Laura’s Kitchen Tour

If any of you have done home renovations before, then you know how long that process can feel. When we moved into our home two years ago, the kitchen was definitely one area that needed a makeover pretty badly. It’s a small area with one window, but they used a lot of dark colors and the space felt extra small because of it (you can see the before photos here). There was also no functional pantry in the area, just a shallow bar height counter that we had to stack (sometimes three layers high) all our canned goods, baking supplies, snacks, etc. Our master plan was to redo the floors (it was ugly tile before) and add a L-shaped cabinet to give us way more food storage and counter space as well. We lived with the kitchen at the halfway point for a little over a year, but it’s been great to finally have the space we envisioned fully come together.I’ve moved that cactus print (similar here) a few places around the house and I’m convinced it looks good no matter where you put it—I love it! That white dot planter is also a staple around the house and you can never go wrong with a few gold and white wall planters as well. They always compliment a wall grouping. This whole L-shaped cabinet configuration is all for food storage (with a built-in area for garbage/recycling), so it is a night and day difference from what we had before. I honestly can’t believe we made it that long with such little space and everything piled three rows high—it was a nightmare! We added more brass pulls and knobs to match the existing cabinet hardware as well.I wanted to display a few of my vintage glasswares, so I got two white lacquered shelves (similar here) to display them on.  They look so pretty with the glasses and I can use them as picture rails in the future as well.

Since we changed our counter to have a ledge to it so it can be used as a breakfast bar, I wanted to get some gold stools to compliment the other gold accents in the room and these gold wire stools are perfect! I do keep a furry throw over them usually since it makes the wire back a bit more comfortable to sit on with the throw behind you. So pretty!I went with a quartz countertop (it’s Viscostone Venatino) that looks like marble so I would have the more dramatic veins but without the constant worry of stains. It’s not totally stain-proof, but you don’t have to be nearly as diligent as you would with real marble.How beautiful is this light?? It’s basically the baby version of the one that Elsie has in her kitchen. It’s just dramatic enough to add interest without overwhelming the space and I love it.GAH! That pink pot kills me—too cute! I’m so glad that I did a white oversized subway tile in a stack bond pattern. As fun as the green backsplash was, I was definitely getting tired of it after a while. So the white feels really clean and modern and helps the kitchen feel so much brighter overall. Still love that brass faucet! I would totally buy it again if I had to. I find it really helps to have all your little things match your space too, like your butter keeper or paper towel holder. Makes the whole room feel cohesive.  Even though the cabinets we added take up more floorspace than the original ones, the room really does feel so much bigger once everything was a light color. Even though it took us a while to get to this point, I’m so glad to have a bright and airy space that also gives us the functional aspects we want in a working kitchen. Now if I could just get the kitchen to make all the food for me and clean up too, well, that would be great … xo. Laura