Our DIY Neutral Kitchen Renovation: Before and After's (Featuring eFaucets.com!)

I've said it once before and I'll say it again- six years later and I still cannot believe we purchased our home in the state that we did when we first "met" it. Surely it could have been much worse but for first-time home buyers, it wasn't exactly the house of my dreams and would require some hefty elbow grease on our part to just make it livable let alone loved. 
I was six months pregnant when we purchased this home and while I'd like to blame pregnancy hormones for rash decision making (seriously, NO important decisions should ever be made while pregnant!) I'm so grateful for my Dad and our realtor who truly helped us (me) see the potential of this house. While it has taken the majority of these last six years for me to discover and really come into my sense of interior decor style, I'm so thrilled with how we've turned this house into a home. 
Everyone knows that the kitchen is of the heart of one's home and let me tell you, the original kitchen of this house was much more orphanage-chic with its burnt and crumbling laminate counter tops, faded peach-pink cabinets (the photo below does them no justice!) and cracked, peeling vinyl laminate flooring than it was a nurturing, life-sustaining room of a home. It was the very first room of the house that we tackled and in doing so, took on most of the work ourselves. 
Here is the only "Before" picture we have of our kitchen. What's not pictured is the enormous antiquated eyesore of a white fridge that literally took up 1/4th of the wall space of the wall opposite the sink. Trust me, it gave new definition to the word "monstrosity."

  Our biggest project in this space was refinishing the pre-existing cabinets. I knew I immediately wanted to create a farmhouse-inspired feel to this room and it wasn't long before I decided we would need some whitewashed cabinets. Thankfully the cabinets, although a hideous color, were in excellent condition which set the foundation for our first DIY. 
Once the cabinets were primed, painted, sealed and stained, the kitchen immediately took on a different feel. Coupled with new hardware, hinges and the 4" hardwood flooring planks that we chose that went down throughout the entire first floor of the house, the kitchen was already giving off the desired farmhouse vibe. 

We swapped out the laminate counters for a neutral granite that, I believe, complemented the dark flooring and light cabinets perfectly. While we went nearly four years in our home without a kitchen back splash, once we decided on white subway tile with contrasting gray grout, the kitchen finally felt like the space I had envisioned in my head so many years ago. 
The finishing touch to this space didn't come, however, until a full six years after we moved in and it came in the form of that beautiful vintage lighting fixture that hangs above the kitchen table. What's that saying about patience is a virtue? 

A nod to the true olden days, the Edison bulbs really give the Feiss Urban Renewal chandelier from eFaucets a truly authentic feel and I love how it ties together the rustic accents that we have going on throughout the kitchen. I could have (and probably did) peruse eFaucets for hours before finally settling on this chandelier for the kitchen. With so many different and distinct options, it was really hard to narrow down my top three favorites! Ultimately I'm so glad I chose the one I did and I love sitting beneath it as a family when we gather for dinner each night. 

In case you're wondering, my other two favorites were the Kichler Ahrendale chandelier and the Quoizel Laila Laila chandelier. In fact, I continue to swoon over that last chandelier on the daily and am trying to finagle a way to make it mine! Perhaps a She-Shed is in order?

After replacing the stock lighting fixture in our dining room last month and the builder grade chandelier in our kitchen this month, I've officially been bitten by the Fancy and Decorative Lighting Design bug and cannot wait to update the flush mount "boob light" in our foyer next. After all, the foyer is supposed to give your guests a quick glimpse into the style and feel of your home and right now, mine screams "OLD BOOB!" 
Thankfully eFaucets.com makes swapping out old and dates fixtures and putting those desired enhancements into motion both easy and affordable not to mention, a whole different kind of DIY fun! 

Sources: Lighting - eFaucets Curtain Panels - World Market (Similar) Farm Table - Ezekiel & Stearns Paint Color - Wheat Bread by Behr Rug - RugsUSA (Similar)

Thanks to eFaucets for providing a light fixture for the purpose of our home update in exchange  for an honest write-up of our experience. The thoughts and opinions expressed are 100% my own. No additional compensation was received.