I <3 (heart) my new kitchen. 'Bout yours?
So over the past few days I have realized how much I love my kitchen. It's so different from my old kitchen. And while fixing lunch today for the kids, I thought, why not blog about it and then see what my blogging buds like about their kitchens?!
The kitchen is where most time is spent in any family, so it needs to be liked, right? I never liked my kitchen in the past because it was not very workable to our lives. After being here 1 month, I can say how much I think this one rocks!
Old Kitchen
It was just that -- an old set-up. The house was built in 1930 so the kitchen was like and alley kitchen, all the cabinets along one side and the other side housed the fridge and the stove. That's it. It was small. Very small. And I had no counter space. There was one window and we got north light, so not much sunlight at all. The floors were real hard wood, and while the thought of it was nice, they never looked nice. No matter what I did, even scrubbing them with a wood cleaner by hand, they still looked dirty to me. I think it was the sheen of them. I just never liked that kitchen. I remember having guests over in the past and we'd end up sitting on the floor because that's where we'd congregate to!
This new kitchen, I am in love with. Can you be in love with a kitchen? Um, here's proof!
New Kitchen faves:
Light! I have light. Lots of light! One window over the sink (facing south) and the east wall is completely covered with windows. So we don't even need lights in this kitchen because of all the natural light we have coming through. I absolutely love it. I feel like my kitchen is outdoors.
Deck! We have a door that goes straight from the kitchen to the deck. And the deck is huge - two tiered. I just love it. Do we have anything on the deck yet? No, nothing. But the ideas flowing through my head are just overflowing! I can't wait to put my ideas to work.
Sink window. The window over the sink faces the back yard. Since our kitchen is on the upper level, I can see everything. I can see the swing set, the play house, everywhere my kids are except for the front. But the majority of the yard is in the back.
Cabinets. They are new cherry wood cabinets. We didn't have to do anything to them. They are perfect and soooo nice. They are extra tall and have chrome hardware just as I would have done. Oh, and there are lots of them! We have at least twice the cabinet space we did have. (of course even so, I can't find enough room still! Isn't that how it goes usually?!)
Backsplash. The backsplash is bead board and I love bead board. It's very vintage-looking and very me! I couldn't have picked out a better backsplash.
Fan. We have a ceiling fan. We did not have a single ceiling fan in our old house. Now we have 4 and I really love them.
Microwave. We have a nice big microwave that sits over the stove. Before we had my hubby's from college which was teeny tiny and had very little power. I am just amazed at how well a "real" one works! The college one is now in a landfill somewhere. Bye-bye college mic!
Bar. We have a bar/breakfast area. This is my favorite thing. We have been eating all our meals here. If things spill, they spill on the tiled floor. In the old house our only seating was the dining room which was a carpeted dining room. (Note to file: Carpet is not good in a dining room, especially with small children!) I also like this bar area because the kids love it for doing art projects on, playing, whatever. And when I cook, it's a place to utilize! I never had any sort of counter space at the old house. I can't wait for Christmas baking!! And another big plus -- underneath the bar counter is more storage. Who doesn't love storage??
Things I don't like
The counter - it's just a laminate. We hope to change that out one day.
The sink. It's stainless and I am not liking it at all. It's so hard to keep shiny clean. I want my ceramic one back! I think we're going to replace it soon.
We don't have a disposal and I miss my disposal. Another thing we are going to change very soon.
It's crazy yet interesting how over time, kitchen styles change. Use to, they weren't for congregating in. Now they are. So they are built completely different. I like how they are now, don't you? What is yours like? What are your favorite features?
Soon I hope to show pictures, but it isn't done yet. I'm working very hard. You'll see pics soon. Promise.
10 comments:
Val, as you probably know, we rent our apartment. But, one of the best things about the space is our kitchen. It is big enough (although I would like even bigger in our own house someday), has two large windows and hardwood floors. I do love hardwood, although I am with you on the cleaning aspect. They are hard to take care of.
We have a dishwasher (my first!), garbage disposal, GAS oven (the only way to cook!), lovely cabinets (and plenty of them) and granite countertops. I love the kitchen, but our landlord needs to replace the fridge. It doesn't match the other appliances.
Your new kitchen sounds fantastic! I can't wait to see pictures or better yet, see it in person! Sounds like I need to stop by around the holidays for some of the baked goods you are planning!!! :)
Happy cooking to you!
Can't wait to see it!! I'm so glad that you are loving it! I love our "new" (almost a year now, can you believe it!!?) kitchen too. I love the tall cabinents and i love the pantry!!! I love having a space for "things". I have lots of "things". :) We also have a lot of counter space that is nice and a little bar area that is fun when we have company- they can sit there and relax while i am in the kitchen. We have an undermount sink and granite counters. God Bless the creator of the undermount sink. you just push the crumbs right into the sink. I also really love our appliances. I didn't think that it would make such a difference having really nice appliances, but it totally does! In my NEXT house though, I want to have a kitchen that has a place for a kitchen table. I like having a kitchen table to eat at during the week, and a dining room table for dinner parties with guests. And a little window over the sink is just so cute. I want one of those. Ours is just all open now. But I love the thought of a small kitchen plant in the window ledge of the kitchen. so cute.
