• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • My Shop: REDO YOUR FURNITURE
  • DIY Tutorials & Tips
  • Shopping
  • Contact

Antique Brick Cottage Farmhouse Style Kitchen Before and After

A few years ago, we invested in an antique brick cottage in the town we live in. It was in need of some love and care, and I took on the challenge to revive it into something that was once again lovely and more functional for today. Here is the before and after project of this farmhouse style kitchen…

HometoCottage.com Antique Brick Cottage Farmhouse Style Kitchen Before and After

Our plan for this antique brick cottage wasn’t to reside there ourselves, but as an investment. I also felt a need to help this little house out of the dumps, I knew I could restore it so that it would be loved again. After all, this is our hometown and why wouldn’t I want to improve it, even if only one house at a time? So working on this renovation project, the whole time I was trying to balance what made sense to the budget for an investment/rental property, but what also what was respectful to this ‘limited edition’ antique house.

Even though the cottage, (originally a Victorian 2-story that lost it’s 2nd story long ago in a fire) was built in the mid/late 1800’s, the kitchen had obviously been re-done in the 1960’s or 70’s.

HometoCottage.com brick cottage farmhouse kitchen before 1

I’m all for saving cabinets in good condition, but these were in horrid condition, so for this job, we did need a dumpster.

HometoCottage.com brick cottage kitchen before 2

With the dark paneling, dark cabinets, dark floor, dark gold countertops, 1970 style ranch molding, horrible plumbing, original, very aged, wiring and extremely inefficient floorplan, not to mention non insulated exterior wall and windows in terrible condition… this kitchen needed to be gutted!!

HometoCottage.com brick cottage kitchen floor before

Once the space was gutted, we were thrilled to have found the original wide plank floors under that hideous 1970’s brick vinyl flooring…

So enough of the before’s…

Here’s a picture of ‘during’ this huge renovation project!

HometoCottage.com brick cottage kitchen during reno

This is pretty far along in the process, the wonderful original floors were discovered, so we covered them to protect them from the construction going on.

I need to interrupt this and state how important it is to have a good contractor! As a designer, I did all the planning, purchasing, consulting and most of the supervision… however, I have a wonderful and creative contractor with a fantastic attitude. He loves what he does. He really digs a challenge and is smart about re-using stuff if it is smart to do so. No matter what, at times a project of this magnitude will have some stress, and I wouldn’t want to go through that without a contractor that has a good attitude and is willing to work with me to solve the problem at hand. ‘Our guy’ is a huge blessing and really helps make projects like these fun!

Ok, back to the project…

The new windows and trim were installed in this ‘during’ picture as well.

We installed 4 x 8 sheets of beadboard plywood all around the entire space at 5′ high capped with a simple trim board on top. The same beadboard was used for the backsplash. It is cost effective, sturdy real wood so it should be durable for renters, and totally in keeping with the vintage style of the original house.

The new cabinets from Home Depot were installed as well as the countertops, (also from Home Depot). We went with a brown laminate counter. Granite was just too expensive for a rental here, and the brown repeats the color from the new found wood floor.

What you don’t see is the boring stuff, albeit important stuff, like new wiring, new plumbing, insulated wall, and sheetrock.

Now to the good stuff…

Here’s the antique brick cottage farmhouse style kitchen project completed:

HometoCottage.com brick cottage farmhouse style kitchen done

In this picture you can get a feel for the new floor plan. The sink is to the right, where a door was originally that went out to the side yard. We replaced that door with a window, and put in the sink and dishwasher.

To the left, directly across from the sink, just out of this photo, is the range.

Then to the left, in the picture you can see the fridge.

And beyond is the 4′ peninsula between the windows with counter stool space on the other side.

And further beyond is the back entry.

HometoCottage.com brick cottage farmhouse style kitchen done 1

For the new floor plan I was able to create an efficient work triangle, with a bonus peninsula I created with this 4′ cabinet from Home Depot. It nicely adds to the kitchen work counter area and we had just enough space to extend the counter on the backside of it, to allow space for counter stools.

The mason jar pendant lights I made from old mason jars and track light adapters from Menard’s.

