Home tour: my kitchen

If there were to ever be a movie about my life, most of it would be set right here--in my kitchen.  So much of my time is spent in this room.  Take a look around with me!

Here's the view from one end of the room to another:

And the view looking back the other way:

As you can see, it's a long room, so I'll show you one section at a time.

At the far end is the door leading out to the deck and a bank of French doors leading to the screened porch.  Beside the French doors is my little desk area--my tiny "mom cave."

Next to that sits our giant (11 feet long) table and my mom's antique dough cabinet.  As you can see, I'm one of those people who mixes wood tones freely.

The dough cabinet is one of my most treasured pieces of furniture.  Behind its glass doors I keep little things that belonged to my mother and my grandmother, both of whom died in 1999.  The angel food cake pans on the wall to the right of the dough cabinet all belonged to my grandmother--this was just a fraction of her collection!

The dough cabinet is one of my favorite spots for seasonal decorations.  Right now it's just holding some of our hydrangeas plus the Lego "Town Hall" that my son Lee (aka LegoLee329) recently built.

On to the working end of the kitchen.  

The windows in my kitchen all face west, so they let in a lot of sunlight.  I like the plantation shutters in the eating and desk area, but I like having the window over the sink uncovered.  I created a super-easy no-sew faux Roman shade just to block a bit of the glare from the sun and to add some color here.

One of my favorite things about this kitchen is the feature at the top of the cupboards.  Those lighted shadowboxes give me great pleasure--but they sure threw me for a loop when I first started wondering what to put in them!  I decided on a single pitcher in each one.

And the other side of the room, which shows the doorway to the dining room and the living room.

Even though I have a nice desk at the end of the room, the bar is where I usually sit and work.  I like being right in the middle of things.

I found the barstools at TJMaxx and transformed them with paint and fabric.  Three of the people who live in this house are 6'6" or taller, so everyone wanted big barstools.

Lee sits here and works on his Lego creations, too.  

Here's a shot of the bar in relation to the rest of the room:

This shot gives you a look of the stairway that leads down to the "Terrace Level" (also known as the walkout basement).  The stairway wall contains one of my favorite DIY projects: a family portrait wall clock.



Recently my kitchen was the scene of some excitement: I won a brand-new KitchenAid stand mixer! Sandy Coughlin of Reluctant Entertainer held an amazing giveaway for a KitchenAid Artisan stand mixer, a darling apron from The Hip Hostess, and a copy of Reluctant Entertainer. Over 2000 people entered, and I won!  I'll write more about this later, but for now don't you think my mixer looks pretty in its new home?

And here are my darling apron and a copy of Sandy's book.  Lucky me!

I often get questions about my kitchen.  Sprinkled throughout this post are links to some of the projects.  Here are a few other details:

• Cupboards are maple beadboard.
• Granite is Santa Rita.
• Backsplash is tumbled marble tiles.
• Appliances are all KitchenAid.  Fridge and dishwasher are fitted with cabinet fronts.
• Drawer pulls and cabinet knobs are from Restoration Hardware.
• Wall color is "Ruskin Room Green" by Sherwin Williams. 

Thank you so much for spending time in the kitchen with me!  I wish you could come visit--we'd probably end up sitting at the bar with a cup of coffee or tea, wouldn't we?  The kitchen just seems to be the place where folks gather!

I'm joining Kelly at Kelly's Korner for her "Show Us Your Life" series.  You'll find lots of great kitchen inspiration there!