House Tour: The Kitchen

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Everybody ready for the weekend?

Mine started early with a midnight showing of the latest Twilight Saga movie, Breaking Dawn, last night.  I'm by no means a Twi-hard, but I read and enjoyed the books well enough.  It was my middle sister's 30th birthday, so she wanted to see it, plus it's become a thing for me, my sisters, and my friend Sara to watch the Twilight movies to laugh at the bad dialogue and at how constipated Robert Pattinson, an otherwise very handsome man, looks when playing Edward Cullen.  Anybody else know what I'm talking about?  :)

As far as the Twilight movies go (and mind you, they have fairly low production value with the bad wigs, white pancake make-up, and cheesy CGI, so this comparison is very relative), Breaking Dawn wasn't half bad. Probably my favorite of the series so far, particularly due the advancements in the storyline and lack of teenage emo-ness.  Kristen Stewart (Bella) showed genuine emotion in this installment and didn't mumble too much. (And she is stunningly gorgeous in the wedding scenes!)  And Taylor Lautner (Jacob) wore his shirt for most of the movie, which is a departure from the previous movies. Now I'm ready for the final movie next summer where (SPOILER ALERT!) Bella kicks booty and takes names as a vampire.  I think that'll be the best Twilight movie yet!

Okay, I know you're not here to read about teenage vampires and werewolves--I blame the above rambling on the major lack of sleep last night--so let's get on with the next room in the house tour: the kitchen.

Our house has a galley kitchen, not my first preference in kitchen layouts, but it is--as gallery kitchens are--a very efficient space.  Since we do a lot of cooking and baking around here, that's a good thing from an ergonomic perspective.  But I do dream of having a spacious country kitchen one day, where a farm table sits in the middle of an L- or U-shaped space.  'Til then, I'll make the best of what I have.

A local cabinet maker built all the cabinets for an exceedingly reasonable price.  He delivered them to the house while we were building, I painted them, then he installed them.

Now, these cabinets have been painted twice.  The first time, I painted them in Sherwin Williams Alabaster, freaked out at the starkness of the white, then glazed them to tone down the brightness.  That worked for awhile but then the glazed finish just looked dingy.

When we installed beadboard in a few places in 2010, and painted it a barn red, that ultimately exacerbated the dinginess.

Icky, yellowy cabinets right before getting a new coat of paint

The barn red beadboard before the update--oh so dark.

So, this summer, I repainted the beadboard a light gray and the cabinets in Benjamin Moore White Cloud. 

Laying on the first of two coats of  white paint to hide my glazing mistake--the glazing in the grooves of the beadboard made the doors look particularly dirty...bleck!

The change in cabinet color is subtle but it truly did brighten up this space--which has a tendency towards being dark as the only two windows open to a screened-in porch...which backs into woods.  Yeah, not a lot of natural light happening in this space much of the time.  White cabinets and light-colored walls were definitely needed.

The countertop is soapstone--not something you see very often in homes in the South.  We liked the farmhouse feel of it and the fact you can sit hot pots and pans directly on the counter surface.  It's what chemistry lab counter tops were/are made of (it's been awhile since I was last in a chemistry lab!) Soapstone does require routine wipe-downs with mineral oil to maintain the even, dark color you see here.

To further the farmhouse look, we mixed in open shelving...

These shelves are between the wall oven and refrigerator

Curtains in lieu of cabinet doors in some places...

Beige and cream ticking fabric skirts the farmhouse sink while drop cloth curtains disguise the contents of the peninsula

And bins and baskets provide more texture and storage...

This cabinet, which we use to store spice jars, is one of my favorite pieces in the kitchen.  We bought it at the Liberty Antiques Festival while building the house in 2007.  The panel in the door is a reproduction but the cabinet is made of salvaged beadboard.

Karan at Spruce Antiques and Interiors in Hillsborough, NC, gave me this idea to use rusted vintage wire baskets mounted on the wall above the cooktop for storage. I like the juxtaposition of the logs next to the lines of the metal.

So, there you have it...my narrow but functional farmhouse kitchen. :)

Have a great weekend!
Erin

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