Ahhhh..The Pinterest worthy kitchen. The beautiful countertops, the perfect hardware, farmhouse sink, the “everything has a place and uncluttered countertops” kitchen…is not at all what we currently have. But, we are in the process of starting to renovate, so I thought it would be fun to share with you some plans/inspo we have to make it ours and work for our family!

Some things we are doing to save some money and to think about if you are planning on renovating part of your home:

We are doing the majority (if not all) of the work ourselves (let’s be honest it’s mostly Kyle but I’ll help where I can), which is a HUGE money saver. Yes, It is definitely going to take longer, but we can take that money we would spend hiring someone out to invest back into our renovation.

We are going with discount flooring (through the whole main area) and I’m on the hunt to see if I can find discount tile for backsplash and countertops. Basically, decide where you want to spend the money and look for other options for everything else. We opted to get finished cabinets instead of unfinished cabinets (cabinets we had to paint ourselves) since Kyle isn’t a fan of painting and I can’t paint too much right now. So check your discount stores, friends!

For appliances, we decided to buy ones that matched our fridge, since Kyle bought it new only a few years ago. Using some things you already have (aka not having to buy brand new everything) is a huge money saver. We are also opting for a really cheap microwave to put in our pantry, since honestly we don’t love the look of microwaves. Shop around, because HD + Lowes both have sales for different things at different times.

Before I completely dive in, if you haven’t checked out the “before” post of our house, you can do it here!

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The Kitchen

For the kitchen, I’ve been loving the black + white oak look, so I’m thinking something along the lines of that. Having darker lower cabinets and kids with sticky fingers sounds like a great plan. Here’s kinda what I’m thinking:

So far for this renovation we’ve got our layout mapped out and we have our appliances and cabinets ordered. We ended up getting Samsung appliances in black stainless steel. Honestly, I’m really excited about the stove/oven, because it is able to convert to a double oven if needed!

For cabinets, we ended up going with Ikea.

Mostly because Ikea had a good amount in stock that we could at least start with the lowers. They also were a little more budget friendly, and one of the only places with pre-finished black cabinets.

Hardware (similar)

Faucet

The Pantry/Laundry Combo

I’m excited about this as well. I think having the combo pantry/laundry makes the most sense and use of our space. In order to accomplish this, we have to tear down some walls and build some new ones to expand the space, but I’m really looking forward to the end result.

Some fun features I’m looking forward to in the pantry/laundry room:

Fun flooring. I’ve been wanting to put some fun flooring in somewhere, but I also didn’t want to commit to a full kitchen or bathroom. This seems like a perfect place to do it!

Utility Sink. I’m looking forward to having a sink specifically for soaking stains. Specifically baby stains. If you know you know.

Here’s what I found from Pinterest that’s the closest to what I’m thinking in my head!

The Dining Room

We recently got a new dining table from Ikea with chairs that I LOVE, so I am really looking forward to creating a space that fits it better.

Currently, the dining room is massive. We are going to be taking some of it for our pantry/laundry, so with that it will be a good size room for dining, as well as have a wall of built ins for storage. We currently don’t have a ton of storage, so I am definitely looking forward to this.

We are planning on doing at least a little bit of homeschooling, and I’m thinking with the beautiful window/natural light in there and ample storage, it will be a great little homeschool hub.