My new house kitchen tour

I’ve been so excited to share my new kitchen with you.  As someone who loves to cook, it’s the favorite room of my house.  I put my heart and soul into its planning and design because I knew countless hours would be spent in it.  It was worth all the hours of dreaming, scouring magazines, blogs, and design websites as I absolutely adore the space.

The kitchen is open to the living room and is really the center of our home.  I love that I can be cooking or cleaning up after meals and can see the kids or be a part of whatever else is going on.  It’s a great space for entertaining and also low-key family nights.

Here’s the view of the living room I have when I’m standing at the kitchen sink.  That’s Meghan’s little head; she was watching the DVD of her dance recital when I snapped  this picture.  Decorating the house is still a work-in-progress, as you can see from the built-ins.

Back to the kitchen.  The center of the kitchen hosts a gigantic island.  We were worried that it was going to be too big and look strange, but we love it.  There’s plenty of room to eat on one side and not interfere with any food prep or cleaning that might be happening on the other side.

One end of the island was made into bookshelves where I can store some of my cookbooks.

Some of the not-so-pretty ones or really-beat-up ones are stored in the pantry, but I love having the cookbooks I use most right here.

The pantry is pretty amazing.  Any cook, organization freak, or busy parent would appreciate this walk-in pantry.

My old pantry looked crammed with food, but this one is so spacious it looks like we don’t have that much!  There’s even space to store small appliances, glass jars, and all kinds of random things.

I love these pull-out baskets for storing dry foods that used to cram up my counter tops.

Here’s a view of the other side of the kitchen.  That is the pantry door.  I have double ovens for the first time in my life and I am loving it!  Even though it’s summer, I’ve already utilized them several times.  My Vita-mix and food processor are the two small appliances that I keep out on my counter as they get used almost daily.

Here is the gas top stove.  I finally have gas again!  In my opinion, there is just no comparison cooking on electric vs. gas.  Gas is so much better!  There are also 6 burners so I can go crazy with all kinds of different dishes at once.  The brand of all of our appliances (except the microwave) is Kitchen Aid if anyone is wondering.  We’re very happy with them all so far.

The picture also shows the pull-out spice racks that flank the stove.  I used to spend so much time trying to search for the right spice when I had them in a regular cabinet, now they are so easily accessible.  I have the alphabetized (I know, that’s getting a little anal, but it helps so much!) so it saves me a lot of searching time.  The only con to these spice racks is they cut down and break up the work space around the stove, but I think it’s worth it.

The hardest decision for the whole house was the kitchen counter tops.  Based on the inspiration pictures of all the white kitchens I liked, I originally wanted marble countertops.  The idea was quickly shut down as they are just not practical enough for our family (they stain, scratch, and etch easily).

From there I decided to find a “white granite” instead as granite is much more durable.  I quickly found out that a non-busy, pure white granite doesn’t really exist.

This led us to look into quartz, which is an engineered product.  I liked that you could get quartz that was made to look like marble.  A lot of things led us to not get the quartz.  It was quite a bit more expensive than granite, plus I was worried about how an engineered product would look. I didn’t want counter tops that had a plastic look to them, which I felt some of the quartz I’d seen did.

In the end, I fell in love with Bianco Antico granite.  I’m including these close ups for anyone who might be googling “Bianco antico granite pictures”, which I did about 17 billion times.  I was worried about the busyness of granite, but once it was installed I knew we made the right choice.  This Bianco Antico is so beautiful! There are specs of gray that compliment our gray walls and the warm, cinnamon tones work well with our espresso island and warm up a space that might otherwise be too cold with all the white.

We opted not to have a formal dining room, so the area adjacent to the kitchen is our main eating space.  We got an enormous table to fill the space and also have the ability to host larger family gatherings.

All the windows make it a bright, airy space.  Our back yard still doesn’t have grass, as you can see. We’re getting there.

There’s a sliding glass door on the other side that leads to our outdoor patio space.

The table itself is made from reclaimed wood and lends a relaxed, rustic feel.  It’s perfect for our casual family.

And for good measure, here’s one more picture.  I hoped you enjoyed this tour and getting a little peek into our new home.  Now I better go because I’ve got some cooking to do. 🙂