Sunday, February 15, 2009

Kitchen Ideas

After almost 3 years of living with a galley style kitchen that has ONE drawer, I'm so excited to finally be able to fully unpack and spread out. I have boxes and boxes of cooking tools, wineglasses, baking pans, etc. that have been sitting in the garage because there was no room in the kitchen. I also have quite a few ideas for my new space. It's currently very plain, white ceramic tile counters, plain oak cabinets, linoleum, etc. Our first order of business is a new refrigerator and range. Fortunately there is a gas line, yay! Our dream fridge is a french door behemoth, and I'm debating the merits of a double oven. It would be nice for cooking large meals and for parties, but I don't know if it's really worth the added expense.

Here are some pictures of the new digs, so you can see what I'm talking about, I swear these are the worst pictures on earth. The listing agent must have been in a hurry:






My big ideas are (in no particular order):
1. Butcher block on the island, with an 8-10" overhang into the living room, so we can use it as a breakfast bar.

2. Paint the cabinets white and put a beadboard insert in the door faces for a cottage look.

3. New light fixture, something funky.

4. Glass brick tile backsplash, I love the brightness of glass tile!

5. Solid surface countertops, maybe Silestone or one of the new acrylics, with a seamless integrated sink for easy cleaning.

6. New flooring, we are going to do laminate in the kitchen, living room and front formal dining room area. Our dog will thrash the carpets in no time, laminate is so easy to clean and the newer handscraped styles look wonderful.

7. I want to paint the panels on the pantry doors with magnetic paint on two, and chalkboard paint on the other two. The kiddos can play while I cook, and I can write notes when I need to re-stock!

8. Slide out shelves in a few of the cabinets, great for pots and pans!

9. New window coverings, the dirty aluminum blinds will do for now, but eventually we'll put up something a little nicer looking.

As you can see, I've been spending way too much time daydreaming about the new house!

4 comments:

Amber said...

I like the open kitchen. And it really is a blank slate, just waiting for decorating! Love the extend the island into a breakfast bar idea! So excited for you guys!

Anonymous said...

You've got such an open space over the island, why not do a hanging pot rack so you have *even more* cupboard space? You can get them fairly reasonably priced...

Hi, my name is Sarah. said...

The ceilings are really high, I thought about a pot rack but it would have to have mile long chains holding it to the ceiling! Plus, to keep everything within my reach, Nick would probably be banging his head on it. I love love love hanging pot racks though.

Jessie said...

Homeowners can renovate their kitchen place with discount kitchen cabinets, oak cabinets, or red maple cabinets.