Room Reno #74: Modern Bohemian Kitchen

Welcome back to Room Reno #74 here at The Sims Resource! Today we’re helping two Sims who want to change their sad, dingy kitchen into a picture perfect bohemian workspace. Let’s meet the Sims we’re helping!

Meet Molly and Kyle!

Molly and Kyle recently moved to Evergreen Harbor in search of a fresh start (and a lot more green living options!). Molly is a professor at U Brite, while Kyle works in urban planning. They bought an apartment in Evergreen Harbor since it’s a midpoint between their two places of work, and also has a lot to do and see. Molly wants to volunteer at the community garden, while Kyle would love to see some of the fabricator machines around the city.

Their new apartment is a little bland–but the kitchen is by far the blandest. They saved some money to redo it, and they’ve requested a modern bohemian aesthetic for the space. For those unfamiliar with the look, it’s pretty much exactly what it says in the name–a modern twist on the classic bohemian style that most of us have probably seen around. Let’s see what we’re working with!

The Before

This kitchen is pretty plain, but I think it has a lot of stuff going for it! I don’t love that it’s all white, but I think just a few coats of paint will totally transform it. The kitchen itself is super closed off from the rest of the house and I considered taking down the dividing walls to make the floor plan into an open concept. Ultimately, I decided against this because I think the closed off kitchen has some charm that I really appreciate. A smaller, closed off kitchen isn’t automatically a bad thing to have–some people prefer having a private place to cook and prefer meals, and this setup is ideal for them.

The one challenge will be making sure that the floor plan is still able to be used by Sims, who are notoriously bad at routing in small spaces in the best of times. I think expanding the counters and making the kitchen an L-shape will be the key to making sure that works, and also will add counter space to make the space even easier to use. I really like the window in this room–I think it’ll provide a lot of natural light and make the room feel less cramped and more cozy, which is one of the big keys of making a small room work. Warm sunlight is always going to be more ideal than a lot of darkness or only harsh fluorescents. Let’s get into planning!

The Planning

The layout for this room is pretty simple, which makes sense given just how small it is. The counters will be in the same space, but making an L shape this time instead of just going along the one wall. The sink will be on the left wall, at the end of the L shape, while the oven will be on the side near the window. I’m going to keep the table at the same spot it was at originally, but I think I’ll be swapping it out for a high-top table instead of a low-top, which was there at first. It just seems like a more natural fit for the room, and making it a high top means that the height contrast between the counter and the table will create visual interest.

The interesting thing about the open floor plan vs closed floor plan debate is that there are a lot of interesting middle ground solutions. I thought about turning the two walls that are shared with the living room into half-walls so that there’s visibility between the two rooms, but in this case I thought the full walls were okay. I also planned upon using a lot of plants to bring the room together via color–a lot of modern bohemian designs operate off of a lot of blacks and whites, and I like to bring color in via plants of all shapes and sizes scattered around. Let’s get into building!

The After

I really love how this kitchen turned out! I think that modern bohemian is a really cool aesthetic within the larger bohemian look that I already knew of. I really love the tiled backsplash wallpaper, which is one of my all-time favorite ways to spice up a kitchen. You can keep the rest of a kitchen very simple, but just adding a colorful backsplash, or one with a fun design, will absolutely make your space look a lot higher-end than it actually is. The backsplash I chose is very simple, and yet it still heightens the room. I recommend trying something with neutral colors or ones that complement the rest of the room–a lot of the in-game wallpapers have backsplashes that I think are too much and overwhelm a space, so I would definitely look for CC wallpapers first.

The pops of color in this room really make me happy to see. I found when looking at other modern bohemian spaces that it sort of made me think of minimalist with a twist–a lot of minimalism relies on very barren spaces, but modern bohemian incorporates more color and life without going insane with the amount of clutter. The tapestry is probably my favorite piece in the entire room–that purple and turquoise combo is totally to die for, and I knew as soon as I downloaded it that it was going in the build. The gold detailing is beautiful, too, and ties into the gold wall art over the sink. I love when accent pieces get to be in harmony like that!

Thanks for checking out this edition of Room Reno #74! If you liked this blog, check out Room Reno #73: Dorm Decor or our Gilmore Girls inspired lookbook. Looking for something else? Read about my thoughts on the Pastel Pop Kit or about the latest game updates! Have a great day 😎