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Kenda’s kitchen isn’t fancy, she says, but it well suits the busy life she and husband Brad lead.

Kenda and Brad enjoy a kitchen that, like the sign that hangs overhead, reflects their approach to life. It’s not at all unusual, Kenda says, for their grown children to drop by on the weekends, bringing friends along for a home-cooked meal.

Kenda loves the convenience of her two ovens, set off by the knotty pine cabinetry and cedar overhang. And the Western tile mural gives her a view even when she’s standing at the stove! Note the aged tin roof, harvested from a razed barn, and the rough-hewn rafters overhead.

My Country Kitchen

Down Home on the Range

By Kenda Burgett
Cloudy, OK

Say that my kitchen reminds you of a barn, and I’ll thank you—it’s exactly the spacious, casual look I was going for!

The beautiful kitchen my husband, Brad, built isn’t fancy, but it perfectly fits the way we live here in the foothills of the Kiamichi Mountains. We have a small ranch outside of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Cloudy. (We put our Diamond B brand on the breakfast bar.)

Though it’s not our main livelihood, we keep a few Quarter Horses and about 25 head of cattle. From our dirt road, you see thousands of acres of open range.

Now, you’d never guess it, but our log-sided home actually began as a humble mobile home. Over the 25 years we’ve owned it, we’ve expanded and improved the space, but the kitchen I cooked in when we were raising our three kids was little bitty—only three drawers!

Nevertheless, we happily made room for the friends the kids were always bringing home—and still bring over on weekends. Whether I’m fixing dinner or my daughter’s baking cookies, it seems our kitchen is where everyone congregates. I want everyone to feel comfortable. And about 2 years ago, I was ready to remodel.

I know many people plan every detail of their kitchen for years before starting a remodel. We went about it a little differently. Brad’s a trim carpenter and cabinetmaker with plenty of kitchen experience. After gutting our old kitchen, he turned to me and asked, “Now, what do you want in here?”

Designing on the Fly

That afternoon, I paged through magazines to pick out seven or eight handy features, like rollout storage for my huge flour bin, a phone hutch, a pantry and lazy Susan cabinets. Brad eyed my list, walking all around and saying, “Woman,
I just don’t know how I’m going to get all that in here!”

But he did, and more besides. I’d been dead-set against giving up any floor space for an island. Brad was just as adamant that I’d love one as a baking center. He even offered to take it out in a month if I didn’t like it. And now I’m really happy he talked me into it!

Our picture window was spur-of-the-moment, too. I noticed light pouring through a huge hole in the back wall the day Brad was replacing the two small windows and asked whether we could have a large one instead. It gives a wonderful view of our yard and flower beds, plus the mountains beyond them.

Brad was less enthusiastic, at first, about using aged tin for the ceiling. The 70-year-old tin came from an old barn in the area. With the rough-cut rafters, it gives the space a rustic feel that contrasts nicely with the modern knotty pine and cedar cabinetry he crafted. The tile mural behind the range adds to the cowboy feel of the kitchen.

I won’t be offended if you call my tile floor dirt-brown. It is! There’s so much dirt out here that I just took a few sample tiles outside, poured dirt over them, and picked the closest match.

Those Texas Stars

When it came time to find breakfast bar stools, I was put off by the prices of the Western-themed ones I liked. So I went bargain hunting down in Canton, TX, where they have the world’s largest flea market. Sure enough, I found some that spiffed right up with a little TLC.

That’s how we’ve done it all our lives. We see pictures of what we like, then make up a way to do it ourselves.

That’s also true for the back bar that Brad made from locally harvested cedar. This area gives us plenty of extra seating when friends and family drop in. And we’ve kept the dining table he made in high school shop class for his grandparents. It bears the evidence of the many nights we’ve all gathered around, not just for meals, but also for lively games of cards or Wahoo.

This entire kitchen just works so well for us that I wouldn’t change a single thing about it. It’s beautiful, it’s functional, and it’s ours, through and through.

Cowboy style abounds in Kenda’s rustic kitchen. Sunlight fills the room, from the sink to the island to the slab of rock that forms the top level of their breakfast bar. Special touches to make the most of every inch of space were all on Kenda’s wish list. She loves the island’s roll-out drawers and bins for flour, sugar and potatoes. Kenda buys flour in bulk, and before the kitchen remodel, that enormous bin ate up way too much of her limited counter space. Corner drawers mean Kenda no longer has to rummage blindly for items far in the back.

Illustration: Bob Gaszak