Well hey, y’all! I am being a true journalist today and I am coming to you from somewhere in the middle of Florida, typing away on our road trip back to my sweet Carolina home. I spent the past week in the Sunshine state applying for more jobs and just enjoying some beach solace. I can’t get enough of that little beach house y’all. There is a quote floatin’ around out there that says, “Love grows best in little houses just like this,” and that just about sums up how I feel about our little piece of paradise.
It just about floors me to think about just how far this bungalow has evolved over the past two years. Our tiny house has gone from “ugly duckling” status to “pretty little swan” in such a short time and I can’t attribute that to anything but a whole lotta sweat equity and a whole lotta love. If you remember in May I revealed the first bedroom of the house that we renovated and it will always be one of my favorites, but I think the reveal I am releasing today may take the cake. I will put the link for the bedroom reveal below in case you missed it and I will forgive you this time ;)…
On this past trip, we FINALLY finished some last-minute details on the kitchen and I am so ready to unveil the big reveal! YEE! Y’all… This kitchen was absolutely the Mia Thermopolis of the house. Two years ago, when my parents first bought the house the kitchen was the scariest room. It was dated, dirty, and roach ridden. Three things that you never want a kitchen to be. Let me jog your memory with some horror movie-worthy photos.
The first problem that we tackled was obviously our multi-legged friends, *shudder. Once we had a critter-free kitchen we ripped out the cabinets that had seen better days, NEVER, I imagine… Next, we installed new bright, snow-white, princess-perfect cabinets that reached all the way to the ceiling. You know what they say, kids… The taller the cabinet the closer to Jesus. In all seriousness, we chose tall cabinets strategically, because our footprint was so small. When you have a small amount of space you have to get creative with your space so you can maximize storage.
We painted the room a bright, clean white to make the space feel brighter and bigger. I am a Sherwin Williams girl all the way and chose SW 7014 Eider White for the kitchen and several other rooms in the house. We needed some color with all of the white so we found a blue subway tile on clearance at Lowes for 19 cents a tile. We ended up buying $50 worth of tile and only using half! The tile we used is discontinued but I added a link to a similar tile to the photo below. Just click the photo and it will redirect you to the purchasing link.
After my Dad and I tiled the backsplash, my Dad and his bad self installed some under the cabinet lighting. At this point, we were pretty much done with the leg work of this project and we started ordering the finishes. We ordered some stainless steel appliances from Whirlpool and some jewelry for the kitchen… aka hardware. We chose an industrial styled, 4-inch brass cabinet pull by Emtek and a matching knob. The brass gave a clean modern finish to the kitchen. We finished off the kitchen details by adding a simple brass globe light by Nevarez and we breathed a sigh of relief. Out with the old and in with the luxury. I will add all of the purchasing links below, but first… how about we get to the bread and butter of this blog post: THE AFTER PHOTOS
So there you have it… our little Mia Thermopolis kitchen is now Amelia Mignonette Thermopolis Renaldi: Princess of Genovia, aka the prettiest little darn kitchen you ever did see! I am signing off now. My butt is asleep and my typing in the car is not the world’s easiest feat. Don’t you worry though, I will be back sooner than you think to unveil another beach bungalow renovation. Until next time.
XOXO,
