Creating our Kitchen

I've been fantasizing about my dream kitchen forever. It's the number one place that I'm willing to spend money on, mostly because of my own happiness but also because kitchens are an investment. You use your kitchen SO MUCH and need it to be functional for 20 or 30 years. Keeping those two areas in mind led me to my kitchen wish list..

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1. Beauty
I love bright kitchens. I don't think I've ever seen a bright kitchen that I thought was ugly. Therefore, white cabinets were my top pick. It took some convincing Andy but I finally won him over :)

2. Higher End Stainless Appliances
I'm a bit of a foodie. Making good food is important to me. Plus, stainless steel appliances are kind of hot. I wanted to make sure we got highly rated appliances that could last me a long time.

KitchenAid Double Oven - Architect Series

3. Open (but not too open) concept
It's important to me that our kitchen open up to our living space. When I'm cooking, I don't want to be completely isolated, and I know having a view to the living room will come in handy when we have children. Therefore, open concept was a must.

However, I do want a somewhat formal dining space, and I feel like you can't completely have that in an uber open concept area. I am not a fan of having both a separate formal dining room and a large table in your kitchen. (Let's be real, you would always use the kitchen table. Why waste space for a formal dining that you use maybe twice a year??!) So, we needed to create a dining space connected to our kitchen that could also be appropriate for formal occasions. Our dining is slightly tucked away off our kitchen on the opposite side from the living space. Like I said, open but not too open :) The best of both worlds.

Sarah Richardson Design - Oceanview Estate

4. Island Space
My parents have an island and it's super functional. I can't imagine making a recipe facing a wall or top cabinet anymore. It's just not as fun. And it's nice to have extra seating on the island, too.

5. Storage
This is a no-brainer. I scoured Pinterest high and low for storage options before putting in our cabinetry order. The short version of my storage must haves:
-pull out shelves in all of the cabinets
-an in-the-drawer knife block (boosts kid safety and less counter clutter)
-deep drawers to put pots and pans in with an attached space for pot lids
-slotted storage for cooking sheets (I HATE pulling those darn things out of crammed spaces)

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6. A kick-butt pantry
The pantry is so amazing that it warrants an entirely separate post. But I did feel the need to mention it here because it is technically a part of our kitchen. It. Is. Awesome.

The BEST NEWS OF ALL? Our kitchen is nearly complete! The last appliances got installed today and I can't wait to see it all. We just need to give it a good polish and it should be ready to go :) I can't wait to get cookin!