Shore Side Farm House: Kitchen renovation elements

kitchen storage

This kitchen renovation has incorporated a number of changes to existing elements. We have a side board which has great bones and we thought was worth saving and reusing. We polished it up with lemon oil which improved the look significantly. We then replaced the lining of the back board to give it new life. I also changed the drawer pulls to give the redesign a new tone and feeling. These changes gave the piece a more contemporary design infusion. While not a contemporary piece, the new elements have brought in a crisp and cleaner look to the piece. Though it is a minor change physically, design wise it was a major change in look and design profile. As the piece stood before the redesign, it had a black plaid wallpaper lining inside the back of the unit, and black knobs. I always thought these were black porcelain knobs, but when I took them off I discovered they were plastic. I guess that is why they never felt very substantial.

sideboard drawer

kitchen cabinet before renovation

The black and white plaid wallpaper had brought some color into a completely pumpkin pine piece. In its time the wallpaper was a nice touch. It had a country feel, but now it was looking too dated and had to go. The space where the piece sits is a dark corner, so we needed to put something lighter inside that unit. Putting something lighter in there, would give the space some reflected light, brightening the area up a bit. I was looking to bring the piece into a fresh post modern feel, so I chose a classic material done in a new way....very post-modern and transitional. This sideboard is used for everyday storage, so it gets bumped and scraped on regularly. Bead board has a great classic and crisp look and it take the bumps and scrapes of daily usage. Mr always prefers a wood project over a wallpaper project, so he happily accommodated my design wishes. Doing it in bead board was a very quick project, doing it in wallpaper would have been a bit more messy and time consuming. It seems that my design changes have worked out very nicely. Though the unit is not arranged neatly yet (we are still reorganizing all storage in the kitchen to use our new storage additions), I think it looks great so I wanted to share some snapshots of the fix ups to the sideboard. Posts over the next week or two will cover the new cabinets added to other areas of the kitchen.

kitchen cabinet renovation

close up of kitchen renovation breadfront lining

Note the toe molding holding the bead board into the sideboard. This can be easily removed at a future date, it we tire of the bead board look. The bead board can also be painted for a color change up. To juice up the changes, I added sea themed knobs to the sideboard. I found these great sculptural knobs which really capture the feel of the sea. Each one is a little artwork in itself. On the sideboard I installed a starfish, sea horse and conch shell. Their 3D detailing and shape is a great addition to the overall look, a really nice complement to the rich pumpkin pine finish of the wood.