Kitchen remodels, how I love them and how I hate them. Well, mostly love...but this one sure gave me a run for my money, I am so glad it's over!

We recently sold our large, remodeled, and lovely 114 year old victorian (can you tell I miss it a little?). We own a lot and we plan to build soon, I hope! We kept our first cottage my husband and I bought together before we married and so here we are, back in the first home we ever owned. It's fine, it's a great house, it's a smaller house, but everyone has a bedroom and we really do love this sweet little 1914 cottage.

It had been about 7 years since we lived in the house, and while we repainted here and there when it was rented out, some areas needed a full overhaul - like the kitchen. Now, don't get me wrong, it wasn't a bad kitchen. I actually really liked the kitchen. My husband and I installed a tin backsplash, and we painted the cabinets a bright white. We updated the counters to granite and painted the walls a dark grey - my go to at the time. But something about having to downsize made me really crave something new in this space, something fresh. We wanted to change the layout, but with our timeframe that wasn't feasible.

FYI - our timeframe to rip out the kitchen and have new cabinets installed was 2 WEEKS, yes 2 WEEKS. I am crazy, I know. My cabinet guy really did me a solid and made it happen.

Here are the before pictures: Not bad, right? (look at that green paint, pretty sure that was the color before the grey, yikes!)

And here are the after pictures, what a transformation!!!!! It's so bright and fresh feeling in the kitchen now. It definitely softened the blow to downsizing with two kiddos.

We took the cabinets all the way to the ceiling with smaller display cabinets and tall moulding. That instantly made the room look so much bigger and taller!

I had my eye on this black faucet and sink - I LOVE it!

We had track lighting in the space before, but I hated how it blasted light into only four corners of the room. So I found this sweet little lantern light. I think it's perfect!

It's a really large kitchen, especially for an older home. We wanted an island, but didn't want to do a fixed island. So, I found this cute little cart on Wayfair.

We repurposed our buffet table from our old home to use as a seating area for guests. The linen stools and weathered wood add an element of softness to the space.

I love cooking for my family in this kitchen, and I love how it turned out! Have a beautiful day friends!