Kitchen Reveal: A love story three years in the making

The moment has finally arrived. Our kitchen project, almost three years in the making is finally, finally complete! Are there still a few finishing touches? Sure. I'm not sure we'll ever really be finished with any project in our house because we like to change things up. Before we had kids, the hubby and I would rearrange our apartment every six months just for fun. We still want to update a few light fixtures, and there might be a few pieces of blue tape marking spots that need a paint touch up, but the major work is done. 

And if you saw the before pictures of our kitchen, you know that a few pieces of blue tape are negligible compared to the monstrosity we began with. So without further ado, I present our kitchen.

We started by painting the cabinets white. Simply White, actually which happens to be the Benjamin Moore 2016 Color of the Year. Of course, we didn't know that three years ago, but I feel like it's a bit serendipitous. 

My husband built those fabulous countertops out of red oak planks and stained them with a combination of dark walnut and mahogany. I absolutely love how they turned out. I love the contrast of the white beadboard backsplash and dark counters. It's warm and bright all at the same time.

These LED under cabinet lights really brighten the main kitchen workspace. I also like to leave them on in the evenings if we are away since they are so energy friendly. 

This cutting board was unusable when we bought the house, but Mr. Sir sanded it down and brought it back to life. He even painted it to match the cabinets (though he wanted to stain it to match the countertops. The man loves me.)

I have wanted a nook for this space since we bought the house. Since the kitchen has been under contruction for most of the time we've owned it, I haven't seriously looked at purchasing one. But a few months ago, Mr. Sir stumbled upon this beauty at 5am while out walking the dog. It had a free sign on it and he could tell it would be snatched up as soon as day broke, so he rushed home and attempted to wake me. The minute I saw the picture I knew it was worth getting up for, even though the baby had kept us up for half of the night, so I threw on some flip-flops and headed down the street  in my pajamas leaving all the kids (finally) asleep in their beds. We carried the table home then took the minivan back for the benches. It's certainly not in perfect condition, but you can cram eight kids at that table and it's a place where memories are made and dreams of bacon come true. 

The nook is where dreams of coffee come true too.

The mini gallery that hangs in the nook couldn't have come out better. The two photos were taken in Napa's wine country and the other two were free prints. You can find the lemon watercolor printable here and Rise and Shine It's Coffee Time here.

 

This pendant light that hangs over our sink was an outdoor light that hung in front of our house. My husband only thought I was half crazy when I asked him to install it here, but I think we were both happy in the end. You can use boiled linseed oil (available at your local hardware store) to spruce up old fixtures like this one.

I already posted a sneak peek of these DIY Pendant Lights but here's the full view with the cabinets and our art-plastered refrigerator on the side. It was waaaaaaay too much effort to pull all those magnets off and I'm all about being honest anyway. For the record, when I was taking these pictures my oldest said, "It looks really different in here!" I clarified and by "different" he meant "clean." This is further proof that our house has more of a lived in look most of the time. 

The final touch on the kitchen is this slate flooring. Can you tell it's laminate? It looks so gorgeous, but won't crack when our 60 year old house settles. I just hope it holds up to the wear and tear of three kids and a dog. 

And that my friends, is the story of the kitchen I love. What do you think? Was it worth the wait? Tell me in the comments!