Farmhouse Friday ~ Farmhouse Kitchen

Hello and welcome to this month's edition of FARMHOUSE FRIDAY!!! This month's theme is FARMHOUSE KITCHENS!!! 

I have to say when writing these posts it is hard to know what readers already know and have heard lots of times (yes you Debbie, Maria, and Robin) and what others may not know at all, so I figure it can't hurt to go over some things.  First of all our budget is usually zero dolllars when we start a room so I am always looking to be creative and use what we already have. Our farmhouse kitchen was dark and small before we gutted it and took down a wall. There was nothing original left in it when we purchased the house, the cabinets were ugly 1970's brown shellacked and the walls were paneled and there was a drop ceiling.

Anything that we already had to work with when we were re-doing the kitchen was a bonus. Like the cabinets for example, my parents were tearing them out of their house right at the same time we were re-doing our kitchen so we just reworked them to fit in ours.

This is Neal, my dad and my nephew putting them up. 

I painted them white of course, it appears that I had actually already started to when I took this picture, seems like so long ago. The counter tops are from Ikea, and we couldn't be happier with them. 

Another item we were able to reuse is the top for the island, it was the top to our very first Ikea kitchen table. I designed the island and Neal built it, it hides our garbage can and microwave and has shelves for baskets that hold my potatoes and onions. I recently painted it Glidden's Whispering Wheat ( it was Martha Stewarts Sissal before) and changed the handles I had on it.

The french door that keeps our mudroom closed off was $5 yard sale find that Neal cut to fit this door frame.

We have had a couple different tables in our kitchen but I was not to be satisfied until we had a big farmhouse style one. Neal built us this one and the chairs are hand me downs from my sister. The chandelier I found on Overstock.com for a steal.

I am sure you have spotted my amazing new sign by now. I have been looking for an old black and white sign for this area for the longest time. Then a couple of weeks ago I spotted this beauty on Etsy at Maria's wonderful shop Covet Antiques. I new it was the absolute perfect thing for this space and Maria could not have been wonderful to purchase from, and she knew of my blog!

Isn't it just beautiful?!

And at an antique fair a couple of weeks ago I found this little folding step stool, I just love it.  

On top of this little cupboard that Neal built us I keep my rolling pins and antique drying rack that my mom gave me.

You guys now how much I love wooden spoons and this month us gals in the blog hop were lucky enough to get utensils from Polders World Market!!! Their items are handcrafted by a member of the Poldler family in Rogersville, Tennessee. They haul the fallen trees out of the forest, cut the wood on their sawmill, carve, sand and pack each utensil themselves, pretty cool if you ask me.

As much as I love to cook I am embarrassed to say that I have not yet used mine but they are absolutely beautiful and so soft to the touch. This month Polders is offering 35% off collections so hurry up and get some while they are on sale! And you could even win some, check out the giveaway at the bottom of the post!

The beadboard on the ceiling is not original, we added that. We also added the beam running through the center of the room. It hides where the two ceilings meet, it is just pine that I stained Dark Walnut. We finally just got to putting up the trim where the walls meet the beadboard ceiling. We actually used PVC trim oppossed to wood trim which saved us over $200. I usually don't like using things that would not have been around when our house was built but sometimes price does come into play.

And actually once it is painted you really can't tell that it is not real wood.

I like my kitchen to be bright and white contrasted with lots of wood tones. I love filling it with simple but pretty things like linens and rustic baskets, and lots and lots ironstone of course:) 

I am off now to a girls trip to Washington DC!!! Thanks for visiting and make sure to visit all of the wonderful blogs below!!! AND MAKE sure to enter the giveaway....

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HOUSE OF HAWTHORNES


  STONEGABLE

  THE EVERYDAY HOME

TOWN AND COUNTRY LIVING

  FADED CHARM

Farmhouse Friday ~ Farmhouse Storage

Hello and welcome to this month's edition of Farmhouse Friday! Our theme this month is FARMHOUSE STORAGE!

Like most old farmhouses ours is short on closet space so I am always on the search for unique items that can serve as storage pieces. Vintage boxes or handmade items that were used for storing something long ago are my favorite to look for.

My husband Neal built us this long sideboard for our dining room specifically for different storage items that I have collected over the years. If you are a regular vistor to my blog you will notice that we added a bottom shelf to it since I showed it last.

On the sideboard I  keep this neat cubby thing that I found at the Country Living Fair. I asked the seller if she happened to have a wine bottle laying around so that I could see if it would fit because I wanted to store my wine in it and she actually did have one. We tested it out and the wine bottle fit perfectly. I was tickled but she was bummed she hadn't thought of it because she could have charged more for the piece!

Neal also built me this beautiful piece with the drawers out of old wood (same cedar that we used for the bathroom floor) from our house.  It was a Christmas present a couple years ago and I had no idea that he had been working on it. I absolutely love it and I keep linens and serving pieces that I use for entertaining in it.

The antique basket holds my tablecloths and runners, I like to keep them at arms reach since I change what linens I use on the dining room table so often.

Ahhh cupboards, nothing says farmhouse storage like a cupboard right? I absolutely love primitive cupboards and put one in just about every space I can.

I love their simple beauty and the fact that can hide all of those things that you just don't want out in the open, like your husbands ever growing t-shirt collection.

Or they can be left open and showcase the prettier things, like a collection of quilts.

or linens and ironstone. 

By the way some of these linens are currently for sale in my Etsy shop  :)

My mom gave me this adorable antique cupboard and I keep it in my sewing room to hold all of our crafting items. I know I promised to show this room some time back and I promise I will show it soon, it has been on my to-do list for awhile now. The problem is that I keep my Etsy inventory in here and I always have a new pile of things that I am about to list, so this room is never photo ready.

I picked up the little white medicine cabinet at the flea market last summer, I just love old white medicine cabinets.

Old trunks are another one of my favorite things to store things in. The trunk in our dining room sitting area is one of my all time favorite flea market finds costing me a whole $10.

It is perfect for holding the air mattress that our guests use when they sleep over and because it is on casters is easy to move out of the way and can even become a bench when needed.

I could never have too many little chests of drawers, they are great for keeping the small stuff organized.

I bought this primitive little set of drawers at the Country Living Fair. I keep little items like my chalk, thumb tacks and stamps in it.

Little apothecary chests and chests of drawers are hard to come by and usually very expensive when you do so for the kitchen I just bought a reproduction one and painted it a creamy white.

So cute to look at vintage metal bread boxes are another storage favorite of mine. They are perfect for those items you don't use daily but want to be able to reach with ease when needed.

Thank you so much for visiting! I hope you enjoyed this edition of Farmhouse Friday. Be sure to check out the other wonderful blogs below! Also, I created a FARMHOUSE5540 Instagram account so be sure to start following me!

  

 


  HOUSE OF HAWTHORNES


  STONEGABLE


  TOWN AND COUNTRY LIVING



  FADED CHARM