Home Decor, RenovationsCollected Country Kitchen Before & After November 29, 2017This post is done in partnership with Wayfair. All product choices and opinions are 100% my own. Well, friends, our Collected Country Kitchen is finally done. The kitchen gets me more excited than finishing and revealing any other room in the house. In my adult years, as I’ve fallen more and more in love with homemaking, a huge surprise to many who know me is that I’ve also fallen head over heels in love with cooking. My husband will be the first to tell you that when we got married over seven years ago, cooking wasn’t on my list of giftings. I had no clue what to do in a kitchen and was so intimidated by it. But as the years went on, we developed different food allergies and started becoming really aware of eating naturally. I quickly realized that it was either learn to cook versions of favorites we could eat, or just eat salad. And this girl loves good food. So a deep love of cooking, baking, spending time in my kitchen, and trying new things was born. For me, the kitchen has become a powerful thing. It represents huge personal growth on my part, something I thought I would never be good at turned into one of my strongest passions. It’s where memories are made in our house. Sharing food with others is a way to nourish and care for them. It’s a way to love your family and those you invite into your home well. And it reminds me to embrace new challenges because they may just turn out to be magic for your soul. I don’t believe your kitchen has to look any certain way for these things to be true. But I’m a firm believer that spaces are so important for us. What we’re surrounded by affects our mood and inspires us (or doesn’t). For me, I’ve come to realize that I am extremely affected by my space and surroundings. While the before version of this kitchen wasn’t doing anything for me creatively, it also was in terrible, terrible condition, so a gut job was in order. For me, making a creative (and functional) haven in our new kitchen was top priority at The Buffalo Stone Cottage. Before we dive into the big reveal, you can catch up on this room’s progress by clicking on the titles below: Okay, y’all, who’s ready to see our brand new kitchen? I’m prone to using the word “favorite” a little too loosely, but I mean it this time. This is seriously my favorite space I’ve ever done. It is the collected country (with a twist) kitchen of my dreams! There is so much I could say about this space. Today, let’s just take a tour of the space and I’ll share some overall details. Then, there will be some follow-up posts about function, some choices made in here, etc. My goal for this space was country and collected with a twist. While I loved our green cabinets in the last kitchen, I loved the idea of traditional white country kitchens like the first kitchen I designed. But I wanted it to have a twist, some unexpected layers. I partnered with Wayfair to take this white kitchen from basic to WOW by adding statement-making tile and layering on details. All of the white in the room is Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace: the hood, the cabinets, the shiplap, EVERYTHING. And then the trim is Benjamin Moore Revere Pewter. I love how it stands out and adds something extra. And I love it with that tile! That tile. Oh that tile. I just don’t have words for how much I love this tile, y’all. I’ve loved it for years and wanted to use it somewhere. When I chose blue for this house’s theme color, I knew it would be the perfect choice to make this kitchen shine. I love the pattern and color it adds, you guys know I love that in a space. But the color doesn’t read as too strong in the room. It still goes with a ton! I also love that it has an aged look, so it really fits with the feel I was going for in here and gives me that old patina I like. That main view with the patterned tile, the hood, and the sconces is one of the first things I envisioned for the kitchen. I love how it’s centered on that back wall and is a focal point throughout the entire house! Turn on your JavaScript to view content I love the tile with the shiplap and the Carrera quartz countertops. I talked about our countertop choice in the design plans post, but a little update: I am loving them! We’ve gone with white granite in the last two kitchens even though I love a marble look for durability. I always chose granite that had gray veining instead of speckling, so it