How to Create a French Country Kitchen

2015 Update: So much has happened since I wrote this post. We’ve totally settled into life on the farm, gotten rid of the ugly countertops and made some incredible French-inspired finds for our French Country Kitchen. I even wrote a cookbook in this kitchen!   WOW!  We’ve come a long way baby~~~~

I think it may be time for an update… but here is how it all began…

La Cuisine… A la Ferme a Mi-Chemin

How to Create a French Country Kitchen?

Here’s how I did it…

STILL PREGNANT.

Last one was 11 days early – so a girl can hope, can’t she???

 How was I going to turn this 70s nightmare into a French Country Kitchen? Oh… I had a plan.

BEFORE (lest we forget).

The entrance from the kitchen into the living room. After we removed the Rainbow Brite carpeting.

Yes, we are renting, but our landlord gave us carte blanche to fix up the house the way we saw fit. He gives us a tiny discount each month as a “thank you.” Not enough for the thousands of dollars worth of labor we did for six weeks before we moved in. But we are so blessed to have found a rental that didn’t look like a Home Depot Special (read: Berber carpet and oak bathroom vanities). Something that we could really make feel like home.  I would rather move into a DIVE than something tricked out with shiny brass light fixtures – you know what I mean???

 Taken my first night on the farm. It was just me and JuJu that first night and a great bottle of wine. So we painted over the wallpaper (normally my perfectionist painter husband would NEVER do such a thing! He would removed it, sand the walls, seal them… ugh..) We also removed that horrible 1970s scallop thingy over the RED sink… yet to be removed. I am just waiting to find some old sink at a barn sale. The windows that swing out to the porch are the coolest thing in the entire house!!!

 Also having had to go bye, bye – the Jenny Lind railing thing. We replaced it with a nice deep shelf for my oil paintings, copper and roasters. Half of it yet to be painted if you look closely in photos.

 Yikes.

Moving Day.

OK – Here we go. You said you were “tired” of garden, goat and chicken photos (I’m not offended). But it just takes a lot of work to get a room ready for pictures. I didn’t do the best job I could, I just don’t have the energy for a full blown photo shoot but they are OK and I gathered some from the last 8 months too.

Landlord Lewis (as we call him) let us take out the black stove and put in my baby! He obviously let us paint those horrible cabinets too. The technique is blue/gray barnwood. I took off the heavy 1970s hardware with the intention of just dealing with it and putting it back up but when I did it totally distracted from my cool paint job. I will NOT be spending money on hardware. For now, there are holes everywhere. Maybe this winter when I have time I will run some twine through or something.

I really love my old lipped cutting board and I love using my stove for display – especially since this house has less than half the counter space I used to have.

Working with what you have. Broccoli flowers and rainbow chard.

I am trying to be really laid back here – as we ATTEMPT to save for our big farm someday. There are so many things that could be done to make the house and property fabulous. But I am really just trying to get it livable and know that it’s not going to be “my masterpiece” – I am thankful for everything we have… except that god-awful red sink, which to every one’s chagrin I have inconveniently disguised with a HEAVY slab of marble and a cool old light blue bowl. LOVE IT!!!

 Just playing around on PicMonkey. A tin table top helps disguise the horrid shiny wood laminate countertops and displays some of my kitchen FAV’S including my Beurre dish from Clingencourt, a to die for bottle of Moulin Saint George and my patisserie cake dome and platter from Susan and Romancing the Home.

Garage sales, resale shops and world market.  

I LOVE COPPER.

 This winter I will be making flower pepper for gifts but I wanted to enjoy my harvest for a couple days first before drying. The salt and pepper shakers are milk glass and from my Gramma. They warm my heart every time I see them.

So these next few are really recent. Like the other day. Notice I moved the marble slab – that wouldn’t be fair to whoever has to wash my dishes while I am upstairs with a hew baby… and my Pullman car towel is crooked, but hey, you wouldn’t want me up on a stool in my “condition” would you??? And – too lazy remove the food encrusted toddler seat, move extension cords and to hop over to PicMonkey for the P.F. stamp. Sigh.

The stove area a few months back. That fabulous tapestry next to the SEL canister was sent to me by the lovely Brenda Hodges – she bought a frame she liked at a tag sale and found it underneath and thought of me. I just love it. It’s ratty, French and fabulous.

 Mom had this old workbench left after one of our Shop the Shed sales (and I say “our” loosely, as she has the BEST STUFF ever!). I wanted it so bad. It didn’t sell, didn’t sell and didn’t sell as the months went by. She gave it to me for my birthday last year. LOVE IT! I use it as a buffet when entertaining as seen here at Christmas and for the kids’ are supplies (underneath the curtains) and my dishes.

 We go thru olive oil and balsamic in a freakish way around here. They are always within easy reach and easy pour on my stovetop.

Our dining room table from the old house fits PERFECTLY in our kitchen and let me tell you, I don’t miss running back and forth. I’ve never had an eat in kitchen until this house.

Homebread. 

(Someone asked me about this recently – my navigation bar is hidden on this blog but if you scroll your mouse up at the top you can search for anything from the last 8 years… including this recipe).

Coming out my nose. Rev up the juicer!

If there is one thing I would like to have more of, it’s little old oil paintings. I scored this one last year for $45!!!!!!! It felt like highway robbery… finally, in my favor!

Another view of the cabs. What I removed before I took “before” photos was that those upper cabs had YELLOW wavy glass behind the wire. Freaky.

And of course, the copper pots. You have to have those for a French Inspired Kitchen. Found in Paris, garage sales and resale shops.

Never have enough.

I know it’s not the most “pin-tastique” post – but you understand, right?

Which room would you like to see next?

The bedroom is all ready for the home birth – thinking about making a quick video tour for those who can’t fathom how you can have a home birth. Hmmmm…..