The Heart of the Home!

I'm so excited to be linking this post up to the Heart of the Home Party over at Note Songs!

*This was originally published in August*
God bless my little kitchen, I love its every nook

And bless me as I do my work

Wash pots and pans and cook

And may the meals that I prepare, be seasoned from above

With Thy great blessing and Thy grace, but most of all Thy love

As we partake our earthly food the table before us spread

We'll not forget to thank thee, Lord, Who gives us daily bread

So, bless my little kitchen, Lord and those who enter in

May they find naught but joy and peace and happiness therein.

*Author Unknown*

Let me introduce you to the Heart of our Home!

Here is what it looked like when we first laid eyes on it...

Isn't our Realtor's purse cute? She is a very stylish lady!

You can't see them now, but there are 2 sky-lights up above that made me almost collapse with joy! You don't know how much that light is like a life-line in the rainy months here in the NW.

Here is another angle

What you can't see in these photos is that there was tile missing on the counters, doors hanging off their hinges, and the door to the appliance garage in that far corner was permanently opened half-way. But, you know what I just saw...my very first real, honest-to-goodness pantry! Who cares about tile as long as I have a place for all of the cereal this family eats! And a GAS Cooktop! Be still my heart!

We set to work spiffing it up, changing out fixtures, banishing the green desk chair to the play-room, replacing knobs and tile until the space slowly transformed into this...

Our old house had all white cabinetry and I had just fulfilled my dream of choosing new counters, back-splash and appliances right before we moved. Isn't that the way it goes? So, getting used to the dark woodwork took some time and some tweaking in terms of decorating but I love it!

Here is another glance...

You know what I realized while I was taking pictures of my kitchen? Just how "Staged" those magazine photos really are! I mean, those fake lemons look so much better than the overly-ripe bananas and squishy tomatoes that were in that fruit basket!

My ever-so-handy husband switched out the faucet and it went from looking like this...

To this...

And it actually works too! Trust me, that is a
step up from how it was before.

I also changed out the knobs from this...

To this...

The reason I picked this particular knob was because it wasn't quite as dark as a true Oiled Bronze to allow some contrast against the dark cabinet. It also has just a hint of gold to blend in with our door handles and hinges.
Here is another view of my corner window...

I have a great view of the mountains (when the blinds are actually open!) while I am doing the dishes

and I will share with you in another post how I decided upon

this particular window treatment.

These are my little Rooster Cannisters. Another great TJ's find!

I love it when folks pull up a stool to visit with

me while I am cooking.

I literally stalked these like a woman possessed for weeks and weeks at Tuesday Morning! They were over my budget and not a necessity so I waited...and watched...and waited some more. And then, they finally went on CLEARANCE

(truly one of the sweetest words in the English language)

and I managed to snag 3 of them!

This is my other favorite way for them to be used...

We definitely know how to rock the

 "Bed-Head" look in this family!

Here is a view of the desk area in the kitchen...

In this season of life, with the amount of traffic this area sees, having a desk chair here isn't happening. Plus, this is the perfect space for a 3 year old to hide when we are playing hide-and-seek. It is NOT the perfect space for her 34 year old mother to hide during said game! I do try it (at the begging of my rascals) but it isn't a pretty picture folks!

Here is the infamous Appliance Garage. It now goes up...

And it even comes back down!

Ahhhh....it really is a wonderful feature!

Here is a look at the kitchen when the upper lights are on...

I tend to be somewhat of a hermit in here and don't usually have lots of lights on (maybe its so I don't see any grime!) 

but these are great when we want to add a little bit

of brightness on a dreary day. I love the molding on that ledge and it is truly the very first thing I noticed about this space.

I never knew how much I would enjoy glass cabinet fronts and how much they help to break up the dark wood.

Can you tell which plates were currently in the dishwasher at the time that these pictures were taken?

Here is one last look at my kitchen as you would see it coming in from the dining room...

Well, I hope you have enjoyed this little tour and I really wish you could come pull up a stool and have a cup of coffee! Oh, and some banana bread that I will be making with those overly-ripe bananas that were mysteriously missing from the fruit basket!

From this Southern Girl at Heart,

Vanessa