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39 Comments

Gray and White Kitchen Makeover

Filed Under: Florida House, kitchen, My Home, My projects 39 Comments

Gray and White Kitchen-14I’m finally revealing the gray and white kitchen makeover. Alternate titles for this post would be DIY kitchen makeover and BUDGET kitchen makeover! This is hands down my favorite project I’ve ever completed. I’m so proud of how it turned out.

Gray and White Kitchen-3

There are a few tiny details that we have to finish like um, painting the toe kicks but for now, I’m calling it done since I’m already working on three other half painted projects ha!

before and after gray kitchen

Okay, to refresh your memories, we bought this house back in October. It had been empty for years and really needed a lot of TLC. The kitchen was our first major project after laying floors throughout the house and painting the entire thing.
Gray and White Kitchen-4

We had painted the cabinets over a weekend before Christmas then had Quartz countertops install. The moment we bought this house, I dreamed off having a gray and white kitchen.
Gray and White Kitchen-2

After having the countertops installed we installed this gorgeous Carrera marble backsplash in a herringbone pattern. When I look at this kitchen the backsplash is what I’m most proud of. You guys, Matt and I installed this ourselves with zero idea what the heck we were doing. We were totally flying blind relying on online tutorials (this is a good one) and YouTube videos. How we ended up DIYing a project we most definitely didn’t intend to DIY was interesting. Our contractor who had done a few other projects for us totally bailed, like didn’t show up and didn’t call. We had already purchased the tile so we kind of looked at each other and shrugged, then decided yeah, we can do this. Then we went straight to Home Depot and bought a tile saw and a bunch of supplies, got home and thought, we definitely should not DIY this but what the heck, let’s try it anyway.
Gray and White Kitchen-8

Guys – we felt like absolute rockstars once it started coming together. I won’t say this project went without hiccups or that it’s perfect by any means (ehm, there’s a reason why there’s no tutorial on this specific project) but it turned out better than I could have imagined and now Matt and I think we can pretty much DIY anything – I mean, tiling the shower and refacing the fireplace are next up on our list!

Gray and White Kitchen-5

Remember, we opened up the “drive thru window” to make this opening to the living room nice and big. It now offers a breakfast bar, which I love. This was the biggest game changer for me. A galley style kitchen is not my favorite but redesigning the entire layout was not an option for us so this was a great alternative.

Gray and White Kitchen-6
We also replaced the sick and faucet. I opted for a stainless steel, under mount,  single bowl sink. I have always had a double bowl sink and switching to a single bowl is a dream. Being able to fit large pans in the sink is heaven.

Gray and White Kitchen
Another fun feature of this kitchen is that little pocket door. It opens to the “formal” dining room which I’m considering using as a office. Folks with form dining rooms do you use them?

Gray and White Kitchen-9
Gray and White Kitchen-13

On the opposite side of the galley kitchen is a small set of cabinets, our fridge, and our teeny, yet newly organized, pantry. (Please pretend you don’t see those bits of orange play doh on the floor :))

Gray and White Kitchen-12

I love this section for making lunches and food prep since it’s close to the fridge and right across from the stove.

Gray and White Kitchen-10

Then of course, you’ve seen the breakfast nook before but it’s part of the kitchen and it completes the space!

before and after gray kitchen

learn to decorate buttonHere’s a run-down of what we did in the kitchen:

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About Chelsea

Chelsea Coulston is the resident decorator, baker, and pillow hoarder around these parts. A wife to an active duty Sailor and mom of two girls, Chelsea's got a knack for decorating even the most challenging spaces (just see her military base house!) She's inspired by cool beach tones and warm natural elements that remind you of a day at the beach. After living in a half dozen rentals, she's enjoyed spending the last few years in a cute ranch style home that she and her husband have almost completely renovated themselves. Chelsea lives in sunny Jacksonville, Florida with her husband and two daughters.

