Kimbrough-Bell House- Kitchen

There’s nothing like being terrified and excited!

We are about three weeks away from closing on this beauty! It honestly is as frightening as it is thrilling. We, fortunately, got a contract on our existing home within about a week of listing and have our closing dates synced up. A beautiful family is purchasing our current house and we truly hope they find so many blessings here. 

We’ve held off on sharing a whole lot about the Victorian farmhouse we’re buying until we were fairly sure nothing was going to get in our way of the purchase. Things are looking good enough for me to start pulling back the curtain a bit so you can see the enormous task that lies ahead of us.

Let’s start with the kitchen.

We’ve ordered our appliances and happily got great deals on the range, dishwasher, and microwave. We went with Samsung and got, what we think, are really good deals on all three. I am not going to be able to have a double oven in this kitchen but the oven on the range we ordered is a nice size. We’re going all stainless steel appliances with white cabinets.

Here’s a look at where we’re starting. Clearly this space is a gut. We’re taking out the cabinets and reworking the space a bit. The wall next to that brick pillar will be removed down to a pony wall. It will open up into the dining area.

A pantry cabinet will be included so we can put the refrigerator where the existing pantry is located. We’ll frame in that space and add cabinets all along that wall. Quartz sparkling white countertops will complete the cabinets. We’re thinking about using “Brickweb” for the back splash. This product is slices of brick on a mesh backing that is attached like any tile. We’re wanting it to match the existing brick column (after we whitewash it). We’re going to go brick above the cabinets all the way to the ceiling as well.

The house is on a pier and beam foundation so we are going to forego ceramic or porcelain tile and are going to try a groutable vinyl tile. It truly gives a stone or tile look. There’s a pretty good variety of styles and colors available.

A farmhouse sink is almost a must. I’m not a huge fan of the large basin sink- I like two compartments so I can put dirty dishes in one and have an empty sink on the other side. This has kept me from a farmhouse sink- until now. I discovered that they make a nice big farmhouse sink that has two compartments. Yay! Faucet and door hardware finishes are still up in the air. I thought oil rubbed bronze at first, since that has an old look, but with white cabinets and counters, I’m leaning a little more towards brushed nickel. The idea is for accessories to add the color to the room. Most everything else will be clean and white.

I’m not super-stoked about stripping the wallpaper and such. Previous owners actually papered and painted over paneling. It will be awesome if we can pull the paneling off the walls and have a good surface to work with underneath. We know it’s just as likely to be something not so great, but are trying to be optimistic.  We’re actually going to shiplap the wall of the adjoining dining area. I want it to have a nice farmhouse look.

The Mean Man is pretty adamant about trying to board and batten some rooms as well. There will be lots of tutorials to come and we are so glad you’re coming along with us on this adventure. We’re looking forward to sharing projects and the process of making this dream a reality.