DIY rustic baker's kitchen

Hi Again! Yes, I am alive and well...things have just been SO crazy that I have not had the opportunity to blog AT ALL. Luckily, I have some staycation time coming up and I am hoping to catch up with you guys then! For now, I figured I would share one of my favorite DIY projects that Bobby and I have ever taken on! 

Demo time
To be clear, this project is like 70% DIY and 30% not so much- haha. Our upstairs kitchenette area has always felt like wasted space. Before we moved in, it had been part of a second story apartment but was underutilized by us. Bobby has always thought it would be a perfect little bakers nook for me but I never thought this would be the year we added it to the "do it now" list. 

Our intentions were to just redo our primary main floor kitchen, but like most of you have encountered, we had to buy the full slab of stone for our countertops. At first we were kind of bummed, but after thinking about it, we figured that this was actually a good thing. Maybe we could work the upstairs into our budget somehow and make our wasted bonus area into a real usable space- and that is just what we did!

Cabinet consideration 

Originally, both kitchens were going to feature the same cabinetry- white shaker. However, after visiting the cabinet showroom I changed my mind (which is so unlike me haha). We worked with J&K Cabinetry in Woodbury. Our sales person was John and he was GREAT!

For the downstairs, we went with a traditional style cabinet door in glazed pearl. We both love the idea of a white kitchen but after living with white cabinets during phase 2 of our renovations- I realized how totally unrealistic they are! Sure they look beautiful but they show EVERYTHING. Because of this, I loved the glazed pearl. It is slightly off white with brown details, and I think it will really age well. 

Since there is much less foot traffic upstairs, we decided that the classic white shaker cabinet that we had envisioned downstairs- would be perfect in that space. Seriously though, check out J&K's 2018 catalog (drool-fest). 

J&K provided us with a stainless sink so we could re-purpose the 5" stainless pulls we had on our old cabinetry on the main floor. 

Quartz of my dreams 

I love marble- but what young couple can afford it? If you can- then I am seriously impressed. Luckily, Quartz Master has an entire "marble" collection. We went with Alaskan White. I LOVED the veining. The way the neutral colors wash into the white surface had me swooning. I don't love all grey detailing in stone, so when I saw this, I knew it would work beautifully with our off white and clean white cabinetry in two unique ways. 

Quartz is an awesome stone if you are looking for something with high durability and low maintenance. Unlike granite, it does not need to be sealed, and it is also really resistant to staining, scratching, and chipping.  

Professionals are out, DIY is in 

We chose not to purchase upper cabinets for a number of reasons: budget, low ceiling height, Pinterest. Yeah, Pinterest had me dreaming of chalkboards, pipped shelving, glass canisters, need I say more? Luckily enough, Bobby was totally on board with my pinsperation. 

I have no sketching skills, but in my head I knew that I wanted to paint the "backsplash" in black magnetic chalkboard paint with a dark walnut colored frame that enclosed walnut shelving.

We picked up one can of Rust-Oleum magnetic primer from Home Depot in addition to a can of flat black chalkboard paint from the same brand. 

Priming and painting was pretty easy (minus my many anxiety attacks about getting BLACK paint everywhere- yes my dog ran around with a paint brush but we won't talk about that). We did 3 coats of magnetic primer to ensure that a magnet would actually stick to the wall. FYI...maybe it is just us but we found that only the teeny tiny silver magnets work on this surface, anything heavy or fancy does not stick. From there, we did 2 coats of chalkboard paint and let it all dry over night. We also chalkboard painted our outlets covers with Rust-Oleum spray. 

The stain game 

I really don't like to paint. I mean I start out enjoying it but  just end up wanting to be done like, NOW. Luckily though, the staining/painting procedure for this space was pretty minimal. If you saw my blog on DIY farmhouse shelves in just 5 easy steps, then I think you could guess what came next! We were going to build two long shelves for this area, but then soon realized we did not have nearly enough room for that. That was cool with me though, more room to utilize the chalkboard with my favorite recipes! 

For this shelf, and also the secondary storage shelving on a separate wall, I used the same left over stain from our downstairs project a couple of months ago.

 Staging for life 

We have a decent amount of counter space but I knew that I would need more storage and prep space if I really wanted to get down with my baking self in this space. Wayfair came to the rescue with this adorable (and great quality) kitchen cart in white. I loved the distressed look and all of the storage- plus it is on wheels! 

I then came across an even cuter (maybe) microwave cart in an adorable mint color with a stainless top- also from Wayfair. 

I love that chicken wire framed wreath that fit so perfectly over the oven and of course I needed a bakery sign which I found for pretty cheap off Amazon- and loveee it. 

I am obsessed with buffalo check, so I followed Amazon's recommendation and purchased these fabulous kitchen towels. The spoon and fork jars are from Bed Bath & Beyond (I just removed them from the stand for spacing purposes). The canisters filled with baker's necessities and ADORABLE soap dispenser are all from the Disney World for DIYers- Michaels.  

Home. 

I am not sure if it is the uniqueness of this space, or the fact that my husband and I teamed up to make it something special- but I love starting and ending my days here. This room is situated right off the master bedroom and gives me all the bed and breakfast feels. 

For a while my home hadn't felt like a retreat. Whenever I pulled up after a long day, my mind just started thinking of all the things I had left to do. Now that our place is starting to come together, I have noticed that I am truly excited to be home and enjoy the space that we have invested so much time, effort, and love into.