Welcome to our kitchen! I decided to continue with our home tour with the busiest room in our house.

We had so much fun planning our kitchen. I wanted openness and I wanted really functional storage. The biggest way we achieved more storage in an average size kitchen was to use more deep drawers instead of cabinets. We only have lower cabinets underneath the rangetop. Everything else is deep drawers. We keep our pots and pans, lids, baking dishes, sippy cups, and really every single thing in the drawers. We did one cabinet for huge items like our roasting pan, cake plates and one huge boiler I have.

The kitchen is open to the family room, and I know this isn’t for everyone, but it has been so great for us. In the last house, the galley kitchen was really far from the family room, but people still wanted to gather in the kitchen. There just wasn’t anywhere for them to sit. I love that in this house, everyone can be together and still have plenty of room to spread out or watch the game.

Cooking dinner at night has gotten so much easier just because the kids aren’t constantly calling for me, and I can see them.

We decided on a microwave drawer and have really loved it so far! I love that if something is heavy or hot, I’m not trying to pull it down from above.

Thanks to Pinterest, choosing our kitchen finishes was a lot easier than I thought it would be. There are so many beautiful kitchens out there. Antiqued cabinets. All gray cabinets. Dark cabinets. White cabinets. How could I possibly choose? It’s all so beautiful! But when I looked at my kitchen board on Pinterest, it was obvious was my style was. Every kitchen I had pinned was white cabinets, white subway tile, and a light counter top.

Despite second-guessing myself and its practicality for a few months, we finally decided to go with carerra marble counter tops. I had heard that it was impractical and that they stain and scratch. But I didn’t care about the risks. I knew that I’d probably never get the chance again to choose my counter top, and marble was what I really wanted. And it was surprisingly affordable! And I have not regretted that decision once. We absolutely love our counter tops and haven’t tip-toed around them at all!

Our mudroom, desk area, and laundry room are right by the back door on the way to the kitchen. That has helped us tremendously when trying to cut down on kitchen clutter. We still have clutter, but it stays off the kitchen counter top.

I’ve included a source list at the bottom of this post, and I’m happy to answer any questions y’all may have. Wish you could all come over for coffee today!

Sources: Wall paint color: Sherwin Williams Sea Salt at 50%

Pantry door color: Sherwin Williams Unusual Gray

Trim color: Sherwin Williams Extra White

Cabinet color: Sherwin Williams Extra White

Island color:

Breakfast table: given to my mom by her grandmother and passed down to me

Breakfast chairs: Found at Scott’s in Atlanta

Polka Dot Vase: Kate Spade

Island Lights: Round Top, Texas find

Breakfast table light: purchased wholesale through Arteriors

Bar Stools: hand-me-down from my mom, Palecek

Dragonfly pottery: found at the Charleston City Market

*There’s a giveaway at the bottom of this post for one of my favorite items in this room.

I thought I’d kick off the home tour with a really fun room that is fun for the whole family.

The playroom is located around the corner once you get to the top of the stairs. We designed it on the plans like an upstairs den. It has three full walls, and the missing wall is open to the hallway that leads to the upstairs bedrooms and bathrooms.

We love that it’s an easy place for all of us to sit and hang out while the boys play, and someday when they don’t really play with toys anymore, it can be a place for them to sit and watch TV or play video games (do they really have to grow up and do that someday? ha!) and hang out with their friends. I love that it’s not closed off and feels open and bright.

The boys and I cleaned it up so we could take some pictures of it last week. It gets cleaned up every night before bed, but during the day you can imagine what it looks like.

This storage system from Land of Nod was the only new thing we got for this room. It is the perfect solution to tiny toys, books, movies, and really helps us stay organized.

The polka dot rug was in the nursery at the old house and I love that we got to find a new home for it at the new house. And Truffles the dog was a baby present for Hudson when he was born.

If you’ve been reading for a while, you remember this monkey from Hudson’s monthly updates. And the Happy Land pillow may be my favorite thing in the world! I got the pillow last summer when my mom and I were at market and I couldn’t wait to put it in the new playroom.

Sweet little Fiona is my shadow, so it’s remarkable she only made it into one photo!

The sofa was the very first piece of furniture we bought for our old house. It lived in our living room for five years and  we moved it up to the playroom when we moved in here. It will probably need to be recovered someday, but it is so comfy. And it’s my favorite nap spot!

The green glider was in the nursery at the old house, too. I like that we were able to have enough seating in the playroom for when we have play dates and a few parents are hanging out in this room.

 

Resources and Information:

Paint color: Sherwin Williams Sea Salt cut to 50%

Sofa: Bernhardt (this sofa was in our living room in the old house)

Kids’ Chairs: Pottery Barn Anywhere Chair in large and extra large

Rug: Pottery Barn (this was the rug used in Hudson’s and Hayes’s nursery in the old house)

Storage system: c/o Land of Nod

Belonging Sign: House of Belonging

Nautical Pillow and Happy Land Pillow: Peking Handicraft (Happy Land pillow available at Heart and Home Collection)

Large Monkey and Large Stuffed Dog: Jelly Cats

Animal Artwork: Old Art Guy (oldartguy.com)

If you have any questions about the room, leave them in the comments and I’ll respond there.

Okay, so now for the giveaway! You can find the Happy Land pillow at Heart & Home Collection. But one of you can win one by entering the Rafflecopter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway