The Kitchen Reveal!

BEFORE

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Eeeeek! We are so happy with how this all came out. I’ve been so excited to share. It feels so fancy- I’ve never had a fancy kitchen before!! So above you can see how outdated our old kitchen was. We did our best when we moved in, but I’ve longed to redo it the last 3.5 years. When we moved in, the walls were yellow and there was a floral type backsplash. We painted both the walls and the tile with white paint as a quick band-aid. So when the chance to redo the kitchen in partnership with Frigidaire Professional and Lowe’s came up, we knew we wanted a major update! What we love most about the Frigidaire Professional Collection, is that you can have professional-grade appliances in your home, without having to do any kind of renovation. The collection’s appliances are all designed to fit existing kitchen cutouts, making upgrading your kitchen totally accessible to even remodeling newbies, like ourselves!

AFTER

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Appliances: 
Oh baby! Let’s talk about the stars of the kitchen. I have always LOVED to cook, but since everything has been finished I’ve been extra excited to get in there and cook on my new Frigidaire Professional appliances. I’ve been cooking up a storm these last few weeks. I’ve only ever had an electric range, so switching to gas was such a treat. I love that the Gas Cooktop has grates on top that are continuous. It makes sliding heavy pots and pans across the burners super easy. It also comes with a griddle/grill attachment that fits over the center burner! Let’s just say Rowan is pretty pumped about this feature. That girl loves her pancakes!

One of my favorite decisions we made for the kitchen is the cooktop and wall oven combination. I love the finished look!! I was totally surprised that a wall oven didn’t have to go, you know, up in a wall. We weren’t in the position to tear walls down and restructure the kitchen. The Frigidaire Professional Wall Oven fits perfectly below the counter and gives such a clean, professional style. I also love the powerful performance and No Preheat feature.

The Frigidaire Professional Dishwasher runs quietly and has lots of great features, We love the blue light that turns on when the load is clean. With all the cooking I’ve been doing, I’ve found that you can’t beat a 30-minute wash cycle. Washes dishes in a quarter of the time with a powerful and fast clean!

Now. Let’s all bow down to the king of the kitchen, shall we? I’ve never had a refrigerator that could hold all the fresh produce I buy, and I buy a lot. Four out of five of us are vegetarian so we consume fruits and veggies like whoa in this house. Our old fridge was always stuffed to the max and I would get so frustrated trying to find stuff. I’d be super bummed out when I would have to throw something away that had gone bad just because I forgot it was in there. The Frigidaire Professional French Door Refrigerator is my knight in shining armor. THERE IS SO MUCH ROOM IN THERE! And when you open the doors, it all lights up fancy like angels are singing about the glorious food inside. Am I getting too carried away with how much I love this fridge? Maybe, but it’s true. I love it! It’s got awesome shelves that you can change in a flash to organize all your stuff. It’s perfect.

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Open Shelving:
 The big thing we wanted to do was take down the upper cabinets and replace them with open shelving. Our kitchen has always felt super dark. There’s really only the one window above the sink and with the heavy cabinets up top, it really made it feel smaller than it was. We got some great thick wood from Lowe’s and had it cut right there in the store to the exact sizes we needed. I just simply stained them, and the result was the perfect natural, yet slightly worn looking shelf. I was so weary of finding the right stain and I can’t say enough for how beautiful the shelves came out! DIY post and tips for having open shelving and an open pantry to come soon!

Tile: 
I also really wanted to subway tile from the counter up to the ceiling to help brighten up the kitchen. The tiling was by far the biggest project. The nice people at Lowe’s were so helpful when I showed up with 3 crazy kids and explained I had no idea what I was doing or what I needed, but I needed them to help me out quickly before everyone started having a meltdown. Hahahah. We went with your standard white subway tile and a lighter grey grout. It was the most labor-intensive part of the project, but so worth it. The finished product is gorgeous!

Countertops: 
This was our biggest investment, but totally worth it. We really wanted a nice countertop! We decided to go with quartz and you know what color we chose? It was called Blanco Orion!! It was the first sample I picked, and when I found out it was called Orion–Duh! Of course I was sold. It’s so beautiful and totally makes the entire kitchen. I love the subtle grey hues throughout the piece of stone.

Cabinets: 
We were planning on just painting the bottom cabinets, but when we decided to replace the countertops we thought, here is our chance to actually do something with the bottom cabinets. We wanted to keep the footprint the same to keep things easy on us. We decided to go with cabinets that Lowe’s has in stock, instead of getting custom cabinets made. It really helped keep the cost down and we loved the white Arcadia style. It was a win-win for cost and convenience.

Island: 
 Do you remember the custom pipe desk/shelf thing I built right off our kitchen? Well, I wanted to create an island that tied those two pieces together. Lowe’s sells these beautiful precut butcher blocks in two different sizes that you can get right at the store. All we had to do was assemble the parts and attach them together. DIY post to come so you can all build your own kitchen island as well!

Hardware + Fixtures: 
I have been drooling over brass hardware for quite some time now and decided to go for it. It may be trendy, but it’s an easy switch if I ever get tired of them. The faucet we went with was a matte black to match the black shelf brackets and black iron pipe under the island. And the sink… ooooh the sink. I love this sink. It’s this beautiful extra large single basin white granite sink. It’s so pretty! hahaha. Omgosh I’m such an adult. My 16-year-old self would hate me for just saying I loved a sink.

