How Swede it is….

I’m Swedish on my dad’s side of the family. I grew up with smorgasbords at my great aunt’s, most of which I didn’t enjoy as a kid. Thank goodness for potato sausage or I probably wouldn’t have eaten a thing.

Man do Swedes like to pickle stuff….

One thing I do enjoy about being Swedish is the craftwork and kitchenware I’ve been given. In our former home, I had my Swedish kitchen things on display, but they didn’t really fit into the scheme of the home or kitchen. It was a more formal looking kitchen.

With our current home, we had to figure out what we were going to do with the kitchen, and I realized early on that I wanted to incorporate my heritage. Fortunately, our house is a French country style home, and the aesthetics of country homes are fairly consistent across many cultures, so that wasn’t going to be an issue.

What was an issue was money and resources. Redoing a kitchen costs mega bucks. The cabinets in our kitchen were outdated but in great condition. They are Custom Wood cabinets, which, if you live in Topeka, you know these are top of the line. They also already had built-in features like pan organizers and a spice drawer which was a bonus. The problem was how outdated they looked.

The cabinet bases are oak, but they had that 90’s style cabinet front. I REALLY did not like the look of those. The countertop was a white Corian which was also in decent condition, and it had a style that wasn’t too outdated with its rounded edges. It also had a cool gray stripe in the edge which matched our floors. Jeff did some research and realized they could be sanded and refinished which was great as none of the kitchen places we contacted returned our calls. (This has been a common occurrence with vendors and remodelers. We’ve been creative often out of necessity.)

I researched getting doors and drawer fronts to update the look, but they were outrageously expensive and took forever to get in. We chose to take the pulls off and paint them. When deciding on what colors to use, I knew I wanted blue, but I didn’t want everything blue. Richard (our contractor) and Jeff thought leaving the doors and drawers white would work, but I had to be convinced. We put several painted drawers back in after the base was painted blue, and I LOVED the look. It looks very Swedish country to me. It also matches our décor perfectly. That was a “happy dance” moment.

There were many other issues that had to be tackled in the kitchen. There were no appliances except a trash compactor that still had trash in it! Yuck! So that was thrown out. Finding appliances that would fit in the allotted spaces and were available was a Herculean task. Jeff did amazing leg work and found ONE refrigerator in Dallas that we could get.

I want to be clear: we didn’t get choices on brands for this kitchen. It was a matter of what can you even get. He also found an oven that he shipped from the east coast somewhere that miraculously matched the fridge. The built-in stove top was also difficult to find, but he did it. The dishwasher and the wine fridge (to replace the trash compactor) were the two appliances that we didn’t have to struggle to get.  

The former homeowners of this house had put in a weird rock wall, I’m assuming themselves. I liked the rock, but it didn’t make sense. They’d actually put it INSIDE one of the cabinets. Not sure why…. These had to be removed and the walls had to be repaired.

The backsplash was outdated and was removed, too. I decided not to replace the backsplash back, as we did our messy cooking on the island so there wasn’t much need. I had the upper cabinets by the fridge removed because they looked weird with an odd angle. I decided to put decorative shelves there that matched the cutting boards that are built in. It adds a nice contrast, and I can display my Swedish stuff.

Above the fridge were false doors that didn’t match anything which I‘d removed, and Jeff painted the inside blue to match the outside. I ordered natural-colored baskets to fill the shelf space which also matches the shelves and cutting boards.

It’s almost like I know what I’m doing….

Another design feature I added was a blue trim piece around the countertop with a leaf design in it. It helped break up the 2 different colors of white: wall color and counter color, so the difference isn’t as noticeable.

We have what was probably considered a butler’s pantry off of the main kitchen, which we turned into a coffee bar. We have all of our crystal and white serving items on display there now. The glass cabinet in the kitchen is where my great-aunt’s china is located (the Swedish one). She gave it to me a year or so before she passed away. If you don’t know what Swedish Death cleaning is, look it up, it is a thing.

We have a walk-in pantry that is the scene of where Jeff and I’s only domestic occurred. We fought over…shelf height.

I know! Stupid, right?!

We were shouty enough that Zach came upstairs to see if we were ok. Turns out his room is located directly under the pantry….

Oops….  

Jeff and I realized pretty quickly that we were very tired and needed to be done with remodeling soon. We aren’t yet, but we are getting pretty close, which gives us hope… and that hope is keeping us sane for now….

So far, no more shouting matches, and for that, we are ALL grateful….