My Kitchen Reveal!

Kitchen Reveal!!

WELCOME in…

To me, the kitchen is the heart of the home!

It is where I spend the most time and it’s where some of my favorite memories and traditions have been created and where I can’t wait to continue to create more.

When creating my kitchen, I had about a million wants haha but then of course had to come back to reality as I would have needed a lot more space for what I envisioned but first and foremost, I just wanted to create a loving space.

I wanted to create a space that people would enjoy being in, that was light, bright, airy, refreshing, and one that every time I looked at it or walked towards when waking up in the morning I smiled.

For me that meant A LOT of white, a lot of little details and of course openness and a place to display my favorite things.

 I narrowed down the top 5 things I wanted to incorporate when designing my kitchen or this post could probably go on for days because I love talking about kitchen design.

My top 5 kitchen design musts’:

1. A big Island: a kitchen island was really important to me because it’s where I envision my friends and family gathering around. You can sit at the counter and eat or gather around for appetizers etc., and I love being able to cook and have everyone close by. A larger island also gives you a lot more counter space for cooking, chopping, plating, etc. Not only does it give you more space on top it can also allow for more storage space/ lower cabinets on the bottom. I needed all the storage space I could get because I have a lot of kitchen utensils and dining wear so adding all that extra cabinet space was helpful. Lastly, as you probably know by now fresh flowers are always a must in my home and my favorite place to have them is in my kitchen. I love adding flowers, fruit, bowls of candy, etc. all over my countertop as to me it just really adds the extra touch of “homeyness” (not a word, but you get what I mean haha) and comfort to my home/ kitchen.
2. Open Shelving: I love the idea of having all my favorite and fancy kitchen pieces on display. It also opens up the kitchen to me and creates dimension within the space.
3. Kitchen sink window: Natural light in my kitchen was really important to me. I am always in the kitchen so I wanted to be able to have all the light poor in. Not only is that good for the soul but good for the photos haha. Because I shoot and photograph a lot in my kitchen good light is everything for that. I also love the idea that If people are outside playing or grilling you can still feel like you’re a part of the party outside even though your inside.
4. Pot filler: I am constantly using the stove and always filling up my pots with water. I didn’t want to have to carry the water and the pots back and forth from the sink to the stove. It is so nice to be able to pull the spout out. Now I just fill up all my pots directly over the stove.
5. Farm sink: A large sink was really important to me because, well, I use A LOT of dishes.  Having the extra space to stack and get them all cleaned was a must for me. Not to mention farm sinks look SOO CUTE! I love how my sink blends into the countertop. It still gives different dimensions and depth to space. It is a different texture and material than the countertop. This creates that contrast I think is so important in a kitchen.

Kitchen Details:

I want to do a separate post on a lot of the kitchen details… within my cabinets etc, my favorite kitchen utensils, etc., so for this post I will stick to more surface details. And speaking of surface details I’ll start with the countertop…

1. Countertop: Quarts: Truthfully, I wanted a marble counterto. One day I will create a space in my future kitchen for marble countertops. For now I ended up going with Quarts. Not only is Quarts a more affordable option it is much more durable against all of the cooking, cutting, spilling and staining that can happen in the kitchen. Marble is amazing but also known to stain. For someone who cooks a lot, and equally spills a lot, I would have probably gone from white marble to yellow or red marble after a couple years. I’ve been in my house now 3 years and the Quarts has held up beautifully. It also still gave me the white clean look I wanted throughout my kitchen.
2. Cabinets: I used a local cabinet company in AZ to design all my cabinets and open shelving. I went with of course a white cabinet color option. For the face of the cabinets I went with an option that fit within my budget. White cabinets were becoming a trend which makes it more expensive. Therefore, I chose a cabinet style that was a little less because the color of the cabinets rose the price. Another future wish-list item in regards to cabinets is to have all my appliances, except the stove, covered with cabinetry. This will make it all look fluid with the kitchen.
3. Hardware: I always wanted to do gold/brass hardware. I have personally never really liked silver so I wanted to go bold for my kitchen. I went on a site called Hardware Hut (HH) to find all my cabinet pulls and knobs. I found they had great pricing. Because I was going to spend a little more on faucets/ pot fillers etc., I did without getting the fanciest hardware. Instead, I chose a simple option from HH.
4. Faucets: I got my faucets, and pot filler from a local store in Arizona, Clydes Hardware. The brand is “Waterstone faucets”. Both the sink faucets, water sprayers, and the pot filler is form the Annapolis collection through Waterstone.
5. Appliances: My family is in construction so I feel very lucky I was able to get a lot of this at cost. I went with brands that fit within that. I went with a 4 top burner for the stove and a griddle in the middle because I thought it would be so nice to have for making pancakes or larger breakfasts on etc. But to be honest I have NEVER ONCE used it. The cleanup for the burner seems too much for me. I wish I would have just gone for the 6 burners instead. This is all preference haha and I do like the look of the burner. It allows me to use the top for a little vase of flowers, my salt and pepper shakers, my ladle holder etc.
   1. Stove: Wolf
   2. Dishwasher, Fridge and Freezer: G.E appliance
6. Bar Stools: I purchased my bar stools from Williams Sonoma, and I love them!! They are comfortable, they have a nice back and they match the chairs in my breakfast nook, which is right off the kitchen so that was a lot of why I got them.
7. Coffee Nook: Coffee is one of my absolute favorite things, so making space for that was important for me. I wanted it to have open shelving so I could display my favorite mugs, books, and coffee maker etc.
8.  Pendant Lighting: When choosing my kitchen light fixtures I wanted to go with something that wouldn’t take away from the kitchen. What I wanted was your eyes to see through it not necessarily directly at it! I went with a see pendant globe light that actually originally I found with silver hardward.  But I knew with a little spray paint I could turn it gold for it to match with the rest of my kitchen. Personally, I did not do the spray paint job. I should leave that to the professionals. Then, I asked my contractor to do it and it turned out perfectly. I got my fixtures from Visual Comfort Lighting. Unfortunately, my kitchen pendants are no longer on the site. They were 3 years old. But they have tons of similar ones and other amazing options.

Below I share links to all my kitchenware and  nick nacks.

If you have any comments or kitchen questions don’t hesitate to comment below or message me. I will happily answer it all! I hope you enjoyed a peak into my kitchen and can’t wait to share more details in future posts.