had a marble-ish look. But this stuff is even better! Super durable, has more of the marble look, and I like that it’s even more white than the granites we’d used. Every kitchen I’ve ever designed has had open shelving and I’ve loved it in every single one! A collected country kitchen just screams open shelving! Since there is so much white in here, I decided to tie the shelves in with the wood beams. We stained them Minwax Early American, the same stain as the beams and then Chris sanded them down on the edges so that each one is a bit different and has a more finished edge that sharp corners. I wanted basic white brackets that would just blend in and these from Lowe’s did the trick. Open shelves are my favorite because they give you such great display space. Downsizing to a smaller house made me really pair down our stuff to just things we use and love. My requirement for these shelves was two-fold: what’s pretty and what do I want most handy to use often. I love the country feel that small details like the tinware mugs and the pottery teacups bring in. I envisioned a basic white hood with pretty trim so that the tile would shine. But I also wanted it to have a flat surface on the front wide enough to hang or lean something like I did in the last house. I loved that! We sketched it out and Chris built it. It’s a simple box with trim around the bottom, and it’s exactly as I pictured. The vintage rug is from eBay and I found it as soon as I nailed down the tile. I absolutely love them together. Let’s take a look at the sink wall…the ultimate country part of this kitchen. Turn on your JavaScript to view content Oh there is so much to say about this view! First off, the farmhouse sink. We’ve had that exact sink in three kitchens now and I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to not use it. It’s so reasonably priced and is so deep! I love the country, old-kitchen feel it brings in, but I love how roomy and functional it is. I’ve always wanted a skirt under my farmhouse sink instead of doors and it finally happened! We made it happen by hanging a tension rod behind that trim piece. For the curtain, I took two of these Anthropologie dishtowels that I’d fallen in love with and safety pinned a rod pocket! Y’all, it took five minutes. I’ll probably sew it one day, but for now, this works perfectly and took so little time. I loved the blue and white stripe and the macrame-style trim with the tile, the rug…oh all the details just make me so happy! For function, this works great for us. While I don’t have any toxic cleaners or anything dangerous in the house, I actually planned to use this under the sink mainly for paper towel storage when I sketched out the kitchen storage plan, so I’m not worried about kids getting in there. Can we talk about that big window? You just can’t replicate the feel of big windows and lots of natural light. The window sill is very deep and I love having a huge shelf there to put plants, herbs, whatever needs a home. That’s the best part about loving a collected vibe. You can store things out in plain site! That little pendant light above the sink is one of my favorite little details. It has a wood base with a weathered patina and a weathered wire cage around the bulb. My favorite style mix in a room is to bring in country/rustic details like the farmhouse sink, the skirt below, the weathered light, but then mix then with clean touches like the brass sconces and brass faucet. Speaking of that faucet, I LOVE it. It’s my favorite we’ve ever had. It’s bigger than others we’ve had and I love the detached sprayer. It’s the first faucet we’ve had that actually reaches this entire big bowl sink! One of my main goals for this house like I’ve shared in all of the plans was to really focus on storage, function, and making these spaces as useful as possible for how we live life. For us, one of the big goals were having oil stations in several rooms so they’re handy where we use them and having our diffusers out. Since this room is really central in the house, it’s serving as my main oil station. This is an old galvanized tool drawer I found at an antique store and turned on its’ end, it serves as the perfect little divided shelf to organize these by how we use them. Okay, let’s take a look at that last wall of the kitchen. I’ve wanted a baking station for so long and I am so happy to finally have one! We took this completely empty wall from the old kitchen and did a built-in