It’s week 4 of the One Room Challenge sponsored by Better Homes and Gardens. This is flying by and I’m excited to share some of the finishes we picked out with you guys!
Selecting Finishes
This has to be one of my favorite parts of the process. I enjoy searching for the perfect pieces to put together and bring my vision to life. Sometimes it can be frustrating when I have an idea of what I want but can’t find it anywhere or it doesn’t exist. But when I eventually do find what works it all just falls into place.
I have been thinking about what I would want this new kitchen to look like for many years. When we were building, my parents warned us that once we lived in the house for a while then we would start to think of all of the things that we wish we had done or not done in some cases. They were not wrong. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful because I have a beautiful home and roof over my head but I think it’s pretty normal to come up with a wishlist once you are actually living and using the space, whether its functionality or aesthetics.
The main inspiration I had for the space was bright, neutral, earthy yet classic. I just wanted to open up the space and brighten it but still wanted it to have texture, warmth and interest. Basically I want it all. I had mentioned in a previous post, I was never a fan of our backsplash since I felt like it darkened the space and have toyed with the idea of ripping it out and adding a new one for some time. I was browsing tiles on Wayfair and fell in love with this elongated subway tile. It has a matte finish and a natural edge that makes it look handmade. It was also on sale so win, win! I went ahead and purchased it, well before we new for sure if we were going to redo our kitchen. If anything I thought we could at least replace our backsplash since we are able to do the labor ourselves.
My next purchase was the hardware. I initially wanted these beauties from schoolhouse but they were $18 each and we would need over 30 of them so that was a no go.
I eventually found these knobs and pulls on Pottery Barns website and thought they were perfect. They were also 20% off with free shipping! I was hesitant at first to get brass/gold hardware since all of our appliances are stainless steel as well as our faucet and pendant lights. I am on team mixed metals though as long as you keep the hardware and other like items in the same color. Hardware all in bronze and appliances all in stainless etc. They actually compliment each other.
Another kitchen item on my wish list was adding open shelving. I have always admired them in other peoples kitchens but was scared to lose the cabinet space. I decided to go through all of my cupboards and get rid of anything that we didn’t use or need. I was amazed at how much empty space there was after purging! That gave me the validation to remove two of our uppers on either side of the hood and add the shelving that I was dreaming of. Now we had to decide whether to do floating shelves or shelves with visible brackets. I wanted these shelves to be functional, deep and sturdy enough to hold my dishes. We decided to go the floating route since it was more streamlined and modern. My brother Ramsey @ramcoent built our maple floating shelves down in our basement bar so of course we went to him for help. We went down to the shop and he built us 4 maple shelves and stained them in one of my favorite go to stains, Minwax Early American.
The last piece that I had to purchase for the kitchen were the sconces. Since we were removing the cabinets and adding open shelves, I thought it would create more interest to have sconces installed. This was probably the hardest item for me to choose because it was so difficult to visualize in the space. I ended up buying a few options from Amazon so I could see them in person and return the one I didn’t love. Below is the sconce I chose and several others I was considering:
It’s all coming together and I can’t wait for it to be all done so I can style those shelves! Thanks for following along. See you all next week!
Modern Midwest Nest 