Small Kitchen Design {Beach Cottage}

Remember my cute, little beach cottage? You know the one that is undergoing bathroom renovations? If you’re new to the blog, Welcome! You can see a tour of the cottage here and get caught up to speed with the renovation journeys here. The bathrooms are coming along great and the new floors have been installed throughout the house.  The plan was to complete the bathrooms and floors as PHASE 1.  The small kitchen design would come later as PHASE 2.

When my contractor sent me these high quality photos of the new floor progress, the design wheels went into overdrive in my head.

Honestly there was nothing wrong with the kitchen {ahem…except that lovely wallpaper}. The cabinets were old BUT white.  I LOVE white! But after seeing our new floors in here, I couldn’t get beyond the wallpaper.  IT HAD TO COME DOWN!

Never open a can of worms in a vintage home.  Behind that wallpaper was old water damage from leaky old windows.  Not a shocker to us, we bought a cute money pit!  Not only did the wallpaper have to go but so did the drywall…and the windows. So this far into the kitchen we decided to move full speed {literally!} ahead to PHASE 2.

We are on a time crunch since we plan to spend the Christmas holidays here and it is being rented out to snowbirds for 3 months starting mid January.  We can’t have renters show up to this!  By the time we’re finished, this kitchen will have a light and airy vibe! Monochromatic white will abound from the cabinets, wall tile, to countertops.  I’m thrilled!!

Let’s just journey back to pre-demo.  Sorry for the poor quality photo. I took these the first or second year we owned the cottage with a crappy camera, so bear with me.  As you can see the kitchen had mexican tiles with ginormous grout that transitioned into the dining area with original hardwood floors.  And yes, that’s my son…on a skateboard..in my house. The floors were old so who cares.

The cabinets to the left here will be removed and replaced with counter height cabinets, leaving an open wall above to display art or perhaps some fun tile there too. I won’t be loosing cabinet storage space since I’ll be extending the floor cabinets beyond the kitchen and into this dining space.

We will be knocking out that “pillar” wall and opening up the two spaces. The kitchen will look so much bigger by doing this.  The upper countertop will drop down to normal counter height and will become a peninsula. Similar to this image.

Tidbits

The wall where the stove and microwave are will go through the biggest transformation. We are moving the microwave to the opposite side of the kitchen, next to the fridge, and opting for a drawer microwave.

The upper cabinets are being removed and the wall will have subway tiles, as well as a vent hood similar to this one.

The Inspired Room

I love the concept of open shelves. What a great way to add character to your kitchen by displaying your dishes.

Via Popsugar -Design by Bob & Courtney Novogratz

Just give me Joanna Gaines’ kitchen please….

Magnolia Homes

This concept only works if you are displaying pretty dishes, preferably not the cheap plastic glasses we use for the pool and plastic plates {those will go in the lower cabinets}. The dishes we use for every meal will fill these shelves adding a few pops of color.

Via BHG

I hope you are following along with me on Instagram where you will see more of what’s going on around here.  I’ll be back at the cottage right after Thanksgiving to see the progress!  The bathrooms will be complete, new floors throughout, fresh white paint on the walls, new baseboards and windows.  Happy dance going on!!

I’ve decided to have a yard sale while I’m there since I’ve changed the style of the home and will be adding some more coastal modern pieces over time. Seven years of thrifted finds are ready for a new home!