The Leslie Style Farmhouse Kitchen Renovation

My husband and are almost about done renovating our 4th home, and it’s killing me not having any spaces that I can style and blog about, so I thought I would back track a little in the interim and share our last kitchen renovation. The last house we lived in was a Colonial Revival, built in 1937. Oh my goodness… the kitchen was a postage stamp and all original. It had linoleum floors, original cupboards, and about two feet of counter space. This home was primed for a Leslie Style farmhouse kitchen renovation.

The house had a centre hall plan. So when you walked in you would see the living room on the left, staircase directly in front and the dining and kitchen were on the right. We knew the home would never be completely open concept, but we thought it would be a million times better if we could remove the wall between the staircase and the kitchen, and then the wall between the kitchen and the dining room. With those walls removed, you would walk in and see a beautiful staircase, a large kitchen, and dining space. All we needed to do was to figure out how to take out all of those walls, make a beautiful staircase, and add a large kitchen…lol! Oh my lord is was not easy but, we did it!

This is my favourite shot of our kitchen. Originally, there was a wall between the staircase and the island, and a second wall that divided the kitchen in half between the two pendant lights. The kitchen was linoleum and the rest of the house was original hardwood. Wood was patched in where the walls were taken out and where the linoleum was. We had the floors refinished in a grey stain. I designed the kitchen around that Electrolux Icon all fridge and all freezer. This combo is so affordable you wouldn’t believe and looks like it cost 10K!  We customized the fridge with the Pro handle upgrade which means the handles are the full length of the fridge. I always joke that the fridge has the power to save marriages, because it makes storage so effortless. It’s a must if you buy at Costco! lol!

Here are a couple “before” shots of the home, so you can get an idea of the spaces before the renovations. In this shot you are standing in the entry looking at the former formal dining room and the wall with the painting is the wall that we took out.

In this “after” shot, you can see that we got a huge portion of the wall out, but had to leave a portion that housed all of the mechanical. I was so happy for what wall we were able to get rid of that it never bothered me.

I wanted this kitchen to be a clean, classic, modern take on a timeless farmhouse kitchen.

In order to create the perfect layout, we had to brick over this exterior door and remove the wall that the stove is on. The door to the backyard would no longer matter because we added two patio doors across the back of the home. I’ll be doing posts on those renovations next!

This is a photo staring at the second wall we took out in order to make the formal dining room and kitchen into on large space.

And…voila! no more walls…if only it was that easy! lol! We made the kitchen the larger space and flipped our dining table the opposite direction that it was to accommodate the shift. 

We had the entire home wainscoted with a picture ledge, including the kitchen. I have ceramic cheese boards on display. If you know me, you know that I love to NOT have to put holes in the wall and my picture ledge is an amazing cheat around it. I think it’s because my husband avoids hanging pictures at all costs, and I hate waiting, so my ledge allows me to hang pictures all day and change them whenever I like! Once the wainscoting was finished, we hung wallpaper inside the frames. This wallpaper is called “Water Color Flora” and it’s sold at Anthropologie. It’s the most gorgeous wallpaper ever. I bought it because I have green Le Creuset Dishes and the green leaves in the wallpaper tied everything together.

How to create the farmhouse style in your kitchen:

1. Add architectural details like corbels under you upper cabinets and wainscoting to the walls. (You can find antique corbels at most salvage and antique stores, or have them made by your cabinet maker.
2. Use glass knobs and cup pulls for your hardware.
3. Opt for a few glass cabinets to show off your favourite serving pieces and glassware.
4. Customize cabinet bases with furniture base, which makes cabinets look and feel like furniture.
5. Opt for a huge farmhouse sink in cast iron (pictured), or fireclay.
6. Maximize charm and character with farmhouse lighting, e.g: large industrial pendants, mason jars, vintage chandeliers.

Farmhouse Kitchen Renovation Resources

Paint Colours: Bejamin Moore cloud white (woodwork and cabinetry) and dove grey (above wainscoting)

Wallpaper: Anthropologie

Counter Stools: Pottery Barn Archer Stool

Countertops: Caesarstone Frosty Carrina

Table: Pottery Barn

Mason Jar Light: Pottery Barn Exeter Chandelier

Pendants: Restoration Hardware Farmhouse Pendants

Dishes: Le Creuset (Green) and Vintage from my Great Grandmother (Blue and White)

Metal Numbered House: RH Baby and Child

Metal Chairs: Crate and Barrel

Soap Dispenser: Pottery Barn

Sink: Kohler, Range/hoodvent: Jenn Air, Dishwasher: Viking

Cheeseboards: Pottery Barn

Canisters: Anthropologie

Cabinet pulls and Knobs: Restoration Hardware