How We Like Our Farmhouse Kitchen | 1 Year Honest Review

Now that we have been cooking and baking in it for over one year, I am sharing my honest and detailed Ikea farmhouse kitchen review.

It’s time for an honest farmhouse kitchen review!

I can’t believe it’s already been more than one year that we have been cooking, baking, fermenting, and making all sorts of foods in our remodeled kitchen.

For various reasons, the total kitchen renovation took about 8 months. The biggest reason was the fact that we were doing everything by ourselves and that I suffered a severe knee injury and two knee surgeries in the process.

Even though I had done a ton of research into what products would work best for our kitchen, I thought this would be a great time to share my honest and detailed review with you.

Ikea kitchen cabinet review

Early on, we had decided that we would go with Ikea cabinets, specifically the white Bodbyn style.

Nevertheless, we had requested quotes from two other places but the Ikea kitchen was the least expensive. Having had Ikea kitchens in my life before, I knew the quality of their kitchens had come a long way. They also got good reviews online.

After a bit of learning, I found the Ikea online kitchen planning tool very easy to use. My biggest complaint would be that I would have to save my edits often because that planning tool is a bit buggy and can get stuck or simply crash.

Initially, I was worried that the fronts might look “plastic-y”. They are “lacquered”. We find them very durable and easy to clean. So far they have been holding up really well.

We also really like the hinge dampers, soft-close drawers, and hidden inner drawers.

I was also a bit concerned about the off-white color but in the end, we find it very pleasing. You can scroll down to see what we choose for wall paint.

We installed these cabinets in the kitchen of our 100+-year-old house where not all the walls are perfectly straight and not all the corners are true 90-degree angles. Therefore, my husband had to do quite a bit of custom fitting to make them look right. Obviously, you would have that issue with any off-the-rack cabinets.

Having said that they held up well through all our little customizations and tweaks.

Verdict:

We are very happy with our Ikea Bodbyn kitchen cabinets and would buy them again.

Watch my review on Youtube:

Farmhouse sink

I really wanted a white apron front double-bowl farmhouse sink.

While there are so many choices out there, most of them are pretty expensive.

When we first looked at the Ikea Domsjö sink, we loved the look and the price point. However, by the time we were ready to buy it, they had changed the style which is now called Havsen. It is a bit smaller and not as deep.

But it was under $200 and we still liked the look.

It has held up very well and clean-up is easy. We have had no chips or discoloration but I do keep clean it almost daily.

Nevertheless, I do want to mention that we broke one sink during installation and had to run out to get a replacement. Made out of ceramic, it is very heavy and we had to lift it in and out of place to make sure it fits right and then install it. Unless you are a professional or have done it before, I urge you to be very careful with it!

Verdict:

We love it and would buy it again!

Quartz counters

I really wanted marble counters! I thought they would look very classy and traditional in a farmhouse kitchen.

As you can see in my original post, I could not find marble slabs that I liked.

However, I did find a quartz counter that looked just like marble. From there, it was an easy decision given that quartz counters are so much more durable and less maintenance than marble counters.

They, too, are very easy to clean. I do want to mention that I have found a tiny nick in the area next to the stove that gets a lot of use and traffic. It isn’t very noticeable – but I see these things.

Also, I had to get a bit used to the veining and specks. I had to learn what little dots were in the quartz – and which ones were plain dirt.

We don’t have a lot of counter space so we didn’t have to buy a lot. Also, we had them professionally installed which both my husband and I feel was a wise choice even though the installation cost pretty much the same as the counters.

Verdict:

We love our quartz counters and would buy them again.

Subway tile and grout

This was a no-brainer for our farmhouse-style kitchen. White subway tile doesn’t go out of style and always looks good. Also, they are very inexpensive!

We happened to install them on our anniversary and it took the two of us, not even a whole day (and we still went out for dinner afterward). My husband had installed tile before and he has a tile saw.

For grout, we chose a silver-grey color. I had read some reviews that said that white grout can look dingy quickly with all the cooking and potential splattering in a kitchen. On the other hand, we didn’t want dark grey grout as we didn’t want the grout lines to stand out that much.

Verdict:

We are so happy with both our white subway tile and the silver grout and would choose both again!

Vintage-style faucet

In choosing our kitchen faucet, we were a bit more interested in the vintage farmhouse look than modern functionalities. We wanted to make the kitchen look like it could have been there since 1910.

Once we found this traditional faucet, both my husband and I were set.

Using it every day, it has been working well for us.

