Earlier this week, Mrs G. asked her blog friends to join her in throwing a blog open house. She wrote, “Reader, what is the heart of your home? What room in your house makes you breathe easier — makes you feel genuinely content?”
The heart of our home, for me, is the kitchen that I designed for our 1908 house. As an architect, I spend my days (and some nights) designing homes in which other people will live. This kitchen is only the second room that I’ve created to be just the way that Paul and I wanted it. We gutted the entire room, down to the studs, and then put it back together (with the help of a very skilled contractor). A mix of modern and traditional, hard edges and soft detail, black & white and vivid color, it’s the room in which I feel most comfortable, most myself, most at home.
In our kitchen, I am surrounded by reminders of people I love, and who love us: the dishes and cookware we received as wedding presents, my grandmother’s Fiestaware, the kitchen elf brought by a friend shortly after Paul’s cancer surgery, the cheery sunflower plate that my parents brought us from Italy.
Tucked into a corner, between the door to the living room and the opening to the breakfast nook/back door, is one of my favorite bits of the kitchen. This bookshelf now holds most of our cookbooks. The little countertop was intended to be a place for the telephone, cell phone chargers, note pads and pens. In reality, it also collects all the pennies and little scraps of paper that follow us home. It’s also where we keep one of the most well-used tools in our house: the cat hair roller.
The long, sometimes funny story of our long, sometimes painful kitchen remodel was blogged and photographed in agonizing detail. I’m thrilled with the results (as long as I ignore the bits of tiling and painting we haven’t yet finished), and am thankful on a daily basis that we have this warm, beautiful space in which to cook and eat, hang out with family and friends, sit at our little table and look out at the world back yard.
Sergei likes the kitchen, too, especially when there are carrots fresh from the farmers market with their lovely, frilly tops sitting on the counter. (Bad kitty! You know better than to do that when we have company!)
Tags: 20 Comments
20 responses so far ↓
Your kitchen is beautiful. The colors and lighting made it so inviting. And the cat just adds to the charm! I have a very bad kitty that looks almost exactly like yours. I think it’s the toes.
Chortle. “When we have company” is an extra added attraction!
Wow is your kitchen fabulous! I will have to go back and read about the remodel - for all the trouble it surely must have been, it was worth it!
Enjoyed the visit!
I looked at the pictures from before. What a transformation. I love the new kitchen very much. The lint roller is a constant fixture in our home too.
Can I just tell you that your kitchen is the kitchen of my dreams! No wonder you always whip up such delicious meals. Thanks for playing along.
What a great action shot!
I LOVE the picture of the cat on the move!
Your home is lovely!!!
What a wonderful room. And how great that you got to design it yourself from the studs out.
Forgot to mention, I totally understand your love of this room, as we’re about to start construction on our dream house and I cannot tell you how many millions of hours of thought went into the design of the kitchen alone. Eleventy squillion maybe?
I’m such a fan of white cabinets and light floors. And I love that plate on your wall–what a beautiful splas of color.
What a gorgeous space! I can see why it’s the heart of your home. I’d have to pull up a chair and hang out a while!
I. Am. In. Awe. That is some gorgeous kitchen. I want to be and architect (stomps feet), I want to be an architect!
Your kitchen is definitely GORGEOUS. I am slightly envious.
The cat photo is the cherry on the cake.
btw, YES Erica is in jail again. Insider trading. Very Martha. She is the only woman in the prison allowed to wear a cami under her bright orange jumpsuit, with the collar flipped up, and high-heeled shoes. That’s my girl….
I love your kitchen. At our last house, we were there 30 years, we did the same thing. It was like living in a war zone for a while, but totally worth it.
I love the lighting in your kitchen - I could stay in there for hours, just cooking. It’s a very inviting place.
Black and white and spots of intense color — and that sunflower plate! I just love this kitchen!
Hello, my name is green. Green With Envy is the full name. Ahhhh to have a kitchen that is big enough to put away all the groceries and the dishes and the pots and pans at the same time…that is my fantasy kitchen. I am hawt for your kitchen. Truly. I think you saw mine…with it’s three full drawers and imorove pot rack so I don’t have to make so many trips to the cellar…where I keep the canned goods. Arggghhhh. One day my friend, one day ,after living with so many crappy kitchens, I’ll be able to design the best one ever….and I will!
What a beautiful kitchen! I can so picture one like it in my 1908 house. Ours has never been redone–or done for that matter. There are only two cabinets under one ugly tiled countertop (whose idea was BLUE grout?) near the sink. The fridge is in the laundry room! But we kinda like it. It’s very. . . open. Love yours though! And the cat photo is the perfect ending to a great photo essay!
gorgeous! And I am so jealous of your bookshelf niche. What a fabulous idea!