OUR KITCHEN RENOVATION MUST-HAVES

Several recent questions for my Friday Q&A series have focused on decisions we’re making for the kitchen renovation I outlined in yesterday’s post, so today I’m going to share the changes we’re most excited about, some of the decisions we’ve made so far, and a bunch of inspiration images that helped me hone in on a vision for the space. I know a bunch of you are getting ready to tackle kitchen renovations in your own homes so I’m excited to share and learn from all of you as we go!

design darling kitchen inspiration mark d sikes

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post and in a video walk-through on my Instagram story, our existing layout has a powder room and small closet jutting into the middle of the room, making poor use of an otherwise decently sized space and closing the kitchen off from the rest of the first floor. We’re moving the existing powder room, removing a wet bar along the wall that separates the kitchen from the dining room, and reorienting the kitchen by 90 degrees so the cabinets and appliances live on the wall where the powder room is now. These changes will allow us to incorporate a double oven (which my mom insisted would be necessary as we hope to host Christmas here for many years to come!), a nearly 10’ island (where we’ll realistically eat the bulk of our meals as a family), and a new powder room and walk-in pantry that are tucked away by the back door and not smack dab in the middle of the room.

design darling kitchen inspiration white farm sink

In terms of appliances, our priorities were to add a functioning dishwasher (really reaching for the stars here haha), a larger refrigerator, a gas stovetop, and the aforementioned double oven. We decided to get a countertop microwave to keep in the pantry vs. a built-in one (which are much more expensive and would have taken away a set of upper cabinets). We looked at a number of different brands paying closest attention to budget, function, aesthetic, and resale value and wound up ordering the same appliances our builder has in his own kitchen. I’m definitely not an expert on appliances and his personal recommendation as someone who’s renovated a ton of kitchens carried a lot of weight with us. We looked at them in person a few different times and honestly I didn’t know it was possible to be so excited about the interior of a fridge!

design darling kitchen inspiration studio mcgee hicks pendants

Our builder and his team will custom build our cabinets and we’ve decided on paneled white cabinetry that I think will tie in nicely with the style of our home. (I love the look of shaker cabinetry but it felt a little too modern for our 1850 colonial!) We’re planning to do quartz countertops  and polished nickel hardware so any recommendations for countertops and hardware are more than welcome!

design darling kitchen inspiration all white

Beyond that, we’ve decided on a white farm sink with a polished nickel faucet and a custom hood in white wood that matches our cabinetry. We’ll probably stick with plain white subway tile because it’s affordable, bright, and won’t go out of style anytime soon (classics are classics for a reason!). If you have a favorite tile resource, I’m all ears!

design darling kitchen inspiration navy hicks pendants

I’m still deciding on light fixtures for the space but it will probably be two pendants over the island and a lantern in the breakfast nook. (I love the look of these — do any of you have and recommend them?) We currently have three of these counter stools and will wait to see whether we can fit four or five at the new island. We’ll also need a table for the breakfast nook to use with our existing dining chairs, which we’ll move in here and eventually order more formal chairs for the dining room. These are more decorating-oriented decisions that I’m not going to rush to finish alongside the construction — if I find the perfect piece in the next few months, that’d be ideal, but otherwise I’ll keep searching and saving until we find the right thing. 

design darling kitchen inspiration meg white interiors hicks pendants

We’ll be recycling nearly all of the windows in the existing kitchen and sunroom as well as refinishing the existing wood floors to match the color we chose throughout the rest of the house. I think that’s everything for now but happy to answer anything I might have missed! If you’ve renovated a kitchen before, I’d love to hear something you’re happy you did or anything you wish you’d done differently. I’m sure this will be a big learning curve for us and I can’t wait to get started!

*images one / two / three / four / five / six

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