Welcome to our Kitchen

Last week I linked up with Kelly's Korner for her living room blog hop, and this week I'm linking up again for the kitchen edition. My kitchen is my favorite room in the house. Hope you enjoy your tour!

This wall houses our double oven, microwave, toaster, and fridge. I was going for a rustic look, so I had our cabinets made out of knotty alder wood. I love the knots in it and the way that every door looks different. All of our appliances are stainless steel.

This is a microwave drawer. I had never even seen one until I was shopping for appliances for the house and ran across it. The boys like it because it has an open/close button that you can push so you never have to use the handle if you choose not to. Really though, how lazy are we getting that we can't even open our own microwave door?

The area above the pantry is a play place for the boys. I plan on doing something cute with the space after the boys outgrow toys, but for now it has a full train set up there on that floor. I like that they can be playing with the trains while I'm cooking and I can see and hear them. This is a neat space above the kitchen that I didn't originally have in our house plan.

The pantry is one of my favorite things about the kitchen. I have always wanted a walk-in pantry, so when I was drawing up the house plans, I made this a priority.

OK, so I don't keep the neatest pantry. But what I love about it is that there seems to be room for everything I want to put in there. I even keep my pots and pans in here.

The wall that the door opens onto is just perfect for holding cans and bottles. I didn't even notice until I looked at this pic that there are 4 bottles of BBQ sauce in here. I would like to just say right now that I did not purchase any of those. Robbie recently got a meat smoker and the boy loves him some BBQ sauce on his smoked meat! Ha!

This is the wall just to the right of the pantry. This is where we keep our every day dishes. This is also where I keep my Tupperware and my junk drawers (because EVERY kitchen needs those!).

This section overlooks our living room. It has our sink, dishwasher, and ice machine. I like that I can see everyone in the living room while I'm doing dishes.

This is a view of the kitchen from the living room.

For my kitchen sink I went with one big, deep bowl done in sandstone. I've never been one to fill up the sink with soap and water and do dishes in it, so I didn't think the divider was necessary. And the part of the faucet where the water comes out will pull out and become a sprayer. I love it!

Another purchase I'd do again in a heartbeat is our ice machine. I didn't want to get ice in the door of the fridge, so this was a good solution. The only negative thing I can say about this is that it is very busy. Even when no one has gotten ice all day, it's constantly melting and making more. It's almost as if we don't use enough to keep it entertained so it does its own thing. But, I do love it.

Our table. We normally always have the blinds open behind it, but the sunlight was causing a glare on the pictures so I had to close them. The view overlooks our front yard, driveway, and pond. We live out on 50 acres, so it's very peaceful and beautiful out here.

And this is our island with our cook top. I haven't mentioned it yet, but all of my counter tops and back splashes are travertine tile. I am not a big enough fan of granite to spend that kind of money on it, and tile was my favorite option. I thought they turned out really pretty and go well with the tile on my floor.

A view from the stairs

We've got four tall bar stools on the bar by the sink.

And my VERY favorite thing about my kitchen is when dinner is on the table and Robbie and the boys are coming in because it's ready. Last night on the menu was the most requested dish I make: poppy seed chicken with rice. And for dessert, chocolate covered strawberries!

Thanks for visiting our kitchen!!