One Room Challenge Week 8: Le Grand Reveal!

Hi, my honeys! HOW DID WE GET HERE? Welcome to week 8 of the One Room Challenge, and let's be honest, it's the only blog post during the challenge that matters. LOL. I am so dang excited to show y'all the Calm Chateau Kitchen, and I am also super proud of myself for getting it all done! It's been 8+ weeks of design planning, coordinating with contractors, DIY's, sourcing materials, sourcing decor, and actual blood, sweat, and tears to complete this space. I can truly say, though, that I am so happy with the end result! Keep reading to see the reveal and learn more about the process of renovating our kitchen!

I knew going into this challenge that it would be a super tight squeeze to get everything I wanted to change done within the 8 week time frame. Fortunately, I did have a couple weeks of a head start, which ended up being super necessary! Securing countertops and tile along someone to install them during a pandemic was quite a challenge! I was lucky I didn't need new cabinets because those would have taken way too long to have made and installed, and I was also very lucky to find a slab I loved that was in stock at a local slab warehouse that could fabricate and install the counters for me. Thankfully, Tile Bar came through with my Montauk Gin 4x4 tiles, too, and they just so happened to be in stock! Without the counters and tile being in stock, this renovation would have taken much longer, so we were lucky!

We definitely had some bumps along the way, and most of those were caused by our lack of due diligence when hiring contractors. I can't say it enough, get references from your contractors and ask to see photos of their work. Also, make sure they're licensed and insured in case anything goes wrong. We had an issue with an electrician we hired where he accidentally cut through our main water line while attempting to install a new outlet on our breakfast bar. This sent water pouring through our ceiling downstairs and forced keto call an emergency plumber at 9pm at night--not my best evening! LOL! Fortunately, he did the right thing and refunded our money for the damage, but many bad contractors out there would not do that. Be very careful who you hire!

We also had a hard time getting another electrician in because they are all very busy right now! We finally got all the work done, though, in the nick of time! We also had a tough time finding a good tile installer, so just make sure you factor in how long it might take to hire a qualified installer. We got lucky and went through a friend of a friend, and the guys we used were great and efficient, but had we not found him we'd have been in some trouble! I really just wanted to keep it real in this post because it wasn't sunshine and rainbows the whole time. Renovation is quite a challenge and having only 8 weeks to do it was even more of a challenge! Just know that if you decide to renovate a space, you will inevitably have some bumps along the way and might possibly go over your time frame too.

There are also a couple things I didn't have time to do in the kitchen that we might end up doing in the future. I'd love to remove our cabinet mount microwave someday and install a custom vent hood, but that's definitely a project for another day. Also, at some point I would love to have our kitchen cabinets painted a greige color, but that's also down the line. For now, the white cabinets are clean and classic! Other than that, I truly would not change much about our kitchen! I love it so much, and it really feels like the dream kitchen space I've always wanted!

Cost breakdown:

I want to be transparent here and share approximately what we spent to make this kitchen renovation happen. Please keep in mind that as a featured designer I did have some items gifted, but we did have to spend a significant amount of our own money to make this happen. We had saved up over the last 6 years we've lived in our home to renovate the kitchen, and being asked to be a featured designer for this ORC was perfect timing! Here's what we actually spent on the kitchen excluding gifted items:

Countertops: $5100 (which included the slabs and install)

Removal of old counters and backsplash: $900

Electrical work: $1200 (this includes new outlet install, swapping out light fixtures and beige outlets)

Plumbing: $500 (pot filler install, new faucet, new sink hookup)

Drywall repair and tile prep: $300

Tile installation: $1000

Decor and accessories: $500

Estimated total: around $9500

Here's a quick reminder of what our kitchen looked like when we moved into our home back in 2015:

Here's a reminder of what our kitchen looked like after 6 years of adding bandaids to it and making it as cute as we could without renovating:

Without further ado, let's show off this fabulous kitchen space! I wanted an overall calm feeling to the kitchen with moments of high contrast. I wanted the style to be in the realm of transitional and organic modern design á la Studio Mcgee/Amber Interiors. Lastly, I wanted the kitchen to make a statement in our open concept main floor of our home. You see it right when you walk into our front door, so I wanted it to have an impact! Overall, I'm super happy with the tile and counters we chose as well as many of the styling choices we made in the lighting, counter stools, and hardware, and decor. The space really came together and I'm thrilled to show you the results.

I truly hope you have enjoyed following along throughout these 8 weeks of renovation! I hope you learned something along the way and you got some good inspo for your own home! I cannot stress this enough that it took us 6 years to save up for this project, and we spent those 6 years loving our kitchen through every one of its iterations and bandaid fixes. The One Room Challenge really taught me a lot about patience and diligence throughout this renovation, and I'm so proud of the hard work I put in to make this dream kitchen happen.

I also could not have done this without my amazing sponsors listed below. I love and stand behind every product put into our kitchen and the brands that make them. I am so grateful to have been able to work with such incredible brands who were so supportive and helpful throughout this renovation process! A massive thank you also goes out to Linda Weinstein from the One Room Challenge for including me as a featured designer and for being so supportive and helpful along the way! Thank you to our media partner Better Homes and Gardens for supporting this talented group of designers, and thanks to my fellow featured designers for inspiring and encouraging me along the way!

We have a couple more rooms in our home we'd like to tackle in 2022, and I'm so excited to bring what I learned during this challenge to those spaces! Peony and Honey is constantly evolving, and I'm so grateful to have all of you on this journey with me. It's crazy to see my design style change throughout the different seasons of my life and after learning so much and getting inspired by so many amazing talented designers out there. Cheers to the last big project of 2021, and I'm looking forward to what 2022 may bring! Make sure you're following me on all my social platforms: TikTok, Youtube, and Instagram to see more content from this makeover and holiday content too! Big hugs -e

My ORC Sponsors:

Calico | Crystorama | Speakman | Kelly Moore Paint | Loloi | Minted | Parker Gwen | MR Direct | Tile Bar |

ORC Featured Designers:

Albie Knows | At Home with Savvy | Beth Diana Smith | Eclectic Twist | Erika Ward Interiors

From House to Home | G. Lebron Interiors | Goldalamode | Home Made by Carmona | Impeccable Nest | Jeweled Interiors | Joyful Designs Studio | Joy Street Design | Our Fifth House | Peony & Honey | Pinch Plate Party | Rebecca Propes | Reem’s Design | Saudah Saleem Interiors | Whitney J Decor

Media BH&G | TM ORC