pantry. I’ll share more about that in the function post, but it is so useful! I was really sad to lose our walk-in pantry from the last house and we have more accessible storage in this one with much less space taken up. Bigger isn’t always better! We knew the fridge would go on this wall on the opposite end of the pantry, so the baking station got whatever room was left in between. I absolute love having my flours, cocoa, baking powder, oil, etc. displayed! I’ve started baking and using these ingredients in a lot of our recipes a ton, so having them handy is awesome. Plus, it frees up space in the pantry to store other things I might not want displayed on a shelf if I can help it. Functional storage can be pretty! The platter and plate hanging up top are some of my favorite pieces: one is a favorite vintage yard sale find and the other is a family heirloom of my aunt’s. And I love that little pig bowl! Don’t y’all? Quirky little details like that in a kitchen make me so happy…Rosie loves him. We hung little hooks from the bottom shelf for my measuring cups and mixer attachments. I was worried this little station would feel small, but it has been perfect! The mixer is so heavy, so I don’t move it and use it over here, but there’s enough counter space for a large mixing bowl in addition to it or to spread out a few ingredients as I’m mixing. For more in-depth projects like rolling out and baking cookies, we’ve done some of that on the island, but a lot of it happens right here where everything is central. Our initial plan included a built-in fridge cabinet to mirror the pantry on the left, but we realized that was spending a lot for little added storage or benefit. So, we decided instead to go with the collected vibe and use a big basket instead. I was picturing a wicker basket that filled up this entire space, but was having trouble finding one that wasn’t super expensive. We had this one already and didn’t have another place for it in the house and it holds a ton! So it fills this need perfectly. I absolutely love the feel of this room and how the space turned out. It fuels me creatively and cooking has become one of my favorite creative endeavors. At the end of each day (well, most days), I look forward to coming in here, experimenting and whipping up dinner for the family. It’s become a release for me. And while I love that alone time, I love even more the times where Rosie asks to get up on the island or stand on the dining room bench on the other side and help mommy. Turn on your JavaScript to view content There are lots of memories to be made in here and I can’t wait…just in time for the holidays! I’ll be doing a post later this week all about the function of this space, cabinet choices, and how we majorly saved money in here, but for now, let’s just enjoy the before and after. We are loving it! Here’s a before and after video of the space: Thank y’all so much for touring our Collected Country Kitchen! A huge thanks to Wayfair for helping with this project! We couldn’t love it any more!
nancy says November 29, 2017 at 8:55 am Your last kitchen now has some serious competition for Favorite Kitchen EVER! Reply
Lindsay says November 29, 2017 at 3:19 pm Oh Nancy thank you! Yes, it’s so funny…I’ve loved each kitchen I’ve done so much at that time and each house we’ve left, it’s been the kitchen that’s made me sad. I’ve always thought, I’ll never love another one so much and then each time I love the next one more. Looking back, each one was perfect for the time, the season we were in, what I was experimenting with and learning about my style, and it’s so fun to see continuity in them, but also differences. Anyway, thank you!!! Reply
Courtney says November 29, 2017 at 10:19 am Love it! I am so interested to know what cabinets you used and how you built the hood. Love your style, you would never know this was a “budget” kitchen! Reply
Lindsay says November 29, 2017 at 3:18 pm Thanks so much Courtney!!!! I’m going to be talking about the cabinets A TON in the next post! They’re a huge budget choice we made and are so glad we did!!!! There was just too much to share in one, so they’re getting their own dedicated post 🙂 Friday! Reply
Courtney says November 29, 2017 at 3:39 pm I cannot wait! We are totally using the Stone Cottage as a jumping off point for our renovation. We are doing the shiplap boards in our master bathroom also! Love! I also promised myself to read 7 by Jen Hatmaker over the holidays! Reply
