Modern Farmhouse Kitchen Renovation Design and Before Tour | Little House of Four - Creating a beautiful home, one thrifty project at a time.: Modern Farmhouse Kitchen Renovation Design and Before Tour

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Modern Farmhouse Kitchen Renovation Design and Before Tour

Tour a living room, dining room and kitchen of small ranch style home before a major kitchen and first-floor renovation. 

It's hard to believe our kitchen renovation is underway!  We've saved for this project for many years and dealt with a few major financial setbacks (like needing a new septic system, furnace and air conditioner), but we are FINALLY moving forward with expanding our kitchen and opening up our floorplan.  

I've mentioned in the past that we struggled with the decision to move or renovate our current home and we decided to renovate.  Yes, it would be nice to have a larger home and more property, but ultimately, that's not what was most important to us.  We are perfectly comfortable and content with the size of our home, we just wanted to make it work better for our family.  

Classic modern farmhouse kitchen reno plans


Living room before renovation
Currently, the rooms are almost completely empty, but I did snap a few pictures before we cleared out most of the decor and furniture.  (You can see the spaces fully decorate in my Home Tour)

Living room before kitchen renovation
We are opening up the floorplan, which means all the walls around the steps as well as the wall that divides the kitchen and dining room and dining room and living room are being removed.
Dining room before kitchen renovation
I can not wait to see these views after the renovation and compare how much they have changed.
Dining room walls to be torn down

Dining room and living room before kitchen renovation

Kitchen wall to be removed
We did do some updates to our kitchen about six years ago, but nothing that actually improved the size of the space.  It was definitely more my style, but still remained tiny with very limited counter and workspace.
Small kitchen before major renovation

Kitchen before major expansion and renovation

Kitchen before renovation
I used the kitchen addition for an office until we saved enough money to actually expand the kitchen.  My office has since been moved to the basement and the room has been cleared.

Vintage modern office

Lockers used as office storage
Here's a shot of the space as it looked yesterday, dust and all!  
Kitchen addition before renovation

Okay, now that you've seen the rooms, let's talk about the plans, finishes and fixtures! 

Open concept kitchen rendering
You can read more about the layout HERE!

Affiliate links have been used)
Thank you to Blanco for providing the sink and faucet.  I was not otherwise compensated.
Modern farmhouse kitchen design board

- PENDANT LIGHTS: The Isaac brass pendant lights from Schoolhouse electric were a total splurge, but so worth the money.  I included them in my original kitchen mood board over four years ago and love them just as much as I did back then.
- WINDOW: We'll be replacing our single kitchen window with a triple casement window, which I am REALLY excited about.  I plan to paint the grides and frame Iron Ore to match the windows and doors in the rest of our home. 
- FLOATING SHELVES: I wanted to incorporate open shelves in the kitchen, so I'll be adding 4 shelves on either side of the window using these shelf brackets and old barn wood.
- COUNTERS: I'm not 100% set on the counters, but I'm 95% sure we'll be going with Quartz in Calacatta Laza.  I love the look of marble but definitely wanted something that was both durable and maintenance free.  
- CABINETS: We went with basic shaker style cabinets from Cabinets.com.  We priced out cabinets from a few different sources and they were by far the cheapest.  We'll be doing white for the main cabinets and Iron for the island.  
- FLOORING: We'll be adding hardwood in the kitchen and refinishing the floors on our main level to a medium brown.  I'm leaning towards Minwax Jacobean, but I plan to test out a few colors before making a final decision. 
- BACKSPLASH: We're using 3" x 12" Peronda Poitiers tiles in white, which I'm super excited about.  I wanted something that was white and classic, but not too plain.  It's hard to tell in the pictures, but the tile has more of a rough cut edge, which gives it just enough texture and interest.  My friend Bre (Brepurosed) is using the same tile in her bathroom reno and it's already looking amazing.)
- SINK: We went with a classic farmhouse sink from Blanco, which is gorgeous!  It's huge and I can't wait to see it installed in the kitchen. 
- FAUCET: I wanted to incorporate a mix of metals in the kitchen, so I chose the Meridian faucet from Blanco.  I think it will be a great contrast to the lights and hardware.
- HARDWARE: I REALLY wanted to use the Mission pulls from Rejuvenation, but they won't be in stock until the end of June.   I was totally bummed but found these to use instead.  I liked that the decorative square at the bottom can be removed.  It's an easy change that would give the hardware more of a modern look. 
- STOOLS: Who knew kitchen stools were so expensive?  Every stool I found and loved was either WAY too expensive or didn't ship to the US.  I really want to splurge on these, but they may be too big for our space.  If so, then I'll probably go with these
- APPLIANCES: If the budget allows, I'll be replacing our current appliances with beautiful KitchenAid appliances (Refrigerator, stove, microwave, range hood and dishwasher).  If not, we'll just use our current appliances until we are able to replace them. 

There's already been a lot of kitchen demolition progress made and I can't wait to see it all come together.  If you want to stay up to date on the entire process, you can follow me on Instagram.  I'll be sharing daily updates and behind the scenes of the reno in my stories.

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  1. can't wait to see it transformed!!! so excited for you!

    1. Thanks, friend! We are so excited and grateful to finally be able to make these renovations happen.

  2. This is going to be SO amazing! So excited for you Katie!!! Looking forward to following along!

    1. Thanks, girl! You know the feeling of living through the mess of a major renovation, but the end result is always worth the stress and inconvenience.

  3. Can't wait to see the final results!

    Where are you storing your everything while the house is being renovated? We're thinking about doing the same thing. Since we need to live through our renovation, not sure where we'll store a lifetime of belongings.

    1. I purged A LOT of things that we no longer needed or had room for. The stuff from our kitchen, living room, dining room and my old office have been moved to our 2 car garage and basement. I was hoping to avoid getting a POD, but we will need to use one for all our bedroom furniture.

  4. What an exciting project!! I can't wait to see it all come together! I have dreams of one day opening my kitchen to the living room, but I'm not sure it will ever happen....it's only really an issue when I'm entertaining, and how often is that? Otherwise it works perfectly for me.

  5. So excited to follow along on this! It's going to look amazing!