The heart of the home: the kitchen

Today I'm going to show you my favorite room in our house. It's a good thing I like my kitchen, because it's where I spend most of my time! Take a little tour with me.

Our kitchen is large, open room which includes a casual eating area and a seating/desk area. Here's a view from one end of the room to the other:

And now, a little closer look, going from end to end. The eating area and seating area:

Our table is from Pottery Barn. It's enormous--11 1/2 feet long! I love being able to have a table big enough to seat lots of people. (A side note about Pottery Barn. I love their things, but they tend to be little pricey. If there's a piece I want, I wait for it to go on sale, and then I purchase it with a Pottery Barn credit card. I pay the credit card off in full the next month--adding interest payments to the purchase price would be horrible. But by using the PB card, I get a reward of 10% of the amount I spent in a Pottery Barn gift certificate.) Beside the table is my mother's dough cabinet, which is one of my most prized possessions.

The stairs to the left of this picture lead down to the "terrace level," also known as the walk-out basement. I like the fact that the stairs are open; it makes this level feel more like a part of the house.

The middle of the room:

The bar is where I usually sit and blog! My favorite thing here is the barstools. They were boring barstools from TJMaxx; I refinished and re-upholstered them, and now I love them. Click here if you want to read about them.

The working kitchen end of the room:

One of my favorite features of this part of the kitchen is the lighted shadowboxes at the top of the cupboards. I use them to display pitchers. You can read more about the pitchers here.

Another of my favorite things is the window treatment. I originally made a faux Roman shade using Thrifty Decor Chick Sarah's tutorial. I love the plantation shutters on the windows of the other end of this room, but I wanted to be able to see out of the window above the sink, plus I wanted a pop of color. Sarah's tutorial is super-easy (and of course, since it's from Sarah, it's fun to read!). That's the red shade you see in the photos above.

This spring I wanted to change the shade, and I came up with an even easier way to make a faux Roman shade. You can see that tutorial here if you like.

You know how they say the kitchen is the heart of the home? Well, my kitchen connects to the back entry, the dining room, the living room, the downstairs, the deck, and the screened porch. It really is like the heart of this house, with accessibility to most of the rest of the living space. It's especially fun for parties, where we usually cover the island with food and the bar with beverages. I'm always amazed at how people just hang out in this room.

I'd love for you to come hang out in my kitchen. I guess this virtual hanging out is the next-best thing! Where do you hang out at your house?

Notes: Cupboards are maple beadboard; granite is Santa Cecilia

Drawer pulls and cabinet knobs are from Restoration Hardware

Appliances are KitchenAid

Wall color is Ruskin Room Green by Sherwin-Williams

**I'm joining these wonderful parties:

Show us your life kitchen party at Kelly's Korner

Heart of the Home Party at Note Songs

Room by Room at Cottage and Vine