the cape on the corner says November 29, 2017 at 10:52 am wow, i LOOOOVE that tile. fabulous redo. b Reply
Julia at Home on 129 Acres says November 29, 2017 at 10:53 am I love this kitchen. I think it’s the favourite room I’ve ever seen you do. Your last kitchen was spectacular, but there’s something so personal and livable about this one that makes it a very, very special space. Your thoughtfulness really shows through in all of the details. I like your comments about size, particularly with the pantry and baking station. So many kitchens are monstrous, and I like that you’ve addressed your needs and created such a stylish kitchen in a very reasonable–dare I say small–footprint. Reply
Lindsay says November 29, 2017 at 3:17 pm Julia, thank you so much!!!! So happy to hear that what we feel reads through because how you put it is exactly how I feel! I don’t feel like we’d ever need a bigger kitchen! It’s turned out so functional, pretty and just feels really special to us! Reply
Austin says November 29, 2017 at 12:27 pm I really didn’t know if I could love another kitchen as much as I loved your last one (#dramaticmuch), but this one is JUST. SO. GOOD. The pictures alone bring me such a sense of calm and peace, which is definitely how you want to be feeling in your home and especially your kitchen. I feel so inspired for my one-day kitchen (for now, we make due with orange oak in our duplex, ugh). Also, I think you should do a post with some of your favorite recipes – or maybe just email me a few. 😉 Reply
Lindsay says November 29, 2017 at 3:16 pm Oh Austin, THANK YOU! Thank you so much for all of the encouragement! It means the world. And girl, seriously, love on that kitchen! Embrace the orange oak, bring in a rug and dishtowels you like and love it while you’re there! I’m so bad at always looking ahead and am trying to be better at embracing the present situation…I’ve missed so much looking back! And I’m actually going to start sharing more recipes!! So yay! Glad to know someone will want to read them haha! I get so many questions about how we eat whenever I mention it, I’m going to start sharing little bits about that here and there 🙂 Reply
cassie bustamante says November 29, 2017 at 1:14 pm oh lindsay, it turned out sooooo amazingly!!!! LOVE it! Reply
Katie says November 29, 2017 at 1:58 pm You have a cabinet to the right of your stove that doesn’t appear to have any pull on it – is it usable? Reply
Lindsay says November 29, 2017 at 3:14 pm OH yes everything is usable! There’s a pull on everything! You may be looking at the hinged part of the corner cabinet? It doesn’t have a pull on that panel, but the corner cabinet opens and that whole section opens up. Does that make sense? Reply
Leah says November 29, 2017 at 2:03 pm Love the kitchen! I have a question about the cream soup tureen on the top shelf beside the refrigerator- I have one that looks identical but it’s vintage and would love to have another one that matches. Where did you get yours? Reply
Lindsay says November 29, 2017 at 3:13 pm Thanks Leah!!! I actually got this our first married Christmas! My mom found it at ABC Variety Mall in Pickens! Sorry that’s not a ton of help 🙁 Reply
Leah says November 29, 2017 at 7:33 pm Well mine was a gift to my grandmother in the 70’s, so no luck there, haha! Maybe I’m just meant to have the one, thanks! Reply
AmandaKB says November 29, 2017 at 2:13 pm I love it! Your thoughtfulness for the layout and function of the space is just so so good. You fit so many great things into the room, yet it doesn’t seem cramped; it seems cozy and efficient. I love the little details… how Chris rounded out the shelves (Early American is my favorite stain), the curtain across the sink, and the meaningful and quirky accents. That tile looks awesome, too. Like others have mentioned, I also love your last kitchen, but there’s just something about this one! That picture of you and Rosie = super adorable 🙂 Reply
Lindsay says November 29, 2017 at 3:13 pm Thanks girl! Yes, this one is so special to us! I liked a lot about the last one, but this one feels even more like our style and is actually more functional despite its’ smaller size! Go figure! Haha, sometimes I think when you work extra hard to make a small space work, it ends up even more functional Reply
