Seeing as how I recently bought a new home (a 100-year-old, Mediterranean style bungalow) and have been ramping up renovations, I figured I’d hold myself to a deadline for the interior design of at least one room. Enter the One Room Challenge, which I’ve followed on Instagram for a number of years. This year, I bit the bullet and entered. The challenge? My (new) kitchen. Here’s the bare bones:

I love to cook and to entertain and, having lived in a small apartment for the past three years, I was so excited to finally have the space to do all of the above. So here’s the challenge: While the home is old, it was added on to in the ’90s — so while the stove used to have a wall behind it, the addition meant that, when I bought the home, the stove was in the middle of the kitchen, with no hood above it.

Another issue? That ceiling. Yikes.

I mean… not even sure what was going on there. They dropped it down and installed wooden ceiling tiles, making the room feel much smaller than it is. So the first order of business is getting rid of the ceiling, moving the stove, and deciding what to do about the countertops and cabinets.

So far, we’ve started painting the cabinets (a little bit more work left on that), painting the walls, changing out the hardware, and moving the stove but there is SO MUCH work to do. Here are the photos I’ve been turning to for inspiration:

I also want to include a few favorite pieces here, like a treasured rug, my pink Milo Baughman stools (a $35 thrift find), and a beautiful piece of art (the walls will be white so as to make the room a little lighter and brighter). Follow along, as I’ll be updating each week! And be sure to follow the others participating in the Fall 2017 One Room Challenge.