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One of the things I knew I needed to change right away about this kitchen as soon as we moved in was the lighting. It was just way too dark. So I knew I wanted to not only change out the lighting that was already in the kitchen, but also add more lighting. 

Check out our previous update progress here.

I knew that under-mount lighting would give me what I needed as far as more light, but I also wanted ambient lighting when I didn’t want to have all the lights on. I partnered with Eshine who has some amazing under-mount cabinet lighting options that are not only easy to install but quite innovative. 

More on that in just a second… Plus there is an exclusive discount you don’t want to miss! 

Before I could do any of that I wanted to be sure that I had a nice clean backsplash that not only would add character to my kitchen but also help bounce off the light and make the area feel brighter. 

The most inexpensive option for us was beadboard. We used 2 boards and it only cost us $40! 

The most important thing for us in this process was to get the measurements right and start on one end of the kitchen and work our way to the other end. Once we put the first board up to dry fit it, I knew I had made the right decision. 

Cutting the boards was easy with our circular saw and rip cut tool.

Things got a little more complicated when we were reaching the stove area. There was a lot of things to consider where seems met so we came up with a plan below…

Yes, I know, it’s hairy…

I could not imagine following this on a blog post, so I made a video explaining what all these arrows meant. I promise there is a method to the madness.

Everything I explain in the video takes into consideration the area above the stove where more of the beadboard is exposed.  I also go over why you also want to work towards your corners even though you are still generally working from one end of the kitchen to another. 

In addition you will see how this little template works to get around any window trim you may have in your kitchen.

The video is below. 

Beadboard Backsplash and Under Cabinet Lighting

The next thing after measuring where you want your seams and cutting them accordingly, is you need to cut your outlet holes. You will need a jigsaw for this. 

This is something you want to take your time on, and in the end everything will fit in place smoothly. 

I did paint them with one coat of white paint first before we even cut them. The type of paint I used was the same white color that I used on my kitchen cabinets in my last kitchen.  I prefer the Urethane Enamel paint for the durability and wipe-ability especially since the kitchen gets used so much. 

Installing is also easy… liquid nails in the back and a brad nailer to nail it in place as it dried.

Once installed, I added caulk to hide the seems. 

I taped the countertops before applying the caulk on the seem between the backsplash and the countertop. 

Then I gave everything a final coat of paint. 

It doesn’t show here, but I did come back and paint the underneath part of the cabinets with the same white. 

After that was done it was time to install these amazing lights! 

This is an LED lighting kit with hand wave activation! Say what!?!?

Yes, you heard right! 

These lights plug in unlike a lot of the ones you see that have only batteries and die way too soon (that happened at our last house).

And they are super discreet! 

They install easily with either screws or double-sided tape which are both provided in their kit. We chose to screw them in. 

You can choose how many you want underneath and by simply clicking them together you can make an entire line of light under your cabinets. 

The system is so easy to work with. 

Their cords are easily hidden and they also provide the hooks you need to tuck away the cords. And in order to turn them on, you place your hand under the light strip with the sensory dot.

In order to dim or brighten them, you simply hold your hand in place until your desired setting.

My kids love them, I love them, and even the Latino Engineer loves them. Everything is so much brighter in our kitchen and I don’t have to worry about plugging them in or out. I just wave my hand and I get the lighting I need. 

You can see them in action in this video.

I love how the lighting highlights the backsplash and all of our hard work. 

You don’t even see the cords! 

I turned off the kitchen light so you can see how bright they can be on their own. 

Amazing! I am so happy with these!

If you have been thinking about adding under-mount lighting for your cabinet definitely check out here and their line of lighting for your kitchen. 

USE COUPON CODE: TheLatinaNextDoor for 10% off your purchase. 

The sets of lights we used for our kitchen were as follows: 

• Eshine Cool White 12 Light (single)
• Eshine Cool White 12 Light (4pk)
• Eshine Cool White 12 Light (6pk)

We wanted to have a nice consistent line of light so we needed several kits to link together. But that’s the beauty of this system; you can use as little or as many as you need. 

I hope you enjoyed this update and I will see you in the next one! 

Until then… adios! 

*Some of the following links are affiliate links. Please see full disclosure for more details*

Hey there! 

Many things have changed in our kitchen since my last post and since there is so much to cover I am going to jump right in.

After removing the cabinet doors, I primed and painted all of them. I used my tried and true method using the combination of Pro Block oil based primer and Sherwin William’s Urethane Trim enamel. I have an extensive video on my process on cabinet painting and you can get all the details here. 

We first started by sanding these cabinets (unlike my last cabinets) because of the condition they were in. You can see why we did this extra step here. 

After all of them were sanded, I cleaned them all with Krud Kutter. It works great for removing grease and oil. I did the same with the drawers and I used an old toothbrush for the crevices. 

Afterwards, I set them out to dry. I made sure they were perfectly dry before setting them up in my basement for the next step. It’s best to prop all of them off the floor using these or whatever else you have on hand that will work (like those jumbo legos). 

I primed all of the doors (as well as the cabinets that were not removed). When painting cabinet doors, I start on the inside of the door and then once dry do the exterior of the door. I start with a brush for the nooks and crevices and then I go in with a roller. 

Once the primer was dry, I paint them with my favorite cabinet paint. I used the color Eary Gray from Magnolia and color matched it at Sherwin Williams. There were  A LOT of doors (the most I have ever painted in one kitchen, yikes). 

 I gave both sides two coats and as always I started with the inside of the doors first (again, more on that in this video). 

