Case of the Mondays: Kitchen
This week’s COTM is for the kitchen at our cottage.
Hey there! What’s cookin’?
Last week, I shared my DIY refresh plans for the cottage dining room (which you can check out here). And the week before that, I covered the master bedroom (which you can find here). Now for this week’s mood board: the kitchen.
I spend a lot of time in and around the kitchen. At the apartment, my “office” is in it. And at the cottage, I just enjoy preparing meals and baking in a (slightly) bigger space. The cottage kitchen has everything we need, other than a vent for the stove (open doors and windows for a cross-breeze has been working for us so far!)
“We don’t want or need to go too crazy with a full renovation in here, but there are definitely a few things that need to be updated to make it functionally better for us.”
When we first came to view the house, we loved the butcher block counters and the movable island in the middle. The appliances were new and there were little quirky details we liked, like the repurposed shutter utensil rack and the hand-carved and hand-painted barn door to the bathroom. But, now that we’ve lived here for a few years, we’d like to make a few changes. Unfortunately, the counters weren’t properly maintained around the sink. As much as I love the wood counters, going with quartz is more practical. Also, we have quite a few wood accents throughout (shelves, island, doors) so swapping out the material shouldn’t take away any warmth from the room. Plus, with a lighter counter colour, it will help brighten up the room.
Speaking of brightening up the room, lighting is very important in a kitchen and, unfortunately, it falls short in this one. The lighting is quite minimal in this room – a single flush fixture in the middle and a small pendant above the sink. Because the ceiling finish is on the darker side, it absorbs some of the light and makes the space less bright than it should be. Ideally, we would install 6-8 recessed lights throughout to really brighten things up. But since the ceiling is paneled, it will be a challenge (read: headache) for us to install pot lights. Also, we like the ceiling, and don’t want to go too crazy on this DIY update. So, I’ve opted for a 4-bulb semi-flush light fixture that spreads out almost 30” and will create better illumination for food prep and cooking. I will likely also add an LED strip on the underside of the spice shelf above the stove to light up the cooktop when in use.
So, to sum it all up, our main updates are new counters, lighting, and shelf brackets with some paint changes to the cabinets, walls, and trim, and new drawer pulls and shelf brackets.
Current situation:
Lower cabinets (drawers) with butcher block counters
Open shelves with metal scroll brackets
Movable island with apple-shaped knobs
IKEA pendant light over sink, and a single surface mount pendant light
Quirky, custom barn door to bathroom
Below is a quick sketch of the floor plan. I’ve annotated it with the changes we’ll be making:
Design Intent:
Since our kitchen doesn’t get direct sunlight and is located on the shady side of the house, brightening up the space with material and lighting selection is key. Swapping out the wood counters for a warm white quartz surface will really lighten up the room and require less maintenance over time.
In keeping with the design style for other rooms of the home - casual, cozy, and rustic, with hints of traditional elements balanced with clean lines – we’ll keep the shaker cabinets but add a fresh coat of soft black paint and install brushed gold hardware for contrast and warmth. We’ll also update light fixtures, swap out the scroll shelf brackets for modern ones, and freshen up the walls and trim with a new coat of paint.
The colour story in this space will remain quite similar, just brighter, cleaner, and more ‘us’.
Below is the mood board for the kitchen:
WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE:
New quartz counter top
New open shelf brackets
New lighting
New hardware (drawer pulls and knobs)
Paint walls, trim, barn door, and lower cabinets
*We plan to update the windows sometime soon, too.
ITEMS TO PURCHASE:
Collect some branches from the garden
And last but not least…
BUDGET:
We’ll have to see where material costs land… but aiming for under $3500
For the next COTM post, I’ll be switching it up a little bit and sharing my thoughts on updating our entry/foyer at our apartment. Since it’s a rental, the update will be pretty minimal. But the little décor changes I hope to make should definitely make an impact. Stay tuned for that one!
Hello! Catherine here.
I’m a Vancouver-based interior designer and love all things creative! I’ll be sharing things that inspire me, posting design tips and DIY projects, chatting about all kinds of topics, and hopefully inspiring some people to make little changes at home to create an environment that is functional, beautiful, and a perfect reflection of you!
