Victorian Farmhouse Kitchen Renovation Begins

Hiii!

Our Victorian farmhouse kitchen renovation begins…again! Lol! This is round two of renovating this kitchen and I am here for it! But before we jump into that I also wanted to take a minute to appreciate the kitchen before we started. I love this kitchen. We worked hard on it.

You can check out our first kitchen reno HERE!

New Design Plan

The thing about design is that you can love more than one. You can love different things about them. It’s art. I don’t regret doing our kitchen one bit because I was able to take an idea in my head and bring it to life. I enjoy that creative process start to finish. Even when it’s hard 😉

When we did this kitchen I didn’t know much about the time period or architectural style of our home. I just loved that it was an old farmhouse. Shiplap made sense. I always liked the idea of an old store counter being a kitchen island because I love antiques. Once we gave up on finding reclaimed floors I got creative with the pine planked ones we installed. I stained them with coffee to look as close to our original flooring upstairs as I could get.

Then I painted the harlequin pattern on them that I’ve always wanted to try! We built some open shelving, which are one of my favorite parts of this kitchen. All very fun projects that I’ve learned from and enjoyed. But now I know a bit more about our home I really want that to be the main inspiration behind its design.

Historical Victorian Farmhouse Kitchen

A late 1800s Victorian Farmhouse or Folk Victorian kitchen would have a center workspace to work outward from. The sink would have been against a wall. We’ll be bringing in a different type of island that I’m really exited about! We’re also switching out and relocating the sink. Scroll down if you can’t wait! 😉 The kitchen also would have likely had some type or wainscoting, and according to what we found during demo that appears to be true.

So I’ll be using reclaimed beadboard like I did in the living room to recreate that look with a twist! I’ll also be adding horizontal beadboard above that all the way to the ceiling and adding chair railing between them! Another reason for redoing the walls is that we wanted to add some insulation to the exterior wall while we were in there making a mess.

Freestanding Victorian Kitchen

A kitchen in this time period would have been free standing. Meaning that cabinets and workspaces could be moved around instead of built in. We still love our appliances and we never ordered base cabinets/countertops after finding the giant antique kitchen cabinet!

It will sit beside the refrigerator. I haven’t found a cabinet for beside the stove, but I have some style ideas in mind. If I don’t find one then we’ll eventually build one. In the meantime we can still use the open shelving and base cabinet. And I’ll definitely be reusing the longer open shelves in the mudroom.

Farmhouse Flooring

And finally the flooring. The flooring that started it all lol! We’ll be replacing the pine lumber floors with the gorgeous reclaimed heart pine flooring we we’re so grateful to have found! It matches the original flooring that’s throughout the upstairs. We’ll be installing it in three of the big rooms on the main floor. I cannot wait to see it in this kitchen!

Before Video

You can check out a video of our kitchen before we started this reno below!

Kitchen Reno Progress

Week one brought demo, adding insulation, and I got the reclaimed beadboard wainscoting installed! I decided to take a break this weekend because I needed one, and because Ed has been pretty sick with “the bug” all last week. But I’m feeling rested and ready to start the horizontal beadboard tomorrow! You can see progress and updates everyday on Instagram and Facebook @midcountyjournal. Plus cute farm animals including our newest family member, Kirby who’s in our new kitchen sink below 😉

Victorian Farmhouse Kitchen Renovation Begins

It feels right to pay tribute to the old kitchen, and at the same time I CANNOT wait to see the new one! The deeper I get into the renovation the more connected I feel to this home and it’s history. A friend reminded me the other day that a home will talk to you if you listen. I feel like all the pieces of it have come together as I’ve learned more about this awesome home over the past couple of years. Now I get to put them all together and see what I can create! I hope I do the old girl proud 😉

And I hope you enjoy following along with this next leg aka bonus kitchen reno! Lol! Let me know if you have any questions!

Thanks so much for stopping by the blog today!