Hooray! At last, we took some professional pictures of our kitchen, which is arguably the favorite space to hang out in our house, and where Xavier has decided he's a little chef. 
Lord Jesus, where do we begin with this kitchen? How about at the very beginning? As in this is the kitchen I walked into when my heart told me last summer that this was the house for our little family.
Fun fact: Our Realtor Benny gave me the thumbs down sign when we first saw this house, for many many reasons, including the fact that there was a gaping hole in the living room ceiling from obvious water damage.
For me, a renovation nut, that gaping hole and this horrible kitchen were a dream come through. The possibilities were endless.
It was a challenging space for many reasons:
1. It was at the front of the house which I didn't really care for but I could live with that.
2. I'd wanted a kitchen with a large island so the hubs, who loves to cook, could have a major prep, space but the powder room is right next to the kitchen which means I could not gut the whole space to achieve that island. Oh, there was also a load bearing wall. Sigh. Double sigh.
3. I am fanatic about kitchen sinks being under a window. As you can see here, the view from the sink was a wall. Yes, a wall to look at as you washed dishes. Great.
But guess what? It
had a gas range. Say what now? A gas cooktop was a huge dream of ours
so despite the laundry list of challenges, this little kitchen was a winner in my eyes.
These were my initial plans. Gut
the pantry and create a wrap around countertop with a small island with seating for three.
Or no wrap around counters, but a larger island instead of a peninsula because I wanted a
waterfall edge on both sides.
Those plans were derailed when we discovered a load bearing column (it's where we now have Xavier's growth chart).
I was devastated. Translation: I bawled like a baby! But it all worked out because we now have a kitchen we love.
Priority number one was to relocate the sink to the window, not a cheap thing to do, but thankfully I got the family discount from my plumber.
The existing window was also too low for a sink, so we had to raise the wall up and install a new window. Again, no simple feat but there was no way I was gonna spend my years in this house looking at that wall as a view! PS, fresh flowers always make my day and are a weekly splurge.
We did manage to squeeze in a large peninsula with enough prep space to cook, something I really wanted for the hubby. We did so by relocating the refrigerator to the wall with the slide in range. This just made much more sense, as the previous location blocked the view of the kitchen from the family room.
A single pantry next to the refrigerator added enough extra storage.
If you know me well, then you know that a glass of wine is dietary staple so a wine/beverage station was a must have.
We could not fully connect the family room with the kitchen because of the existing powder room, so we created matching cut outs through the adjoining wall to offer some connectivity and for easy passing of a drink or two to guests. You'll get a better view of that pesky issue here in a photo of the hubs created our first Thanksgiving meal here last year.
And yes, that pretty much sums up how I feel about wine.
The adjoining wall next to the beverage area, has become a great space to display Xavier's artwork.
Let's talk about these floors shall we? I've long been obsessed with a herringbone tile pattern, and knew I wanted it in the kitchen. They remain a fave after a year of living here. And hats off to my installer Luis, for his flawless efforts which we chronicled here and here.
My heart sings when I see this backsplash. That selection was another challenge as we needed something simple, yet dramatic to play well with the veins of the granite, chosen here by you guys!
One of the greatest joys in creating this space, is to watch the little man develop a passion for cooking. He fancies himself a chef and rushes for his little stool to help whenever he sees us getting ready to prepare a meal.
And I think it's pretty clear that orange is my favorite color hence the pops of color seen throughout this kitchen.
And there you have it folks. Thanks for waiting patiently for this long overdue reveal. Running our insanely busy design business has made it difficult to pause to share all the photos and details from most projects these days, but I do miss connecting here often.
Do know that you can follow us over on Instagram for more frequent snippets about our projects and my life in general.
Hats off to the NWD team who worked tirelessly at night and on weekends to help us get this kitchen done, all while working on our many other projects. Hats off as well to the little brother Shomari who flew in from Jamaica for two weeks to help as well. This space was a true labor of love and we are eternally thankful.
Shop the Look:
Paint Color - Sherwin Williams - Serious Grey
Flooring
Kitchen Cabinets
Kitchen Faucet
Back Splash
Bar Stools
Orange Dish Towels