HometoCottage.com brick cottage farmhouse style kitchen counter stool area

Even though we replaced the windows, I really wanted to maintain their original size. These long windows in the kitchen pour gorgeous light into this room, but they do make the floor plan a bit tricky. We had just enough space between them to put this cabinet, adjacently placed, creating a work area from the front, and a counter stool area from the back side. You can see the beadboard we put on the back of the cabinets for the peninsula too.

Also, the radiator is the original one, I just repainted it from brown to this wonderful aged bronze color using bronze finish paint.

HometoCottage.com brick cottage kitchen done fridge area
HometoCottage.com brick cottage farmhouse style kitchen 3

For the fridge area, I had room to squeeze in a 9″ cabinet next to it, this will give the users a bit of space to set milk, juice and the like as they are accessing the fridge. Doesn’t seem like much, until you have to use a fridge that doesn’t have any counter space next to it, then you realize how much you miss it!
Also, for very little expense, I had the fridge area encased with a sheet of plywood painted white and brought the upper cabinets out to the front, creating a built-in fridge look. I dislike seeing the exposed side of a fridge, it just gives the kitchen an unfinished look in my opinion. Here, in this picture of the sink area, you can see the new window over the sink where the side entrance door once was.

This also shows how the warm brown counters and floor, contrast nicely with the cool white cabinets and gray beadboard. I find that mixing warm and cool tones in a room’s color plan, offers enough variation that the room doesn’t wind up feeling too ‘warm’ or too ‘cool’.

HometoCottage.com brick cottage farmhouse style kitchen range

Surrounding the range, I had just enough space to have a cabinet and countertop on each side of it. One of my pet peeves is when the range is shoved up against a wall on one side. I’d much rather have 2 smaller cabinets on each side, than one large one and a wall on the other!

HometoCottage.com brick cottage farmhouse style kitchen done to DR

So from the back entry of this antique brick cottage looking through the farmhouse style kitchen, you can see through the dining room (chandelier) all the way into the front living room.

I am still thrilled with our investment and decision to restore this property. We are so blessed to have a wonderful family that has been in there ever since we finished it. They love living there and love the property as much as I do.

Here are more posts featuring this little brick cottage renovation:

front entry sdtips
 living room before and after SDTips
SimpleDecoratingTips.com Little Brick Cottage Dining Room Before and After
front bedroom reno before SDTips
Bedroom Redo Before SDTips
simpledecoratingtips.com little brick cottage bathroom before and after
little brick cottage back entry SDTips
DIY canning jar lights SDTips
Mixing Hardware Styles SDTips
SIMPLEDECORATINGTIPS.com Antique Brick Cottage Farmhouse Style Kitchen Before and After

Thanks so much for stopping by! Please feel free to follow and share this blog with your friends, as well as on Facebook and Pinterest, Flipboard, Bloglovin etc… the more the merrier! And don’t forget to follow SimpleDecoratingTips.com on YouTube too!  I appreciate you stopping by.

Yay!! This post was featured: The Charm of Home, A Stroll Thru Life, From my Front Porch to Yours

This post is linked up at these other sites: Between Naps on the Porch, Skip to My Lou, Coastal Charm, Under the Table and Dreaming, Inspire Me Monday, The Scoop, A Stroll Thru Life, Home Stories A to Z, Yesterday on Tuesday, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Tip Junkie, The DIY Dreamer, Just a Girl and her Blog, Savvy Southern Style, DIY by Design, Share Your Style, From my Front Porch to Yours, Posed Perfection, Your Turn to Shine, Home Sweet Home, My Repurposed Life, Design, Dining and Diapers, French Country Cottage, Handmade Hangout, My Romantic Home, The Shabby Nest, Serenity Now, Funky Junk, Chic on a Shoestring, The Girl Creative, Nifty Thrifty, It’s Overflowing, Thrifty Decor Chick, Miss Mustardseed

Share this:

  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)

Primary Sidebar

Welcome to Simple Decorating Tips! I’m Liz, the author, and I’m so glad you’re here!