However, when we use wet hands (from washing) to turn off the faucet, we often get quite a bit of water on the counter. I try to shake off make hands as much as possible before touching the hot/cold handles. Other family members are not quite as diligent about it and I often have to wipe up water from the counter.

Verdict:

With all that I have said above, we still love this faucet and would buy it again!

Kitchen cabinet hardware review

There are some original built-ins in our 1910 Victorian farmhouse that have stamped brass bin pulls. Therefore, we tried to find bin pulls that would be like the original ones.

Since almost everything is stainless steel or silver-colored in our kitchen, we opted for brushed chrome from a historical house parts company.

Once we had found those, we choose some very simple cabinet knobs to match the bin pulls. They work great, don’t feel flimsy or cheap, and certainly look very traditional.

Verdict:

We love them and would buy them again!

Farmhouse kitchen lighting review

Considering how much time we spent finding our kitchen lights, I have to admit that I don’t even notice them all that much anymore. But when I do notice them, I still really like them!

With all the straight and square lines, we wanted some curved, “feminine” looking light fixtures. We also wanted single lights over the sink area and a matching 3-light fixture over our kitchen table.

Verdict:

We really like our kitchen lights and would buy them again.

Farmhouse Kitchen Flooring Review

We have the original Doug fir flooring throughout our entire house and wanted to find kitchen flooring that would go with it.

So looks were important. At the same time, my husband was mostly concerned with potential water leaks and the damage that might do to wood. He basically drove the decision about the type of flooring which is engineered and I choose the particular color and style.

The kitchen flooring looks nice but one thing about it bothers me a lot: the sound of our dog’s toenails on the engineered hardwood. If you have been watching my Youtube videos you might have heard a scratching sound – when the dog wanders into the kitchen. It could also be because the flooring is floating on top of the concrete pad.

Verdict:

While I am okay with the look and the durability of this flooring, I really don’t like the sound of our dog’s toenails on it. If I were to put new floors into our kitchen, I would spend more time trying to find a better material and or installation method.

Wall paint

With the off-white kitchen cabinets, the white subway tile, the white farmhouse sink, and the white window and trim paint (Kelly Moore Swiss Coffee) we had a lot of different whites going on in our kitchen.

The challenge was to find a wall paint that would not make any of these other whites look off.

We settled on the Farrow&Ball All White paint, a highly pigmented and very true white. I could not be happier with this choice!

Farrow&Ball paints are very high-quality paints that are so non-toxic that some people joke that you could drink them. These paints are expensive but since we didn’t have a lot of wall space to paint, we didn’t have to buy a lot.

Verdict:

We are very happy with our wall paint and would buy it again.

Venting hood

This is something that has gone in since I posted my original kitchen reveal.

We felt that the powerful ones are so loud that we might not want to use them much – which totally defeats the purpose.

Thus, my husband spent a lot of time researching various options. Then he figured out a way to have the actual hood over the stove but to have the motor further away from it so it wouldn’t be so noisy.

We had found this built-in Z Line vent hood that disappears in the cabinet above the stove. Of course, we lost the space inside this cabinet but on the other hand, the vent hood is not visible.

With the cooking and frying that we have done, it works well.

Verdict:

We like both the fact that our vent hood is hidden and quiet but still powerful and are very happy with this choice.

Farmhouse Kitchen review summary and final thoughts:

As I was thinking about how to write this post, I noticed that I really love our new kitchen. Actually, I love all of the choices we made.

This kitchen is both highly functional but also has the traditional look we had wanted. Except for the flooring, I would not change a thing. In other words, if I ever had to put in a brand-new kitchen, it would probably look exactly the same.

I feel very lucky to have such a beautiful space in which to cook, bake, ferment, prepare, and make food.

Links and resources:

Wall paint: Farrow & Ball All White

Kitchen cabinets: Ikea Bodbyn off-white

Drawer bin pulls: stamped brushed chrome bin pulls

Cabinet door knobs: simple brushed chrome cabinet knobs

Kitchen counters: MSI Carrara Grigio

Farmhouse sink: Ikea Havsen double-bowl sink

Vintage style kitchen faucet: Kingston Brass Heritage Faucet

Tile: 3×6 white subway tile

Grout: Silver Shadow grout

Flooring: Engineered hardwood

3 light fixture: Seagull lighting (similar on amazon: Kichler Wynber chandelier)

Mini light pendants: Seagull lighting

Vent hood: Z-Line range hood

Please let me know if you have any comments or questions for me! I always love to hear from you!

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