One Room Challenge | Week 6: DIY FARMHOUSE KITCHEN REVEAL!

Hey, friends!  I cannot believe we are FINALLY at the end of the One Room Challenge (or ORC – a design challenge with 20 featured designers and hundreds of guest bloggers all transforming one room in just 6 weeks!) The challenge is hosted by Calling It Home and House Beautiful, and you can check out all of the amazing room reveals (both guest and featured) over at the One Room Challenge page (direct links to the guest participant page and featured participant page are at the ned of this post)!  It has felt simultaneously like the fastest and slowest 6 weeks ever! Anyone else?!

Note: If you missed out on any of our weekly updates, you can check them out here:

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5

You can also read my ORC Preparation blog post HERE!

**This post may contain affiliate links – see my Disclosure for more information**

So here we are – WEEK 6:

THE. BIG. REVEAL.

We hit some bumps and setbacks along the way, but we MADE IT!  Early on we got a lot of skepticism about the size of the project we were taking on (mostly we heard a lot of “there’s no way you can do all of that in 6 weeks”).  But guess what?!  We did it ALL – and then some!

Week 6 was a doosy – we were up until 2am on Saturday night tiling the backsplash (honestly surprised our neighbors didn’t call the cops on us considering we were using a tile saw up until 1:30 in the morning – oops!) And then when my husband went to change out all our switches and outlets, our electricity really threw us for a loop! But, we did it! We finished!

PLUS, this ENTIRE project was a DIY.  While we had a lovely contractor offer to help us drop in our new heavy cast iron sink, my husband helped him with that, and absolutely no other professional contractors or designers entered this space.  It was my husband and I all the way, (and we did this while working full time jobs!) and that makes this big reveal all the more sweet!

So here is a quick reminder of our to do list, and as you can see, we finished every. last. thing. Totally celebrating with a glass of champs tonight, y’all!

*****

Week 1: Before photos blog

Week 2: Remove all moulding and trim from cabinets; Build cabinets up to ceiling; Remove thermafilm from uppers; Sand, prime, and paint uppers

Week 3: Remove thermafilm from lowers; Sand, Prime, and Paint lowers; Install shiplap wallpaper on peninsula; score countertop and backsplash to prep for concrete and tile installation

Week 4:  Install trim on doors and paint doors; Install new doorknobs; Install cabinet hardware; Install trim and moulding on cabinets; Start DIY concrete countertops if possible (requiring moving of appliances and sink)

Week 5: Remove old sink and move major appliances (if not already done above); Finish DIY concrete countertops; Start DIY subway tile backsplash; Begin working on rearranging plumbing below sink to fit new one basin sink

Week 6: Finish DIY subway tile backsplash; Install new sink and plumbing fixtures; Switch out switches/faceplates; Install under cabinet lighting; Install corbels; Style and photograph!

Boom shakalaka!

And we are just THRILLED with the result! Our kitchen is no longer a brown, ugly, 90s eyesore.  Now, it’s a light and bright, airy, farmhouse kitchen of our dreams (well, okay, I do dream of a kitchen thats like, 3 times this size, but that wasn’t possible y’all – so work with [and be thankful for] what you’ve got my friends! Am I right?!)

So without further ado, (and because I know you’re itching to see), here is our brand new kitchen!

Loving our new chalkboard door!

The new view from our kitchen dining area – the room feels so big now that its white.

Love this tray and the sweet little S&P shakers from Hearth & Hand by Magnolia! And also, my favorite wine EVER (The Peasant by Cypher; kind of a wine snob. #sorrynotsorry)!

Everyone loves a good bouquet of flowers – and now they really POP against all the white!

Originally I couldn’t decide between a circle, rectangular or oval rug for the main space in front of the sink, but super happy I ultimately chose this detailed oval jute rug from Wayfair!

Love being able to cut and arrange flowers in our new farmhouse sink and I’m still loving our DIY concrete counters! (P.S. The Omega Concrete Countertop Sealer is amazing thus far – FULLY waterproof, and spaghetti sauce and lemon juice did absolutely nothing to it)!

Barstools weren’t in our original plan, or budget. But go big or go home right? I love the ones we purchased (you can find them HERE), and because they no longer have backs to them, they make the small space feel bigger.

For those of your who follow me on Instagram @fiddleleafinteriors, you’ll know we were in #strugglecity with the backsplash decision. (I will be dedicating an ENTIRE blog post to this later). Well, we finally made a decision (obviously), and here she is!  We actually went with the most expensive (and budget crushing, oh well) arabesque option that my husband originally hated but now loves! The subway tile created WAY too many horizontal lines and it just wasn’t cute. This option adds a much needed custom high end (and perfectly feminine) touch to our little kitchen, and we are SO happy we picked this option! Plus, we wanted to be a little different. 🙂

Love my DIY paper towel holder too! It was dirt cheap and SO easy! I’ll be getting a tutorial up on this soon, along with a bunch of other projects from this reno!

Love my copper stock pot – thanks mama!

Lemon zinger cake?! Yes please!

Our little dining area in the kitchen got a bit of a facelift too – really just a quick change in decor, but it feels brand new! (Maybe because it’s been in shambles for 6 weeks!??)

Y’all I’m seriously going to LOVE cooking in here. Actually, can I just sleep in here? It’s so pretty! 😀

I found this cute chevron cutting board at Walmart! And super excited that our weekly meal prep will begin again – yay! (Seriously you guys, SO tired of frozen meals – if you renovate your kitchen, be prepared for LOTS of them)!

