ONE ROOM CHALLENGE // WEEK 4 // MODERN RANCH STYLE KITCHEN

Week 4 of the One Room Challenge always seems to sneak up on me. This is my fifth round as a Guest Participant in this bi-annual makeover event and just when I think I've figured out some sort of formula for balancing the work and progress reports efficiently, Week 4 sneaks in to remind me that I'm past the half-way point now and it's time to stop concepting and buying and just kick it into high gear and finish this room up. 

But I do have progress to report and actually when I look at it here, it's not a half-bad place to be. 

The biggest win - the counters are in and we have a sink. Guys, a kitchen renovation is no joke. We had set up a makeshift kitchen in our living room just to feel as if we had a home base of sorts, but for the most part we've been eating out for nearly every meal. The temporary loss of the sink was the biggest inconvenience though. We underestimated just how often we use the kitchen sink for hand-washing, rinsing out of cups, wiping down surfaces and so forth. So you can imagine how glad we were then when the sink finally arrived and we were able to install it along with these beautiful Silestone countertops. 

 Early on, I mentioned a farm-style table re-do and today, I'm happy to finally share more details on this makeover with you. If you are following me on Instagram, you may have already seen some of the transformation. But you need to see what the original table looked like to truly appreciate the impact of the before and after. Our table was quite dark and thickly layered in a brown town stain and lacquer finish. I was so worried that underneath all of that there would be some awful veneer that I could not do much sanding with. But to my happy surprise, this table was solid wood and stripped down to a very light natural wood - much lighter than what these pictures could capture.

I refinished the top in a weathered oak look, putting my own spin on a tried and true stain mix created by prettyhandygirl (see below for more details). I've actually used this same custom mixed stain previously on a couple of other projects and I knew it would get me close to what I was hoping for with this one.

The legs and accompanying bench were painted out in Valspar's "Tomcat" in Satin - a true, but just slightly softer black. I love the contrast and how the lighter table top brings both warmth and airiness to the dining space within the kitchen now.

As you can see at the top of my post, we also removed the over-range microwave and cabinet and started to build out a range hood with insert. This will open up the space above the range like we were hoping for and let a little more of that tile backsplash show through. The peninsula also got a wrapped lumber treatment to create a more solid and streamlined look for that part of the kitchen. 

As I mentioned in the last post - we decided to refinish our existing cabinetry in lieu of buying new. So one day, all the doors finally came off and my Pops took them home to sand them down and pretty them all up. We're so lucky to have him step in and help us (again) on this project! 

In demoing and prepping, we had to confront some bad drawer liner decisions (and I'm not referring to the 1970's daisy print you see going on there above). Guys - the sticky rubber shelf liners - don't do it. It's such a mess to get off and completely ineffective in areas like a pantry where liquids can seep through.

Because of built in niches within the cabinet fronts, we had to keep our existing copper hinges. So we sprayed them black for the lowers and white for the uppers so they would better blend into the face of the cabinet. 

One of the happiest moments of Week 4 for me came with the installation of white oak pantry shelves made by my husband and I. These are solid, pretty and super functional. I can't wait to show you how these turned out. Game-changer for us when we finally move back into the kitchen and hunt for that box of pasta or can of soup.

I'll have just one more week to show you my progress before the nail-bitting final reveal in two weeks. Until then, please check out all the amazing transformations taking place by other One Room Challenge Guest Participants over at Calling it Home.