Our Home {Kitchen)

My plan was to do a home tour, but I've been changing things up a little, so I want to finish that before I do the full tour. For now I'll start with the kitchen! Here are a few in progress shots because those are always fun!

It makes sense to start here since it's one of my favorite rooms in the house! When we built this house we got to design our dream kitchen! It's not that I didn't love the kitchens we designed in our last two houses, but we were a little more limited in the choices that our builders offered, so I couldn't get everything I wanted. In this house we got it all: double oven, pot filler (not as awesome as I thought it would be, by the way ~ it's only cold water so the water takes FOREVER to boil!), beautiful granite, white cabinets with a coffee glaze, no farmhouse sink, but it will come eventually and I love it as is!

When you pick the standard granite, which we did for our bathrooms, you don't get to pick the slab, but we got to pick out the slabs for our kitchen because we upgraded a little (easy to do when the builder is offering 50% off upgrades). Here is the slab we chose for the island - the tape represents where they were going to cut and where we wanted the sink placed. The granite is called Alaska. I'm so glad we got to choose, because the newer Alaska slabs don't look anything like this. We had to  visit two or three warehouses to find slabs that resembled what we'd chosen in the design gallery.

Here is a picture of the kitchen right before we moved in.

I'm going to back up a little to explain why our kitchen counters stayed bare for the first 11 months we lived here. When we decided to sell our last house, my mom suggested I remove everything from the counters (toaster oven, coffee pot, etc) for a cleaner look. I even went so far as to throw out our toaster oven (in my defense, it was old and didn't work that well, so it's not like I threw away a perfectly good appliance)! Now when we want to make toast or Eggo waffles we just turn the oven to broil and throw the food in right away for one minute per side. It works great and there is no mess on our counters ~ try it, you'll never go back! I got used to the look, and was in love with my new counters and backsplash, so when we moved in I kept the minimalist look.

My desire to decorate actually started when we moved our entertainment center (actually a sideboard with a wine rack built in) out of the family room and into the kitchen nook. I added an EAT sign that I'd painted along with a decorative platter, but it looked pretty barren. That's about the time I discovered the #WWYDdecor hashtag on Instagram. I posted this picture and asked for advice.

Someone suggested I move the stuff down from the walls and layer it on the sideboard, but then I'd be left with empty walls with holes that I needed to fill and paint so that wasn't an option. Another hashtag I had seen on Instagram a lot was #TuesdayDecorParade which was all about tiered trays, so when someone suggested I get a tiered tray I knew it was meant to be! I picked up a wood and metal tray from World Market along with a cute little lavender nest and a succulent and brought them home. I had a collection of tea cups and saucers in my cabinet, so I added one along with the blue and white elephant we purchased in Amsterdam last year and it was finished! I also picked up a cute sign and framed chicken wire (I can't think of any other way to describe it, that's what it is) from Hobby Lobby and a decorative sphere and topiary at Home Goods. I love how it turned out! Now I just need the Magnolia Farms tray I ordered on sale from Magnolia Market to arrive (and for it to fit!) for the bottom shelf.

After I finished the nook I decided I needed to work on the rest of the kitchen. We do a lot of entertaining, but I've recently realized that I am severely lacking in serving pieces. Because of this I ordered a Lazy Susan from The Signature Swag. When it arrived I knew that it would be perfect on display, and when we are entertaining I have easy access to it! I used a metal basket and ampersand from Hobby Lobby, a topiary from Home Goods, and the family cookbook Michael's aunt and uncle gave us for our wedding to complete the vignette.

I just changed out our wooden kitchen utensil holder to a silver wine bucket I found while unpacking at my parent's new house this past weekend. They had four of them, so I decided they wouldn't miss one. :) I kind of love the look!

I already had the milk jug measuring cups from Anthropologie (mine is a little shorter because the 1/3 cup broke in our move) and our knife block on the other side of the counter, but I decided to add a mason jar cookie jar and vintage breadbox as well. When adding items to your kitchen counters, try to get things that can serve a double purpose - the bread box and cookie jar look adorable sitting on the counter, but they're also holding two loaves of bread and the chocolate chip cookies I baked with my niece yesterday.

Isn't the farmer's market pillow adorable? I ordered it from Peek Pillow Originals.

The island is still pretty empty other than our paper towel holder and soap dispenser. I had gotten a cake stand at Home Goods several months back, and it was just sitting in the cabinet, so I decided to put our soap on "display" to pretty it up a little.

I made the Bakery sign and added the Fresh Baked Pies sign from World Market to the counter in our Butler's Pantry where I keep my canisters and Kitchenaid mixer. Again, use items that can serve a double purpose (I'm obviously not talking about the signs here) ~ the canisters hold flour, sugar, and candy (yes, you read that right), and the ceramic egg crate is perfect when I get fresh eggs from my friend!

The bar counter in the Butler's Pantry was begging for something. At first I was going to do a coffee bar, but since I don't drink coffee unless it tastes like chocolate (Starbucks White Mocha - yum!) I decided that didn't make much sense. I love to make sparkling lemonade (use one can of frozen pink lemonade and sparkling water), so I searched Pinterest for a cute printable and created a mini lemonade stand. 

Here is a view of the kitchen from the Butler's Pantry. We used to have a runner that matched the rug in the nook, but it started to get dirty so I replaced it with a bio-foam rug from Bed Bath & Beyond. So much comfier to stand on when I'm washing dishes!

Here are a couple shots of the kitchen from the family room. You may have noticed that I rearranged a few things after I took these pictures (I think I'll forever be doing that). :)

I hope you enjoyed my kitchen tour! I tried to link either identical or similar items if you're looking to add anything to your kitchen!

I'll be back soon to share another room! 

XOXO,