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Comments

  2. Allison @ The Golden Sycamore says

    February 2, 2016 at 8:12 am

    Beautiful makeover, Chelsea! I REALLY want to update our kitchen, too! We’ve gotten as far as the painted cabinets! LOL I’m really in love with your backsplash and have been looking for something like that. Definitely keeping it in mind whenever we do end up replacing ours! 🙂

    Reply

  5. Renee says

    February 2, 2016 at 10:51 am

    Love it!!! The tile job is amazing. So so beautiful. On dining rooms- I go back and forth. I think it depends on when and how often you entertain. We have at least one other family over twice a month. With kiddos that ends up being 8-12 people. If we have 2 families at once it’s over 15. And we have a tiny table that we can barely squeeze 6 at in our eat in kitchen. We make it work but I know we’d get use out of a dining room table!! but if you don’t often have groups of people seated around a table then use it as an office. Or set it up as both- make a large table your desk when needed (which would work better for laptop than desktop computer) and put some shelves or cabinets that can double as holding office supplies and dishes! excited to see what you do with it 🙂

    Reply

    • Chelsea says

      February 6, 2016 at 8:39 am

      Hi Renee! Thank you so much for your input! We never really need a table bigger than what we got and I was thinking that if I do ever host a large dinner event I could always set something up in my living room near the fire place because there is so much space over there. I think I’m going to go for it and convert the dining room into my office. Stay tuned! Happy weekend 🙂

      Reply

  6. Christene says

    February 2, 2016 at 11:25 am

    Wow!!! LOVE! Those colors are amazing. I’m really loving the gray. Also I think I want that basket weave marble tile – it’s perfect!! Great job it looks amazing.
    -Christene

    Reply

  8. Lisa says

    February 2, 2016 at 1:09 pm

    Love the cabinet color! We’ve been lucky enough to have space in our kitchen area for a large table in our last two homes. We just add a leaf or two when company comes so we’ve never used our dining room as a dining room.

    Reply

    • Chelsea says

      February 6, 2016 at 8:37 am

      Hi Lisa, that’s pretty much what I have now. I could fit a bigger table there if I needed. I think I will go ahead and move my office into the dining room. Thanks so much for your feedback!

      Reply

      • cosmosdirekt autoversicherung rechner says

        October 22, 2016 at 11:41 am

        Now that is a description of fear. Nothing like a little sensory deprivation to put one in the mood and get your mind in panic mode. Your Master truly does understand your vulnerabilities… Good job.yes She does and that’s just scraping the surface of what She knows…

        Reply

  9. Erica says

    February 2, 2016 at 2:52 pm

    so so SO beautiful!! This is literally a kitchen out of my dreams! I would love to do all of this with my kitchen. You did a fab job, my friend!

    Reply

    • Chelsea says

      February 6, 2016 at 8:36 am

      You can!! Painting the cabinets was the biggest transformation! It made such a huge impact. The tile wasn’t easy but it also was totally doable!

      Reply

  10. Mary S says

    February 2, 2016 at 5:38 pm

    Great job, Chelsea! The kitchen turned out wonderful! I love the marble you chose, it’s so bright and airy. The hardware looks high-end along with the stainless appliances. Dining rooms? We just sold a house we lived in for 25 years, during that time the dining room was many things-craft table, family game space, Lego-land, cutting table for fabrics, a place I journaled every day. My son did his homework there all through school. If you have a buffet or closed storage in the room it can easily be a home office/blog spot, too, but you won’t have a lot of cute office accessories then, either. Things change as children grow older, too. I no longer have a separate dining room and miss the flexibility it offered.

    Reply

    • Chelsea says

      February 6, 2016 at 8:35 am

      Hi Mary! I was thinking of moving my workspace into the dining room and then moving the girls toys into my current workspace. We don’t have a formal dining table so the room is completely unused right now. We don’t get a lot of company so it doesn’t seem to make sense to turn it into a space we’ll never use. Thank for your input!

      Reply

  11. Krista says

    February 2, 2016 at 8:05 pm

    Stunning, Chelsea!! I love it – every inch! Pinned and sharing on my FB page tomorrow. Congrats to you guys – it must feel so amazing to have it done!!

    Reply

  17. Joan says

    February 11, 2016 at 9:25 am

    Beautiful job!
    The runner in front of the sink/counter really pulls the room together–so much better than little scatter rugs–where did you purchase it?

    Reply

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