My goal is to encourage you with DIY tips, techniques and tutorials so you feel empowered to join in the fun! Along with this DIY blog, I have a DIY shop, Redo Your Furniture!
The shop is stocked with amazing DIY products! Fusion Mineral Paints, ReDesign Transfers, Decoupage, Waxes, loads of DIY Goodies and more! Even if you're not close to where the shop is in Wisconsin, good news... I ship nationwide, (USA) daily! Check out the link here and let's get your DIY on!
https://youtu.be/V0s51S9Er5Q
https://youtu.be/hFjIC8V_iXQ

All the photos and text on this blog are copyright protected. You may share photos from this blog IF linked back to their original posts and for the sole purpose of featuring my work. Please let me know when you have done so. You may not copy entire articles and posts (even if you link back to me) without my express permission. You may email any such request to simpledecoratingtips@gmail.com. Please do NOT borrow any pictures on this blog to sell your own goods. Thank you!

Footer

Shop Decor Steals

AntiqueFarmHouse

Subscribe on YouTube!

Simple Decorating Tips 'How To' videos

Welcome to Simple Decorating Tips! I'm Liz, the author, and I'm so glad you're here! My goal is to encourage you with DIY tips, techniques and tutorials so you feel empowered to join in the fun! Along with this DIY blog, I have a DIY shop, Redo Your Furniture!
The shop is stocked with amazing DIY products! Fusion Mineral Paints, ReDesign Transfers, Decoupage, Waxes, loads of DIY Goodies and more! Even if you're not close to where the shop is in Wisconsin, good news... I ship nationwide, (USA) daily! Check out the link here and let's get your DIY on!


Disclosure Policy: According to FTC guidelines, I want you to be aware that some of the content of this blog may be a source of income and therefore may be used to promote products, services, or other businesses. I will only choose to promote products/services/businesses that I feel will be beneficial to my readers. While I hope to generate a small profit for my time and effort to create this blog, I hold myself to the highest standard of integrity. I appreciate my readers, and make it my goal to deliver quality, honest material on this blog through each post. Thanks for reading along, Liz

Copyright

Sharing is great! Please feel free to share this blog with your friends, as well as on Facebook and Pinterest and Flipboard and Houzz and YouTube the more the merrier! I appreciate you stopping by. But please remember that all photos, images, text and content are owned by SimpleDecoratingTips.com. So anything you share, please be sure it always links back to my original post it came from. Please do not remove watermarks, crop or edit anything without written permission from me first.

Disclosure Policy: According to the FTC guidelines, I want you to be aware that this blog is a source of income and may occasionally incorporate endorsements or testimonials and shopping links. It is important to me to disclose this to you. The content of this blog is a source of income and therefore may be used to promote products, services, or other businesses. I will only choose to promote products/services/businesses that I feel will be beneficial to my readers. Products provided to me by my advertising partners for my review are given to me free of charge with no cost to myself. This does not ensure a positive review of the product in any way. While I hope to generate a small profit for my time and effort to create this blog, I hold myself to the highest standard of integrity. I appreciate my readers, and always make it my goal to deliver quality, honest material on this blog through each post. Thanks for reading along, Liz

Disclosure Policy According to Federal Trade Commission guidelines, I want you to be aware that this blog is a source of income and may occasionally incorporate endorsements or testimonials. It is important to me to disclose this to you. The content of this blog is a source of income and therefore may be used to promote products, services, or other businesses. I will only choose to promote products/services/businesses that I feel will be beneficial to my readers. Products provided to me by my advertising partners for my review are given to me free of charge with no cost to myself. This does not ensure a positive review of the product in any way. My truthful opinion will be what I state, no matter if I'm getting paid or not. Accuracy and truth are the priority for me on this blog's information, no matter if it's about a product or anything else. Not every product or service or store etc. may be mentioned in each and every post as an affiliate. While I hope to generate a small profit for my time and effort to create this blog, I hold myself to the highest standard of integrity. I appreciate my readers, and always make it my goal to deliver quality, honest material on this blog through each post.

Graphics Fairy

Graphics Fairy

Feedspot

Feedspot

Copyright © 2023 · Genesis Sample Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

  • Home
  • My Shop: REDO YOUR FURNITURE
  • DIY Tutorials & Tips
  • Shopping
  • Contact
↞
↠