Gray and White Kitchen Makeover
I’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.
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!
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.
We had painted the cabinets over a weekend before Christmas then had Quartz countertops installed. The moment we bought this house, I dreamed off having a gray and white kitchen.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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?
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 :))
I love this section for making lunches and food prep since it’s close to the fridge and right across from the stove.
Then of course, you’ve seen the breakfast nook before but it’s part of the kitchen and it completes the space!
Here’s a run-down of what we did in the kitchen:
For your convenience, this post contains affiliate links. That means, at no additional cost to you, I may get a small commission on something you purchase. You can read my full disclosure here.
- Painted Walls
- Replaced Floors – Allen + Roth Toasted Chestnut Laminate
- Replaced appliances
- Replaced Countertops – Quartz Viatera Celeste
- Replaced Sink
- Replaced Faucet – Moen Indi Faucet
- Painted Cabinets – Behr Still Gray
- Installed New Cabinet Hardware – we bought these and these
- Enlarged Existing Opening
- Created Breakfast Bar
- Installed Marble backsplash
It looks amazing. You did a fabulous job. I love the gray and white and the tile backsplash is gorgeous.
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! 🙂
It’s beautiful Chelsea! What an awesome job!!
Looks awesome guys!
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 🙂
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 🙂
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
Thanks, Christene!
What color grout did you use with the tile backsplash?
Your kitchen looks great, Chelsea! I love the colors and your accessories!!! Great makeover!
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.
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!
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!
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!
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.
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!
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!!
Thank you! And thank you so much for sharing, Krista! Happy weekend.
It’s beautiful and I’m so impressed by the back splash!! Great job! And I use my formal dining room as a play room. 😉
The backsplash is my fav! And I’m totally thinking of converting my dining room into a workspace and moving the toys into my current workspace!
You did a great job! Love the grey and flooring together.
Hi Linda! Thank you so much 🙂
OH WOWZA, the kitchen is just gorgeous. You did an amazing job! xo
Thanks Kristin!! 🙂 Have a great weekend!
Such a gorgeous space Chelsea!!! I absolutely love it!
Thank you so much, Summer!
Hello i really love the color that you picked for the cabinets? Is this color still gray? I saw that you mentioned the kitchen cabinets being toasty gray elsewhere on this blog.
Hey – yes this is Still Gray by Behr. I went and did a search for toasty gray on my blog and I did see where I mistakenly called this cabinet color Toasty Gray – sorry about that. I’ve fixed it.
What an amazing transformation! It looks great! I love the backsplash!
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?
Hi Joan, the rug is from RugsUSA.com 🙂
Absolutely gorgeous! Amazing job on that backsplash.
Love your style!!!! What type of flooring did you use in your kitchen?