Sunset Lane Kitchen

I think anyone with a creative mind thinks about how they would renovate or decorate their parents home. Well, that is a reality for me now as I get to update my in-laws kitchen with the help of my sister-in-law, Elizabeth. The kitchen was updated in the early 2000's and has wood everywhere with laminate countertops. It has great cabinet space/layout and the cabinets were custom made, so with a couple of adjustments, we are going to make the oak wood cabinets sing by updating around it. My in-laws wanted to make sure we kept a few things: the wood cabinets, the table and chairs (a wedding gift!), and appliances. So with that, everything else is getting a facelift. 

Before

Style: English B&B

My Mother-in-law Becky is truly the hostess with the mostess. She loves bringing all of the family together, especially over food. She is a great cook and spends a lot of time in the kitchen making meals or making treats for friends. So it’s important that this space is beautiful because the room you are in the most should inspire you. Becky has many tchotchkes and decor items that just make sense for an English kitchen. Her antique plates, pictures, and decor items will really sing in this updated kitchen.   

A few of the big moves we are doing:

1. Flooring: The current laminate floors are damaged from a dishwasher leak and need to go. They wanted something that was soft underfoot, but we didn’t want to go the wood route because it can be tricky to match wood tones and we don’t want too much wood with keeping the cabinets. I knew travertine would look great with cabinets and fit with the design direction. So we settled on a travertine LVP flooring that will compliment the wood, be waterproof, and be soft underfoot. 

2. Countertops: We are ditching the laminate countertops and installing a beautiful white marble on the perimeter and a butcher block island top.

3. Backsplash: We are adding a cream tone brick to the backsplash throughout the kitchen and extending it into the dining room wall. Nothing says English kitchen quite like brick. 

4. Tweaking cabinet layout: We are changing the shape of the island from diamond to rectangle which will make it more functional and modern. We will be painting the island burgundy as well, which I am very excited about! We are also removing the cabinet above sink and adding a pendant light. 

We are doing a decent amount of work ourselves to make their budget go far and it makes for good family time! We will be hiring out electrical to install pendant, flooring installation, and countertops. Jonah, myself, and his family will all be doing the rest of the work.

Inspiration

Material selections

We are layering a lot of different textures and pattern in this kitchen and that makes me so, so excited! Here is the breakdown...

• Wall Color: Schoolhouse White by Farrow & Ball

• Island Color: SW Burgundy

• Flooring: LL Flooring Travertine LVP

• Wallpaper: William Morris Strawberry Thieves Peel & Stick Wallpaper in Forest Green

• Lighting: Schoolhouse style pendant above sink + Black Chandelier

• Hardware: We are doing a black finished hardware to contrast with wood cabinets and compliment other finishes. Pull and Cup Pull

• Runner: Chris Loves Julia x Loloi Runner

Want to see some progress photos?!

We started working on this in December 2022 and have been working on it during weekends and week nights over the last couple months. Below is a little recap of how far we have came.