Farmhouse Kitchen DIY Makeover

When we bought our ranch home in 2019, we finally had an excuse to embrace the farmhouse style! The previous owner had updated the kitchen so a complete renovation isn't in the budget right now. We decided to tackle the kitchen redo ourselves with a little help on priming and painting because of time and effort to get that done were worth the investment of us. We are totally going fixer upper style with the mini-makeover including shiplap, paint, countertop coverage, hardware, lights and barstools.

Our kitchen was 50 shades of brown. Brown wood floors, brown cabinets, brown backsplash, brown/reddish countertops.

Step 1: Shiplap Bar Area that was beadboard

We purchased the pre-made shiplap boards to make the project quicker since it was a small area. This completely changed the look too!

We did put up boards as backers to attach the shiplap boards. Previously our bar area was just thin bead board attached at the ends. Once the shiplap was installed, we capped it off with trim and painted with Hale Navy by Benjamin Moore. We did have to use a tiny brush to fill in the cracks.

Step 2: Prime and Paint White + Navy Cabinets

We started this process ourself and realized it takes a long time if you we just doing this on the weekends. I love color, but being a ranch built in the 1970s we have short ceilings. So we decided to do Dove White by Benjamin Moore on top to help brighten up the space since we lack natural light and have the shorter ceilings. We did decide to go bold with a strong navy blue on bottom called Hale Navy by Benjamin Moore to add color and not show wear the same as white. We have kids and animals and in our old house the bottom white cabinets started to show age quickly. Other advice we have is make sure you find someone that others recommend that you know. There are a few shady contractors out there and we learned the hard way as one started our project, but we had to have someone else finish it.

Step 3: Recover granite countertops with kit

This honestly was the step I was worried about the most. We didn't want to sink thousands into changing our our countertops since we eventually would like to completely renovate the kitchen in a few years. I took a gamble and purchased a kit from amazon to cover our counter tops. It basically mimics somewhere between concrete countertops and granite countertops. This totally was a fixer upper hack and let us achieve the farmhouse style we were aiming to produce for cheap! We went with a natural white so it wouldn't be too stark in our kitchen and wouldn't appear dirty easily.

There were a few steps. First you need to clean the countertops. The bottom coat is for coverage and to give a base. It took 2 coats for me to get a good base. Once that is dry you put on the stone + mineral coating that spreads somewhat like concrete or beach sands with pieces of shells. This did take some rhythm on the first coat but the second went on much easier. Next once it is dry, then you sand it down. We used a circular sander to make it go faster. Last you need to seal it with the clear coast provided. Given the price, I was shocked at how well it turned out. Most of it took a few hours on and off over a weekend. If you have two people it does make it go quicker when doing the work, however there are drying times you can't cut corners. We did have to wait a week before we put things back on the counter tops, but after all that work you want it to be right!

Step 4: New Hardware

With our barn door pantry we already had back matte hardware featured, so decided to embrace it and switch our brushed nickel for black. I purchased the knobs and pulls off of amazon for a cheap update!

JR also decided to install new soft closes.

Step 5: New Lights and Barstools

Final touches were new barstools and pendants. We found farmhouse french country inspired stools on amazon for a great price. I did scotch guard for spills once they arrived. Also updated our pendants with a black finish as well.

We are really happy with how it all turned out. We ended up not doing the backsplash right now and may tackle it later as it is a big project as well. We feel like we nailed the modern farmhouse style in a very fixer upper fashion!