If you’ve been following me very long, you know we did a DIY kitchen update over the last year and a half. We’ve lived in our house for ten years and likely will only be here another year or two, so while we were in dire need of an update, we wanted to stick to a budget.
I’ll do a full reveal in a future post as I still need to finish a few things (unfortunately, the same few things that have been on my list for months!), but I’ve been teasing way too long to not show off some of the progress. Here’s a before and after of the kitchen.
I’ve always had a tough time explaining my decorating style, so when Sauder Woodworking Co. sent out the challenge to define one of their decorating styles I immediately identified with Urban Classic. This was the description I’d been hunting for but just couldn’t put my finger on!
The Urban Classic style is a balanced mix of updated timeless pieces and eclectic finds (or in our house, often made or re-made items). It’s important to us to have a house that feels lived in and easy going, classic but updated at the same time.
In our kitchen we achieved this by painting the original honey oak kitchen cabinets a dark espresso to give the kitchen a more modern look and feel. We also did a diy treatment to the countertops to give them the look of solid surface. Then we painted the walls off white. When we first moved in, I had painted the walls red. I really liked it for a while, but it made the kitchen very dark. This update really brightened up the whole space.
The one splurge and non-diy project we had done in the kitchen was the floors. We replaced the old hardwood in the kitchen and carpet in the dining area. It was really tough for us to choose the color for the floors. While I love the look of dark floors, I knew it would make the kitchen really dark. We also have a beautiful oak kitchen table that was my husband’s great grandparents’, which he refinished a few years ago. We wanted things to coordinate well together, so we chose a medium stain for the oak floors.
To me, the mixing of these different wood tones is the perfect embodiment of Urban Classic style. The dark cabinets are more modern, but the oak floor and table are more classic.
The Iowa wall in the dining area is still a work in progress. We have a few additional pieces to add to it, but not enough to balance it all out yet. I made the Des Moines subway art sign and it’s one of my favorite things I’ve made for our house.
As I mentioned there are a few things I still need to do to finish up the kitchen. The kitchen window is pretty bare with the absence of a shade or curtain. It’s been on my to do list for a while and I really need to tackle it soon. I need to add some additional decor to the walls and above the cabinets. Not too much, but it still seems a little bare. Last but certainly not least, we have a very bare wall opposite our kitchen cabinets.
We really need a little extra storage in the kitchen, so I have looked at various free standing cabinets to store cookbooks, placemats, napkins, and to serve as a catch-all. Sauder’s Urban Classic furniture collection has several really great pieces and one that would fit perfectly in my kitchen, the Carson Forge Sideboard. It’s a perfect size and and very affordable.
After browsing through Sauder’s Pinterest boards, it’s hard not to to be inspired to make a few changes to other rooms in our house. While not for my kitchen, I also have my eye on the Barrister Lane Bookcase. It would be perfect to help me organize our basement entertainment area and corral the toys, books, games and movies. I see wicker or wire baskets working well in this bookcase.
How would you define your decorating style? Are you also an Urban Classic or do you lean more to Vintage Eclectic, Modern Simplicity or a style all your own?
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Sauder Woodworking. The opinions and text are all mine.
