"I'm dreaming of a white kitchen, just like the ones I used to know....."
But seriously, I've been dreaming of a white kitchen FOREVER!
When we bought our farmhouse almost 10 years ago, we were blessed with a kitchen of varnished pine, rusty taps and powder blue (ice cold) linoleum floor. We made do because there were far other important things to deal with, like a newborn baby and trying not to freeze to death. It turned out that a new furnace took priority!
After our soap business gained momentum and grew out of it's corner in the kitchen we decided to convert that space into a soap room and move our kitchen into our second living room (yay for big farmhouses). We were blessed yet again with some free 'newer' cabinets and counter tops and this was great because we had no money....again, newborn and new furnace! It felt like luxury even though it wasn't a perfect fit, it was a HUGE step up from the pine paradise! My parents christened it by buying us a white apron front sink, in true farmhouse style!
Over the years we had makeshift pantries and various pieces of furniture that tried to be sideboards, islands and kitchen tables. We took hand me down appliances when we wanted to upgrade to stainless steel and spent an income tax return on new laminate flooring. Still, isn't it every woman's desire to have the kitchen of their dreams? After all, it is the heart of the home!
Fast forward another 5 years filled with other 'priorities' and an entire 'White Farm Kitchen' Pinterest board and I was READY! It had to happen. I knew that being able to design exactly what we needed in a kitchen would help our whole household and business run smoother, like a well-oiled machine. I'd harped my ideas and opinions enough that I was finally heard and hubby agreed!! We were doing it! Well, not really all of it...we were adulting with this one and hiring a kitchen company to build and install this baby!!
Boy, did we underestimate what it would take to do the prep work (which we did do ourselves). Farmhouses are known for their crooked floors and lathe and plaster walls and cover up after cover up over the years.
We stripped it down to original boards and beams in order to straighten things up for the install. We drywalled, installed flooring, new lighting (cause I'd had it with that ONE light bulb) and painted it all white ;) It was 12 weeks of a makeshift kitchen in the corner of the soap shop but the excitement helped overcome this major upheaval.
I will say this...I was right! A new, bright, designed for us kitchen is a game changer. A LOT of thought went into this design and it was totally worth obsessing over all the little details for the countless months that we did.
I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that it's probably the most major of any household renovation. Unless you love your animals as much as me, then you'll want to check out our blog post on our new goat barn build :)