Dated ’80s Oak Kitchen Cabinets Get a “Charming” Cottage-Meets-Farmhouse Makeover
After Danielle Herrett and her husband bought their home in Ohio almost 11 years ago, they didn’t have a lot of room left over in the budget to make renovations. But the kitchen was one room they knew they wanted to change immediately — so they got crafty.
“It was your typical 1980s suburban-style kitchen. It was small in scale compared to the rest of the home, with orange stained oak cabinets and overhead soffits that made it feel even smaller,” Danielle says of the original kitchen. “We wanted to open up the room to gain more usable space and help it feel like a focal point in our home.”
The limited budget wouldn’t stop the couple from updating the home, so they set out to transform the room in stages, which helped to save money. Even though Danielle admits that her design style is constantly changing, this space was inspired by “older homes and farmhouses that have rustic, lived-in charm.”
The first order of business was to remove the overhead soffits — the jutting architectural features surrounding the space — and bring the walls in to align with the cabinets. “We debated on how we wanted to do this because I didn’t want there to be a space above the cabinets,” Danielle explains. “We decided to install ‘shiplap’ — our version is rustic tongue- and-groove paneling — to our kitchen ceiling and to bring it down to the cabinet to give the appearance of taller kitchen cabinets without having to replace them.”
A few years later (and after installing new appliances!), it was time to begin the “real renovation process,” as Danielle calls it. To start, they removed the wall between their laundry and mudroom (which they moved to another part of the house) to create more space for their kitchen.
Next, they changed the cabinet layout and painted them in Sherwin-Williams’s Alabaster White, then replaced the existing peninsula with an antique map chest that serves as their new kitchen island. “It has extremely long drawers that pull out, which are perfect for storing all the kitchen things,” Danielle shares.
New quartz countertops complemented the white cabinetry and trim, which is painted in Benjamin Moore’s Edgecomb Gray. More of the couple’s signature “shiplap” was added to the walls, and the existing tiles were painted white to blend in with the room’s palette. A new farmhouse-style sink and kitchen window replaced the previous ones, and the room was mostly complete.
Part of the charm in their kitchen comes from their furniture; it seems every piece has a story. Take the coffee bar, for instance. It was created from a barn door! A primitive cabinet taken from a condemned house has also been used as a pantry for years.
The coziness stems from the beams that the couple installed on their ceiling. You might be surprised to learn that they’re not actually wood! “
They are Fypon beams — faux, very light, made of polyurethane material,” Danielle says. “They come pre-made. You can pick the style — ours is hand-hewn — and we stained them ourselves. Then, we just attached them to wood blocks secured into our ceiling. The stain was a combination between the Minwax colors Walnut and Light Oak.”
Because they completed the renovation in stages, it’s tricky for Danielle to remember how much the entire transformation cost. However, she thinks it’s somewhere around $10,000 total. The kitchen renovation is a product of hard work, craftsmanship, and craftiness.
“I love that it feels old, charming, and lived-in — even though it isn’t that old,” Danielle says. “It’s a dream of ours to live in and fix up an actual old home, but in the meantime, we have found that you can still live in and enjoy a ‘newer’ cookie cutter-style home by taking the time to find ways to make it feel more your own style.”
This post originally appeared on The Kitchn. See it there: Before & After: Dated ’80s Oak Kitchen Cabinets Get a “Charming” Rustic Farmhouse Makeover