Megan M says November 29, 2017 at 3:02 pm Oh my goodness, this came out so cute! Great job tying everything together for the collected country style. It’s my favorite kitchen of yours! Hoping to do a similar vibe in our next house-currently house hunting! Keep up the great inspiration. I look forward to the break down of all the choices! The tile, sconces, and skirted sink are ?. Reply
Lindsay says November 29, 2017 at 3:12 pm Thanks so much, Megan! I’ve loved all of our kitchens for different reasons, but this one is definitely my fave!!! Good luck house hunting! Reply
Kristina L Atkins says November 29, 2017 at 4:20 pm It turned out so beautifully, Lindsay!!! You get better with each room. Love love love it. Reply
Lindsay says December 10, 2017 at 2:05 pm Thank you so much, sweet friend!!! This is my favorite 🙂 Reply
Charu says November 29, 2017 at 6:33 pm YAY! I have been waiting for this reveal! I recently bought my first home and my kitchen layout is very similar to yours… this kitchen has served as a major inspiration! I can’t wait for more posts with details! 🙂 Thank you so much for sharing! LOVE the results! Reply
Sandra P says November 29, 2017 at 7:20 pm WOW! What a transformation! You are truly inspiring! Now to my questions… this may be a super stupid question but how do you make sure your open shelving can handle all the weight? I would love some shelves in my kitchen but I don’t think I can find studs where I need them. Could you maybe address that issue. I can’t be the only one that can’t figure out how to make open shelving work 😉 Also, where did you find the basket on top of the fridge? I think i need it. Thanks!!! Reply
Connie says November 30, 2017 at 12:12 am Love your kitchen! Is there a source for the farmhouse sink. I have looked a several and haven’t really liked any of them. But yours is perfect for my space. Reply
Haley says November 30, 2017 at 8:11 am This looks great! I love how thoughtful everything feels. Reply
Libby says November 30, 2017 at 2:34 pm Wow, it looks amazing!! Your last kitchen was a huge inspiration for my own kitchen reno! I wasn’t sure this one could beat it, but it blew me away! Your work is always amazing! I can’t wait to see the rest of this house 🙂 Reply
Lindsay says December 10, 2017 at 2:03 pm Thank you so much, Libby!!! That is so kind and means the world to me 🙂 Reply
Lisa Callaghan says November 30, 2017 at 7:22 pm STUNNING! My eyes popped out of my head when I saw your email of the finished kitchen. That tile is so swoon worthy! i couldn’t love that kitchen more! Excellent Work! Reply
Christie says December 1, 2017 at 1:08 pm Great work with a 10×13 space! My kitchen is also about that size but a differnt layout that doesn’t look as functional as yours. Of course, the finishes are so pretty too. I have simple white brackets for open shelves and love those! Reply
Lindsay says December 10, 2017 at 2:06 pm Thank you so much, Christie! It blows my mind how functional this space has ended up for us! Reply
Heather says December 2, 2017 at 9:15 am Oh my goodness!!!! I love your style, and you’re entire house is wonderful but your kitchens are gorgeous!!!! This is my favorite kitchen you’ve designed. Just beautiful! Reply
Lindsay says December 10, 2017 at 2:06 pm Ahh thank you, Heather! The kitchens are my favorite too! Which is funny because they seem to feel most challenging to me, but I love doing them! Reply
Teressa says December 7, 2017 at 9:23 am OH MY GOODNESS!!! This is sooooo good! I knew when I saw your dining room the kitchen was going to be great. I just didn’t realize how great! You truly are an inspiration to me. Thank you!! Reply
Lindsay says December 10, 2017 at 2:02 pm Thank you so much, Teressa! That made my day today!!!! Reply
R. Pyper says January 8, 2018 at 7:13 pm Well, this kitchen is a total treat, and I’m so happy to see a patterned tile on the wall! Kitchens don’t have to be neutral! We did the same in our home and love it. Your styling has inspired me to add another layer of “pretty” to my own kitchen. Great job here! Reply
Alexis M says June 12, 2019 at 12:48 pm Where are the kitchen pulls from? I am looking for that exact look for my kitchen remodel! Thanks! Reply
Lindsay says June 13, 2019 at 4:10 pm eBay! They have a huge selection of pulls to search through! And as always great prices 🙂 Reply
[…] The White Buffalo Styling Company just revealed her newly renovated kitchen and it turned out amazing. As someone who currently lives in a small space and is about to embark on a renovation with our new house, it’s inspiring to see a reveal that looks both beautiful and attainable. […] Reply