I don’t know about your house, but the kitchen always seems to be the center of everything at mine.  It is where all the people gather at parties, madly packing into the small area despite the spacious family room with comfy couches right next door! But alas, people gather in the kitchen, surrounding the food and seem to appreciate the casual nature of standing around leaning against the kitchen counters.

The kitchen in my house is one of the things I fell in love with first.  I loved the white-(ish) cabinets, the bright light it gets from the sliding glass door, and the fact that it is both literally and figuratively the heart of the home. 

When I bought the house, this is what the kitchen looked like:

In fact that’s me in the corner signing off on the inspection information prior to purchase.  Over the course of the two years I have owned this house I tiled the backsplash, painted the handles to the cabinets, added an island cart, and changed out the curtains. I consider this room MOSTLY done… (is a room ever REALLY done??).  The things I’d like to add to this room are:

• change the old microwave/oven out for double ovens
• build out the molding on the opening to the family room
• add a rug?
• figure out if I can change the large fluorescent light fixture for something more elegant.
• change out the alien light fixture?
• change out the sink faucet for one that still swivels and hasn’t been calcified

What alien light fixture you might ask?  This one:

Is it just me or does that look like a few alien ships are about to land on my kitchen table? But for now it fits in the color scheme and provides good light over the table, so I’ll leave it until I find something perfect or aliens really do come landing on my table. This is the view from the kitchen island looking back at the breakfast table.  That table and chairs were one of my first purchases when I got my first apartment. I think the grand total was around 500 dollars for all of it from Target. The table even has a built in leaf that is easy to change sizes.  Its seen its fair share of wear and tear (look at me rhyming!), but it fits perfectly in this space and I’ll probably use it for several more years.  My one big beef with it is that it is counter height, which I love the aesthetic of, but it makes adding additional chairs impossible, so 4 is my limit at this table.  If there are any more than that we have to move into the formal dining room or sit on couches. The three pictures behind it are recent additions: the towel is this one from Crate and Barrel in red. I just spray adhesived it to poster board and hung it in these awesome giant frames from Ikea. (I had to get a friend cut the mat board to have a big enough opening to fit the towel.) The picture on the top right was a shower gift with our names and wedding date on it, and our lovely state of Texas. And the bottom one is an Etsy purchase found here. It has a Kitchen Aid (my favorite thing!!) and says: baby, you spin me right round.  I love it! Although the pops of red don’t show up anywhere else in the kitchen, they can be found throughout my house and brings a little unity with the rest of the house! (and I love how sharp they look with the black frames and mats!)

The kitchen island/rolling cart I added because I needed a little extra counter space, the kitchen is large, but doesn’t have a lot of just free counter space for food prep, so I brought this guy down from the attic.  I believe my brother bought it YEARS ago from Target.  I’ll show you its various stages in a later post, but I refinished it to coordinate better with this kitchen.

PS… don’t mind Lexie, she is fairly confident she is the center of attention at all times, and was just posing for the camera.

And the completed before and after:

For some reason the coloring is a little off in the before picture.  The cabinets have always been a little creamy white not true white, and the floor is more true to life in the after picture.