While that was happening, we were removing the old countertops and replacing them with butcher block countertops. 

This is what our countertops looked like. They weren’t in good shape and I was NOT a fan of the color so out they went. And the Latino Engineer was eager to get his hands on them. LOL!

Actually he didn’t take a hammer to them but they were the so difficult to remove. The Latino Engineer and my father did their best to remove them without damaging anything but still things happened. 

More on that here. 

Once everything was removed it was time to add our countertops. We purchased these butcher block countertops at Lowes. 

They were fairly simple to cut and install. The hard part was honestly around the new farmhouse sink that we installed ourselves. That Kreg Tool Rip Cut kept our circular saw straight while we cut. 

The hard part was honestly around the new farmhouse sink that we installed ourselves.

We did have to use a router for the first time for the countertops so that we could connect them from underneath. 

We also had to patch up around the sink area since the sink was smaller than the opening that was there to begin with. 

But before we could start putting that cabinet doors back, I had to clean and paint all of the hinges. We decided to resuse them to save some money. 

They were pretty filthy but still ingot shape. I set them out to dry in the sun once they were clean.

After they were full dried, I primed and spray painted them with oil rubbed bronze spray paint. I also painted all of the original screws. 

When everything was finally dry and had cured for a few days, we began putting back the doors. 

We also got a new faucet. I had always wanted a farmhouse style kitchen faucet so I was so glad to partner with Gerber faucets for a Youtube video collaboration. It’s gorgeous and really easy to install!

My farmhouse faucet can also be purchased here. 

My new faucet, along with my countertops and painted cabinets definitely has transformed this kitchen! We sealed out butcher block counters with this and I apply this oil to maintain it looking great ever couple of months. I actually don’t mind doing that as I enjoy wiping my counters. 

The countertops give it that sweet cottage farmhouse feel. 

The light gray on the cabinets make it feel so light and airy, yet cozy and charming. 

We chose these for our cabinet pulls. 

Finally here is the sink area! I am in love! 

I will be sharing more on the backsplash and how we added more ambient lighting to the kitchen next so stay tuned! 

Until then… adios! 

Hello friends! I hope you all are having a wonderful week! Our first full week of summer vacation has started out great and I am ready to continue tackling our kitchen. 

If you have been following along, you know that I shared my mood board for my kitchen. I also explained all of the plans for the kitchen which I am so excited about. I also listed all of the sources in you like anything you see. 

One of the things I mentioned was that we were changing the layout of the rooms in the house. 

The former dining area will now have an island. We ordered them from a local cabinet company (B2B Cabinet) here in North Georgia. They were fast and had amazing prices. 

I wanted a dual sided island that would give me the most storage. The cabinets needed to be no more than 36″ x 60″ due to the size of the eat-in area.

I have also been wanting drawers in my kitchen forever. I have never had large drawers so I wanted to make sure they included that as well. So the cabinet company created this for me:

The Island

And because of the size of the measurements, I could only have upper cabinets on the back side. 

But that was fine with me. I will have a countertop overhang on that side since I do want an eating area on the island. 2 beautiful legs will hold up the countertop. That will still work out well since I will only be storing items that I don’t use that often in those cabinets. This will then free up space in the main kitchen area where I do use items frequently. 

Here is a kitchen island that is already done to give you an idea of what the island will look like with the legs. 

Source

Here is what the island looks like right now.

The Latino Engineer made platform boxes to raise the upper cabinets on the left to match the counter height ones. And the island may look off center now, but it will all be centered once the counter top with the overhang on the left side is installed. 

The Latino Engineer will add outlets on either side of the island (good thing he has an electrical background). We will cover the side seams with shiplap. 

Aren’t those drawers pretty? 

They still need hardware and I plan on having them match the ones I purchased for the rest of the main kitchen, but I think I need to tweak the ones for the drawers. They are too small for them. 

By the way, those floors are made from plywood (tutorial coming soon!)

Here’s what it looks like from farther away. 

You can see there are still some floors yet to be finished and that is our breakfast table you see in front of the island temporarily. 

The kitchen has no pantry, so the plan is to add one to the wall you see on the right. We will build it ourselves. It won’t be too deep but it will be the entire length and height of the wall so it will be a good size.

It may not even be done this year, but that is definitely going to happen.

The New Layout 

So where do we put the dining area?

Right here.

This is actually the living area of the home, but right now we spend all of our time in the sunroom. I think this area will be perfect for a dining room since it’s right off the kitchen. It’s a great size so there will still be space for a proper entrance to the house. 

Plus lots of houses have the formal dining right near the entrance so it still makes sense. 

Of course this leaves us with no real main living space. 

Truth be told, the minute we did our first viewing this house, The Latino Engineer and I knew the house was short one living space.  We both agreed that turning the garage into living space would be the best idea… and then I came up with this! 

I want to add 2 cased openings on either side of the fireplace. I want to modify the fireplace into a dual faced fireplace and have a step down into a large living room (currently the garage).

He loved the idea! 

I think that would look darling with a dining table and chandelier in front no?

Anyways that is not going to happen anytime soon, but it at least shows you the big picture of what we plan on doing here and how it’s all going to come together. So for now, TV time is in the sunroom.

But that’s totally something we can live with! 

So that is what we have been doing here at the “farmhouse”. It’s been so much easier to write about now that I am taking it one room at a time. 

What do you think of the progress so far? I can’t wait to share more with you all! Hopefully the next time I share an update the cabinet doors will be painted (but I won’t hold my breath!). 

Until then… adios!