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Resources: Refrigerator | Gas Cooktop | Wall Oven | Dishwasher | Blender | Hood | Frigidaire Professional Collection | Sink | Faucet | Track Lights | Cabinets | Brass Hardware | Shelf Brackets | Hanging Brass Planters (fruit holders) | Letter Board | Floor Mat | Stools

This post is in partnership with Frigidaire Professional, but all words, opinions and styling are my own. A big huge thank you to Frigidaire Professional and Lowe’s for helping our kitchen dreams come true.

Home Tour | Our Living Room

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We hit the 1 year mark in our house and it lit a fire to finish stuff up around here. We slowed down there after Finley was born. I felt us getting a little complacent with how things were instead of working to make things feel done. I hate that. I don’t want to move 5 years from now and think too bad it never felt finished. You know? Anyway, the living room isn’t perfect but it’s almost done and I thought why not share it with you guys. I am pretty in love with the gallery wall I created above the couch. In a dream world I would buy a new couch but this one works with kids at the moment. You can’t see spills and well, they wipe up in a quick swipe. You can’t beat that.

The accessories are simple and we don’t usually keep anything on the coffee table because of little grabby hands. Especially now that Finley pulls herself up on things. I tried having one halloween decoration there the other day and after removing, putting it back and having it fall on her like 10 times I decided it wasn’t worth it. There is a time and a season for everything and this season of decorating is just simple. I put more effort in the gallery wall. We have very, very high ceilings in that room so it let me go big with the scale of everything. I tried laying all the frames on the floor first to organize how i wanted it on the wall, but then I couldn’t figure out how to get that onto the wall. That whole, cut kraft paper the size and shape of the frames and then tape them on the wall seems like way too much work for me. Plus, that doesn’t let me see how it will really look. My tip is to pick your focus piece (deer head), hang that where you want first and then add piece by piece as things fit. I feel like that ends up being more organic. For me, that works best!

Product list (as best as I can):
Couch: Raymour and Flanagan | Chair: Ikea | Lamp: Ikea | Striped Blanket: Ikea | Ikat Pouf: Target | Arc Floor Lamp: Urban Outfitters | Deer Head: Urban Outfitters | Look Up More print: Urban Outfitters | Skeleton Print: Urban Outfitters | Drift Wood: Hand painted | Sailor Print: Sean Wes | Crochet Bunting: Handmade (diy here)

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House Tour | Family Room + Kitchen

Family Room | jenloveskev.com

Last week I had the honor of sharing these pictures over on A Beautiful Mess (Love those girls!) but wanted to share here as well! Other than Rowan’s room, the family room is the only other space in our house that is completely finished. We’ve been able to get most of the house to where it feels done just not finished yet. I am now working slowly to finishing off each room. I don’t want 5 years to pass and still feel like we are moving in. It’s so rewarding to walk into a finished room and feel at home. I want the rest of the house to feel like that too.

The kitchen is a work in progress, but I am happy with it at the moment. Hopefully this summer we are going to paint all the cabinets. I just need to get my hands on a spray gun first. What attracted us to the house in the first place was the big open floor plan. The downstairs all flows in a big circle. I love being able to see everyone no matter where you are downstairs. Like I mentioned over on A Beautiful Mess, I know that everyone gathers in the kitchen during parties and gatherings. Since the family room is attached to the kitchen, I wanted it to be an inviting and welcoming area. I didn’t want it to be where we had the tv. We spend a lot of time in there as a family and I wanted toys, books and the idea being creative to be the focus of the room.

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Family Room | jenloveskev.com

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Kitchen | Jenloveskev.com

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I created a little nook for Rowan to read, draw and hang her artwork. We have baskets for toys and the dresser is filled with puzzles and games for her to play with. I am proud of this room because for a long time I struggled with how to decorate the way I liked, but also making it kid friendly. I feel like we found a good balance. I have accepted that for the next little bit I will not have a bar cart with fancy glasses and vintage bottles. I am ok with that. I would much rather have a well loved home with little kiddos running around.

Rowan's Nook | Jenloveskev.com

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The shelves were a major labor of love. Let me just say the older gentleman that work at Home Depot during the day thought I was crazy. I was hell bent on getting them done before Finley was born. I was 9 month pregnant, pushing a cart with a toddler in it and getting pipes cut (and then recut) and threaded everyday for like 2 weeks. It was a lot harder than I thought getting all the measurements right for this stupid custom shelf. It paid off in the end. I love it, but for a good long while I thought it was never going to work.

Family Room | jenloveskev.com

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Family Room | jenloveskev.com

Family Room | jenloveskev.com

Family Room | jenloveskev.com

Family Room | jenloveskev.com

Family Room | jenloveskev.com

paint

Chaise Lounge Chairs: Ikea
Owl Pillow: Modcloth
Magenta Bolster Pillow: Target
Gold Table: Target
White Desk Chair: CB2
Dresser: Thrifted from Goodwill
White Table Lamp: Homegoods
Rowans Vintage Desk: Thrifted
Shelves: Handmade
Bruins Cat: Handmade
Rowans Chalk board: Handmade (Tutorial Here)
Hanging Planters: Habitat Restore
Floor Poof: Target
Deer Painting: Handmade
Baskets: Homegoods

Hi, I'm Jen!

Welcome to my personal lifestyle blog. It features topics such as motherhood, family life, fashion, cooking, and all sorts of adventures. I hope you enjoy what you find!

Jen Loves Kev
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