in it, which makes it an oval shape.  But in this breakfast room I wanted a round table, and it actually works perfectly in here!  I did have to repaint the chairs because they got pretty banged up during our move.  But luckily, the table was unscathed.

Here is a before photo of the breakfast room.  I love to see before and after photos, don’t you?  I am guessing the answer is yes, which is why you are here reading this blog post right now!

In the breakfast room, the ceilings and crown moulding were painted white, and I painted the walls a color called sentimental beige by Behr.  My buffet that I have owned since 1992 goes perfectly in this space.  I also painted this buffet last winter, and luckily it was not damaged in the move.  I will keep this buffet for probably the rest of my life.  It is my favorite piece of furniture I own.

These next two photos will show how much just changing the color of your doors can change up a space.  Before, they were both a creamy white.  And I just do not like creamy white doors or trim.  So those had to go.  the door to the right leads to our garage, and obviously the left side is our pantry.

I just happen to love black interior doors.  And it is a goal of mine to change out all of the doors and paint them black, so I got started with the two doors in our breakfast room, and then I decided to go with a little of a contrast on the pantry door.  I painted it the color grey owl by Benjamin Moore.  I was thinking about doing a bold pop of color here, but I couldn’t decide on a color in time, so I went with this color because I had it on hand and had (we painted our master bedroom this color upon moving in).  I can’t honestly say that I’m thrilled with it, but I don’t dislike it either.  I do love the color of grey owl paint, and I do consider this door to be an improvement over what it was.  But I may just paint it a more bold color in the future, we shall see.  I had thought of adding some moulding to this flat black door, but I just simply ran out of time.  That may be a future project.  But for now, I added  a boxwood wreath, and I am happy with it.  Black doors hide a world of evil, guys.  I highly recommend them!

After I painted the walls a lighter color, I felt like this window with the plantation shutters was looking a little bland, so I decided to take a risk and paint the window ledge the same black as the doors.  I was a little scared of this one, because if I didn’t like it, I knew I was running out of time to fix it.  But I just happen to love it so much!  The pop of black was just what this room needed!

Here’s another before and after looking towards the sun room.  It’s so fun to see how much it has changed in just 6 weeks!  And let me add that I cannot wait for the day that I get to focus on making our sun room lived in and cozy.  That day has not come yet.

I also painted all of the baseboards white.  It is surprising how much having nice clean baseboards can change the looks of a room.  The baseboards were very dingy and dirty, and now they are fresh and clean – sooooo satisfying!

Sitting here for a family dinner at this little table, and looking over at our newly renovated kitchen is just so amazing!  I can see myself living here and loving these two rooms for a long time to come.  And that makes me very happy.  As a matter of fact, we are hosting our first Thanksgiving dinner here coming very soon, and we cannot wait to show off this new space of ours!  We both feel so blessed that we were able to do a renovation like this in our new home.  The husband is every bit as happy about it as I am!

Kitchen Details

Cabinet and trim Color- Simply White by Benjamin Moore

Island Color- Kendall Charcoal By Benjamin Moore

Garage and Sunroom door color- Plum Martini by Benjamin Moore

Pantry door color- Grey Owl by Benjamin Moore

Wall color- Sentimental Beige by Behr

Paint on Barstools- Rust-Oleum chalked spray paint in charcoal 

Sealer on barstools- Rust-Oleum sealer/wax topcoat

KitchenAid Refrigerator

Farmhouse Sink With Basket Strainer

Delta Kitchen Faucet

Lantern Lights

Matte White Subway Tile

Natural Grey Grout

To Do List For Kitchen Makeover

• paint cabinets white
• replace lighting over island
• Remove ceiling light and add recessed lighting
• add new counter tops
• paint doors
• add shelving to island
• have custom cabinets built above existing cabinets
• paint ceiling
• paint walls
• add new accessories and decor
• paint trim
• drop kitchen island to just one level
• add subway tile backsplash
• install garbage cans into an island cabinet
• install new farmhouse sink
• install new kitchen faucet
• paint existing bar stools
• paint breakfast table chairs

It has been almost four months since we moved into our new home in Austin, TX, and I am so happy that we have finished our kitchen renovation in time for the holidays!  We haven’t invited guests over yet, but that is about to change, thanks to our prairie house kitchen renovation!  I hope you enjoyed following along with our renovation.  We have lots of other rooms in this new house that need updated, so please stick around and follow along!  I would absolutely love that!  I think the next room on my agenda is our guest room because it is currently a hot mess.  And because we have moved away from our home, we are expecting to have lots of people come and visit us in the future, so I want to create a welcoming space for our guests.

You can find each of my previous One Room Challenge™ rooms by clicking the links below:

guest/kids bathroom makeover

downstairs bathroom makeover

kids bedroom makeover

Modern Farmhouse Kitchen Reveal

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