Our Farmhouse Kitchen – DIY Painted Stock Cabinets and Open Shelves

The Sixty-One Park Farmhouse kitchen was one of my favorite parts of our last renovation. Since we changed the floorpan of the entire first floor we were able to redesign the kitchen layout. I have trouble choosing colors and finishes way ahead of time so we decided to go with stock unfinished cabinets that I could just paint myself once we were farther along in the project. This used to be an awkward den area between the master bedroom and the master bathroom but we took out the old windows and added a large picture window to set a sink under:

Here’s directly to the right of the “sink” where the door to the master bath used to be:

The door to the master bath finally closed up:

There used to be a closet under the stairs but we had to use it for ductwork and you’ll see the built in we added later in the post for more kitchen storage:

What it looked like when drywall went in…we had to purchase those heaters because it was so cold outside at the time:

The great thing about stock cabinets is that they are really inexpensive, and you can easily add additions and filler if needed. They are way more forgiving. The only big downside is that the inside drawer hardware is pretty dinky but we just purchased new tracks and installed those ourselves for an easy upgrade. Once we knew exactly which size cabinets were needed we purchased them online and picked them up the next day at the front of the store:

The cabinets put into place:

The corner cabinet installed:

We used reclaimed wood saved from the demo to cover the peninsula with:

The refrigerator was built in using a small cabinet up above:

I removed all the cabinet doors when it was time to paint. I finally decided on Kendall Charcoal which I thought was a nice neutral gray color and in our lighting it had a slightly bluish tone:

I used a roller for most of the surface and a small 1/2″ paintbrush for the corners. After the paint was dry I took a sanding sponge to all the edges to make the cabinets look a little more rustic:

I added a clear protective finish to all the doors before they were reattached. I wanted a very matted finish with no glare so I used Aqua Zar Antique Flat finish. (Note: I literally use this finish for almost everything I want with a flat finish! painted floors, furniture etc. It’s the bomb…and self leveling.):

A closeup of the the finished cabinet finish:

This awkward space where the closet used to be we added a custom built in shelf for storage and the microwave:

We decided to go with open shelving and made the brackets from scratch:

Painting the shelving beforehand:

We used a standard hood vent for the stove and made a frame for it:

Barnwood was added to the exterior frame of the hood to make it look rustic:

The drawer pulls are from Lowe’s, a champagne bronze arch bar:

 
And here’s the finished kitchen! The main counters are a white quartz:

We get so many compliments on all the details:

I’ve always wanted a zinc countertop and we decided to make one from scratch so I’ll be detailing that process in the next post:

The kitchen layout turned out so well I’d use it for every project if I could:

 I’ve started to index all posts on our big renovation projects into history, found objects, renovation and DIY categories so they are easy to find:

Sixty-One Park Farmhouse Project

One Twenty Main Farmhouse and Store Project

The Old Depot Project

I have a lot to share on the house too but you can also follow along on Instagram as I post almost daily @onetwentymain and @lilblueboo.

 
To check out our finished restoration project in person come and stay with us! You can visit the official Sixty-One Park Farmhouse site here and we are also on Airbnb and VRBO. Come see what our awesome little mountain town is like!