The Kitchen Tour

I think our kitchen is probably my favorite room in our house. It’s definitely the most “me” and almost mirrors my closet; lots of black and white and the one pop of color is bright green. The Cuties have even dubbed this particular shade “Mommy Green,” which I think has a lovely ring to it, and am kind of bummed Benjamin Moore hasn’t renamed the shade in my honor!

Because we have an older home, our kitchen is M-U-C-H smaller than you see today in newer construction. Basically, it was designed for a housekeeper or cook, and not as a gathering place like modern kitchens. Well in our house, I am both the housekeeper and cook, and since it’s not really big enough to gather in, I am perpetually shooing people out while I’m preparing big meals.  It’s got a lot of different “areas” which makes it a bit challenging to photograph, so bear with me as this gets photo-heavy, please!

I really love this bank of windows that overlooks our backyard, so I can do the dishes while the Cuties play outside.  Below the center window is our basement hatchway, and in nice weather the Cuties especially like to play a game where I leave the window open and they climb up and play drive through window and take my order.  Silly girls.

We’re also huge fans of the baking counter on the right.  I really love having the lower counter to work out since I’m vertically challenged petite, and it’s nice to have a place the Cuties can help cook without needing to be perched on step stools.

While I’d love two ovens, this one is about a size and a half, so with careful planning I can fit a large turkey and a casserole in there at the holidays.  I have *ahem* I bit of a history of setting off smoke detectors while cooking chicken, but thanks to this hood and the venting system, I am pleased to report my days of freaking my children out are gone {from the smoke alarm, at least}. Check out my spice rack.  It makes me feel like a mad scientist while cooking!  And my salt pig.  Do you have one?  Everyone should have a salt pig.  It’s fun to talk about.  C’mon.  Now you have to say it ~ salt pig!

I love this corner.  For starters, the cookie jar lives here.  Must I really say more?  The lamp was a really fun project I’ll be posting a tutorial for someday, I promise!  And my chalkboard has solved a huge frustration in our house; the Cuties are semi-obsessed with knowing what’s for dinner and start asking pretty much the minute they get home from school.  The problem is they’re kids and so well, they forget the answer about 20 seconds after I’ve told them.  But they both read now, and so I simply write what’s for dinner on the board and they can check on their own!  Love when I can empower them to help themselves and not make me insane before dinner.

To the right of where my aprons are is a little hallway that leads to the Butler’s Pantry.  Well in addition to being the housekeeper and cook, I’m also the butler {look at all that resume building I’m doing as a stay-at-home-mom!}.  It’s basically much needed storage for pretty much all of our dishes and serving pieces, and our microwave and coffee station are here.  Across from the sink is a swinging door into our dining room which is nice in that no one has to look at the disaster dishes from meal prep while eating.

If you keep walking to the right of the butler’s pantry you come to our Breakfast Room.  The four of us eat our meals here when we’re not in the dining room.  To the right of the table are the French doors you saw in the Dining Room Tour that connect the two rooms.  I love all the light in this room and we are far enough back from the street that privacy isn’t really a concern {and I’m more of a Laura Petrie gal than Lisa Douglas in my sleepwear choices anyway ~ by the way, could I have just dated myself more?}.

That light fixture used to be shiny brass with orange bulbs.  Ain’t spray paint grand?!!!

So that’s the kitchen.  And since you stopped by, I feel obligated to ask if you want something to eat?  I live in fear of people being hungry in my house and constantly want to feed them.  It’s cultural, what can I say?