If I was blessed to be on one of those HGTV home reno shows, and it was totally free and someone else did all the work, I know exactly what this room would look like. My design would involve tearing down walls and reworking the entire room. But alas, this is real life. In real life, I had no idea what I would do with a load bearing wall and I also knew carrera marble would look really out of place in this house.
Flashback to 2010 and this is what you'd see! We did have a new fridge, which was an amazing gift from my in-laws for our wedding. But, the rest of the kitchen...let's just say it was pretty cringy.
The layout works just fine for me. The only time it bugs me that I have a small kitchen is when we have people over. Everybody wants to gather around the kitchen and there just isn't room. (If this were HGTV, I'd open the kitchen up to our massive dining room and spread out a little)
Our kitchen modifications happened over time. We bought a new stove one Black Friday, so that we could have matching appliances. I painted the cabinets, and we lived in a very white kitchen for a few months. Then we were able to hire an amazing guy to build a custom countertop for us, and then we had our talented family member install a backsplash to match.
Can I just brag on our backsplash for a second? I wanted white subway tile, but I wanted to break up the white with a gray grout. Groundbreaking right? Well it was at the time! We came up with this combo long before it was popularized by Fixer Upper. It was so new the relative who installed it was very skeptical about the combo, but he did it anyway and was impressed when it didn't look crazy. Anyway, it turned out great and if we ever resell our house people will like it.
Under cabinet lighting was the best thing I ever did to this space. The overhead light and window don't let in enough light, so with the puck lights we have great lighting for tasks. I would love to add some to the other side of the kitchen by the stove, but there aren't any outlets over there, so I've gotta figure that one out.
One thing I've always liked is the open shelving on the one side of the kitchen. It acts as a pantry and a place to store cake stands and smaller appliances. I'm also head over heals for our sink! We replaced our tiny double sided sink last summer for this big open sink with an awesome faucet. This was life changing since we are dishwasherless!
Leave a comment below if you have a tiny kitchen too! Do you have a dishwasher, or are you a handwasher like us? I'd love to know if people tend to gather in your kitchen, or in a different room of your house!