I like BIG kitchens with plenty of bench space
when we moved here there was hardly any bench space but Muzz's dad built me a bench with 2 cupboards under it
bless him
I also like lots of light recently the lights stopped working - old house that the landlord does NOTHING with. Muzz got some new fittings and fixed it up so I have my lights back. For about a week I used a bedside lamp in the kitchen it just about drove me nuts
I LOVE my mircowave couldnt be without it
I also use my grill in the oven a LOT
I have a disposal unit and its handy. As long as you dont put the wrong type of food down it and it stops working.
Interesting thought provoking post
thanks
I can't wait to see the kitchen.. you definatly have my antsy. As for my kitchen I can very easily list what I hate but have to think hard about what I love. But here goes:
I love that the living room is right there next to it opened up so I am not far from family while cooking. I love the dishwasher. Haha after always being the sole dishwasher growing up, I love that I never have to wash by hand.
I hate, the size, the fact that I can't get a beautiful fridge with an icemaker w/o doing major replumbing, the tiny size, no cabinet space, oh and did I mention the size??
But I am oh so glad you love yours you deserve it chica!!
You're right, having a nice kitchen is awesome. I don't love our kitchen here. Except for one thing--the window over the sink. It's relaxing and beautiful to look out over our backyard & lake while scrubbing dishes or cooking!
Counter space is key. That was the most exciting thing when we moved in here (after having none in our apt. before!)--we could both be working on a meal and both have enough space! I hope wherever we live next has enough counter space, too!
Welcome to your new home!
I love my kitchen..I have lots of cabinets..like 33+:0 lots of counter space as well. I also love looking out my kitchen window over looking the mountain view.. as well as the playhouse, pool, trampoline, swing set...you couldn't tell we have kids, could ya..hehe
I also have a big sliding glass doors that goes out into a screened in deck...which I LOVE! we live out there...well when it's not 104 out.
we also have a breakfast bar...but we don't use ours much. I only have 2 stools, so it doesn't work for our family since I have a whole baseball team...but I use them when I'm crafting.
We also have the mirco over the stove, which I also LOVE! It does everything, and it's easy for the kids to work.
Glad you love your kitchen though...woman and their kitchen is like men and their garages(workshop here)
Toodles......
Jenn
Can I come use your kitchen? Ours is new (as is the house) but small. It's not really too small b/c things can get done and it could be a whole lot worse but I would love it to be BIG. It's a good kitchen for someone who doesn't like to cook from scratch or have many things stored.
When we moved in we actually had to switch a cabinet and counter and the fridge b/c we couldn't open the fridge door (36" side by side). So that counter wasn't 36" only 33" I think so we have some extra space at the end. We say we're going to get a cabinet and counter that fit but haven't gotten there yet.
Someday (might not be till heaven) I'll have my dream kitchen.
When we moved 4 years ago, we tripled our kitchen counter space - love it! We have lots of cabinet space and a bar. No windows, sniff. Cosmetically, we need to do tons - floor, counter tops, sink, resurface cabinets. But the kitchen in very functional.
I can't wait to see your kitchen with my own eyes! :) (but I like hearing about it through your words)
My kitchen is BIG... and that's about the only good thing... well that and my sweet ceramic floors. OK so the Windows are pretty nice as well. However, there is NOT enough cabinet space, the pantry is NOT set up well. The dishwasher is loud and ugly. It doesn't have a microwave over the stove and I wish it did. There is NOT enough counter space, and the kitchen table light is UGLY! It worked for a while but now I hate it. It was an awesome kitchen when we first moved in, but now, we need something different. THIS would be my dream kitchen: Granite counter tops (or something equivalent), 42 in cabinets. At least one glass cabinet for showing off pretty crystal! Stainless steal appliances, except for the fridge, which would blend into the cabinetry. A pantry that is built into the cabinetry and slides open with shelving for cans and spices as well as other dry goods. an island with bar or a peninsula with bar seating. 2 sinks (one on island, one on counter top), sinks would be ceramic or the new material that is just amazing, but I don't know the name of it. Garbage Disposal, some creative lighting (would depend on style of kitchen as to the lighting), recessed lighting throughout the kitchen and under cabinet lights. LOADS of cabinets for all of my gadgets (I LOVE COOKING), a viking gas stove/oven combo, BIG! a huge dining area in the kitchen where we could have a table that seats up to 10, so that we could have lots of people over for dinner or whatever. Lots of windows. ceramic or travertine tile back splash, travertine floors or hard wood floors. a QUIET dishwasher, with all buttons on the INSIDE so the kids don't mess with them. ice machine in the island for when we entertain, lots of space for extra cooks in the kitchen, I like having people with me in the kitchen! That's just the beginning of my dream kitchen wish list! I can envision what I want, but I could never describe it all in one comment! ;)
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