I found this cute wire basket at TJMaxx, and its perfect to hold both our dish soap and hand soap. We originally planned for a soap dispenser in one of the sink holes (the sink had 4), but it didn’t fit because of the faucet handle. So that got nixed and in came this little basket! And I think this is a MUCH cuter outcome 🙂

This faucet was SUCH a good purchase. It’s by a company called Aguastella, and we got it on Amazon. I was super hesitant to buy an “off brand” faucet off the internet, but it has exceeded all expectations – and it was HUNDREDS of dollars less expensive than the name brand ones in the big box stores!

This candle arrived on our porch just in time for my photoshoot, and it smells SO GOOD (it’s lemon verbena and the scent is just perfect for the kitchen!) This is part of the vintage collection from my friend Amanda over at Prairie Girl Candle Co – I just love shopping small, and her candles smell amazing!

One day I’ll get a stove/oven that doesn’t have that stupid upper part that blocks so much of our brand new pretty backsplash. One day…. 🙂  But first, a hot tub.  We need it after the past 6 weeks!

Our bar cart got a little styling makeover too!

The cubbies we built above the cabinets really do make the room look bigger. And the baskets add a bit of storage that we were lacking before, given that this is a pretty small kitchen. And of course, I left a couple of the cubbies for decorating 🙂

These corbels were 50% off at Hobby Lobby! They were dark wood, which looked too harsh in this space, so I white washed and then dry brushed them. It adds the perfect amount of texture, while also picking up both the woods and whites in the space.

Love this new door mat I got from Wayfair! (The main jute rug in the kitchen is also from Wayfair – love them!)

And finally, a couple side by side Before & After comparisons (if you want to see more of the Before space, head over to my Week 1 ORC post!)

I still can’t believe the transformation!

And that my friends, is our new kitchen!  I am SO thankful for the One Room Challenge – not only have people I’ve met through this process been so encouraging, but without the time pressure to finish in 6 weeks for the big reveal, there is NO way we would have gotten this far.  Sure, we wouldn’t be so exhausted, but we also would have been living in a construction zone and sans kitchen for MUCH longer, because it would have been much easier to procrastinate!

So THANK YOU to the amazing One Room Challenge hosts, and to everyone for all of your encouragement along the way!

*****

And just a few more things before I wrap this up:

BUDGET:

So, how did we do?  Well, we went OVER budget.  But, this was largely because we decided to add things on, not because we didn’t budget correctly for the originally planned things.  For example, we added the barstools, a new garbage disposal, extra under cabinet lights, a WAY more expensive backsplash (worth every penny) and the list goes on.  Our original plan was $1750, but back in Week 1 I told y’all it was more likely to be about 2k.  Well, we ended up around $2650.

I don’t have an exact number for y’all yet, because we have about a thousand things to return to HD and Lowe’s.  But based on all of our receipts (currently totaling $2909) and subtracting what I estimate the returns will be, I think we’ll land around $2650.  But honestly, to have renovated our entire kitchen (cabinets, counters, backsplash, doors, hardware, plumbing, electrical outlets, plus some decor) for under 3K? I’d say that’s a steal, considering a kitchen can be one of the most costly rooms to renovate in a home.  Had we not picked the most expensive tile for our backsplash, we would have been under the $2500 mark (the backsplash alone cost about $350).  But we decided we should get what we LOVED most, because in the long run, a few hundred extra dollars wasn’t going to matter.

Also, this budget is our kitchen reno top to bottom – that means it includes the “decor” items that we purchased, which weren’t actually real renovation costs.  If you subtract all of that (barstools, rugs, cutting board, etc), then you get to about $350 less.

So what I’m getting at, is:

1. We stayed pretty close to our budget
2. You can renovate your kitchen too for under 3k (or even under $2500), especially if you aren’t buying new things like rugs and barstools!

You can also check out this ARTICLE where I was featured along with 39 other designers on what makes the perfect Farmhouse Kitchen!

TOTAL TIME SPENT:

We wrote down the approximate man hours (the hours both my husband and I worked) as we went along, and this weekend was by far the biggest dedication to time (2am bedtime on Sat night and 12pm bedtime on Sun), so we added almost 100 hours on top of our last weeks total 258 hours. And this week, we cap out at 342 hours of work total!  CRAZY, y’all!  But all 342 hours were worth it.  And  this doesn’t include the probably 4-6 hours we’ll be spending cleaning everything up this weekend (yup we still have buckets of concrete and grout sitting with water in them outside).  So we should probably round that up to an even 350 and call it a day. Ha!

Also, for all of y’all wondering about tutorials for the concrete counters, backsplash, etc; not to worry!  All of the tutorials that I haven’t gotten to during this project itself will be coming to the blog in the next several weeks!

And that is it – it has been a wonderful first time participating in the ORC for us over at Casa del Ochoa, and I can’t wait to do it again in October (shh… don’t tell hubs)!

THANK YOU again for all of you who have followed along during this project – I hope it might inspire you to tackle something like this in your home – because yes. you. can. 🙂

XO,

Ana

P.S.

Don’t forget to check out all the amazing guest bloggers room reveals HERE, as well as all the featured designers reveals HERE! Have an amazing end of your week, and I hope you’ll stop by again soon! 🙂  And of course, feel free to drop any questions you might have in the comments below!