Riverside Retreat Kitchen Reveal

Ringing in the new decade with a new kitchen!!! After months of tireless work transforming this space, I am thrilled to share the results!

If you are just joining the party, make sure to get caught up on the whole process with Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4. This is how the kitchen looked before:

It is your standard 13×13' room, L shaped layout.

There is a doorway leading from the dining room and another to the laundry room.

With the floor plan of the house, we did not have the option to change or increase the footprint (including widening the main doorway, which borders a bedroom).

But even if we did, the goal was to transform this room on a budget—this house will be a vacation rental and as an investment property, we need to minimize our costs.

For this makeover, that meant choosing inexpensive finishes and lots of DIY! We first replaced the old tile with durable Pergo laminate back in 2018 (currently on sale for only $2.48/sf right now, I highly recommend these for wear/durability!):

Over the last summer, we gutted the kitchen, redid some of the rotted joists, ran new plumbing and electric.

We also repaired the walls and added smooth drywall to the uneven ceiling.

We waited for Ikea's kitchen sale and purchased all of the cabinets, built-in dishwasher and countertops for around $5800 (more details on that in this post).

The backsplash tile was installed (we hired this part out to save time) …

And then Lucas took over and spent his nights and weekends finishing the rest. So much custom work went into this, like building a custom range hood (which we finished with wallpaper!)…

Custom wood panels around the fridge…

And around the pantry cabinet…

And of course, the weeks-long process of painting the lower wood cabinets (our first time using a paint gun):

And all of the custom fit trim and baseboard around the lower cabinets…

It was truly a learning experience for Lucas, who did 95% of the work (I wish I could have helped more, but someone's gotta watch the baby!) It was his first time figuring out most of this and I am so proud of his work ethic and determination to complete this project.

In the end, it took significantly longer than we had expected/hoped but going into the new year we have a brand new custom kitchen that I think anyone would be happy with!

The star of this show is arguably those rich green cabinets.

I am digging the BM Peale Green.

The warm gold finishes are a genuinely nice compliment and I am happy with the way they turned out. I used inexpensive pulls and knobs I had been eyeing on Lowe's for a long time, and the finish is close to Delta's champagne bronze faucets (a personal favorite).

I went with an affordable drop in sink for easy installation, and because the counters are not solid butcher block so we did not want the cut to be visible.

How neat are these shelves? I knew I wanted open shelving but thought it'd be fun to try something different than the typical floating shelves. I partnered with Shelfology to customize this Verne shelf system to perfectly fit our space.

You can get them in any size with any type of wood (I ordered the 12″d unfinished Ash and we stained them to match our countertops). They are installed using 3 screws & anchors in each bracket—much easier than our experiences installing floating shelves!

My favorite part is that you can make the brackets any color you want. They offer custom powder coating in hundreds of colors, so I was able to choose a metallic gold that matched our faucet. Can you tell how much It helps to keep these shelves? 🙂

And can we take a moment of appreciation for this Cloe tile? I knew it would be lovely (we installed it in baby blue in the Blue Lagoon Bathroom) but man, it is pretty in white too.

It adds such a nice iridescent texture to the room.

Speaking of shiny things… did you notice the appliances?! I was nervous about ordering these without seeing them in person (and very little photos of them 'in the wild' online) but I have to say, I am a big fan of the Whirlpool Sunset Bronze…

We ordered the counter-depth fridge (10% off right now!) with the ice/water dispenser—very convenient for a rental! The inside is still covered in plastic but so far, so good 🙂

Thematching stove is my favorite, though. It is a touch screen with smart technology and the most high tech appliance I have ever owned.

We will be able to connect it to our smart app and monitor/control it via phone if needed, which could come in handy later on.

As for the dishwasher, we opted for the Ikea Spolad to fit with the Torhamn door for a built-in look. Have not ran a cycle yet so I cannot speak on the quality, but we do not love the fact that it is not flush with the rest of the doors. Live and learn…

The “island” is a $50 table I refinished (Maison Blanche's Wrought Iron) and put on 4″ casters.

There is not plenty of counter space in this kitchen so this is an easy fix for that, and the bar stools provide the added bonus of seating.

You barely notice the low profile ceiling fan, but it was a necessity in this room that can quickly turn into a greenhouse with west facing single pane windows and heat from the oven and stovetop.

Does the rug look familiar to you? It is the same rug we have in our living room (my favorite rug of all time)! I loved it so much I had to get one for this house. It looks brownish in photos but in person it has plenty of deep green in it—a well suited match for our cabinets.

Using a grasscloth wallpaper treatment on our range hood was an experiment (I have never seen it done before) but I am glad we took the risk, I think it turned out to be a pretty unique feature (and so unfussy!)

Side note: I have not finished stocking the kitchen with vacation rental supplies yet, so some of these photo props were borrowed from our house and will not be staying permanently 😉

The tall cabinet on the left will hold the microwave + broom storage. We still need to customize the shelves to make that happen…

Since no one is living here full time and we only need the basic necessities, there is an abundance of storage space!

Painting the metal windows black was a quick and easy way to make them pop.

And you can never go wrong with a classic schoolhouse pendant light and inexpensive woven shade.

We can just imagine all the families that will soon get to enjoy this kitchen and make memories here!

Plenty of love and time went into every detail, and we hope it shows.

The kitchen is not 100% finished though, we still have to swap out the laundry room door and build a large chalkboard for the back wall (between the two doorways).

The other side of the room is clearly not as exciting…

Ahh, this view is better…

Sources

Wall color: SW Pure White

Trim color: SW Loggia

Cabinets: Ikea Axstad uppers, Torhamn lowers (painted BM Peale Green)

Ikea Karlby countertops

Pergo Floors

Whirlpool Sunset Bronze Fridge

Whirlpool Sunset Bronze Stove

Ikea Spolad dishwasher

Backsplash tile

Shelfology Verne shelf system

Cabinet pulls (in 4″, 5″ and 6″)

Cabinet knobs

33″ Sink

Faucet

Pendant light

Window shade

Ceiling fan

Range hood vent

Grasscloth wallpaper (for range hood)

5×7 Rug

Bar stools

Lidded jar on counter

A huge thank you to Lowe's for partnering with me on this project, along with Bedrosians, Shelfology and Loloi! These have been a few of my favorite brands/products to work with over the years and they have genuinely helped make this kitchen something special.

A couple side by side transformation shots, just for fun…

Ahh, so satisfying! Cheers to a clean slate in 2020—more big changes at the Riverside Retreat, coming up next!