This kitchen renovation has been a LONG time coming. It’s been something that we always knew would come “later”, but we never quite knew exactly when or how. We have now been in this house for 6 years this spring & we renovated this kitchen to make it more light, bright, & modern quickly because we started the adoption process & we wanted it to be functional and beautiful before baby came. The beautiful baby has now been in our home for 4 years so it’s exciting to be making this kitchen what we have always dreamed of. The renovations before were a lot of demo & replacements, but now we are changing layouts, adding walls, choosing more permanent fixtures & materials, & also making it function how we have learned we want it to over the past 6 years.
The “stove cove” before it was built-in:
The stove cove after we built the shell:
The stove cove with the start of brick:
How the bricks come packaged:
One thing that we dreamed of was an old stove. We wanted a large stove that looked old, was old, or was a big statement piece in the kitchen that would be an heirloom piece & last a lifetime. Well, we found it. More on that hunt later & I am so excited to share, but for now let’s take a look at this “stove cove” as I’ve named it that we built to house our new stove when we put it back together. The dream was to have the stove surrounded in some sort of stone that looked like it belonged with the stove 100 years ago as they would be. We went through a journey of choosing stone & we landed on brick from Belden Brick Supply [for all my local friends]. You can see more about the brick & options [HERE] on my Instagram. But we ultimately landed on the reclaimed historic bricks which is so fitting for this 1800’s farmhouse & really helps set the whole tone of our vision for this house. Historic materials, tons of texture, & lots of character.
The “stove cove” progress as of today…
The masons started on this project right before the weekend & we will most likely be done by the end of the week. They are working in the “stove cove” & we we will also be installing the brick on the butler pantry floor as well to tie it in to the “stove cove” that is located right next to it. Even though we are not nearly finished with the brick in the “stove cove” I wanted to share with you a few things the masons have done so far to make this area look like it’s always been here while using thin brick material.
Ways we are making our brick look historic:
-The masons are using reclaimed brick that we picked out that was removed & collected from old buildings & then cut down into thin brick. Brick name: Chicago reclaimed brick from Pine Hall brick.
-They are using the broken pieces that are usually discarded & mixing them in the pattern to get a more collected look. The masons said that when they take old buildings down that small pieces were used so there wasn’t any waste. I love the look!
– The masons added a “nailer board” as we are all calling it on the back wall in between the brick in one of the rows so that we will have a wood piece to hang things on like art, utensils, & more. Homes & buildings 100 years ago had these boards in the brick to hang things on & for support so this board is fitting in this space & will be so useful.
-They are wrapping the brick around the corners, ledges, & more to give the appearance of the actual size of bricks. more on that later.
Just a few updates & photos here, but I will be back soon with more of the “stove cove” & butler pantry brick progress. I am so excited for this kitchen renovation & truly can’t wait to share the process with you as we pour our hearts & souls into this house. Thanks for being her along that journey & for stopping in to see what we are up to daily. xx
