It took a full 11 weeks, but our kitchen is finally done… mostly. There are still a few more things we want to do, but as of last weekend our kitchen is fully functional and useable and BEAUTIFUL, and we’ve been enjoying so many meals at home!

So let’s take a little trip down memory lane and remember what our kitchen looked like before. It was fine, but small and very blocked off from the rest of the house with walls on both sides. We wanted a home where we could keep an eye on our little girl or cook dinner for friends without being stuck in a completely different room, like we were in our last house. Once we started to look into options for opening up our kitchen, we realized the best thing was to move the whole kitchen into what used to be the dining room, opening up the entire space, and vaulting that half of the ceiling to match the existing high ceilings in the living room. (If you want to relive the whole process, you can do that here.)

Can you believe these photos were taken from approximately the same spot?!

I still can’t even believe the transformation.

The big news this week is that our countertops were installed. You may remember the long story about how we chose our counters, but the short version is that we have LG “Minuet” on the island, which looks similar to carerra marble with grey veining on a white background. It’s slightly creamier than the glossy white cabinets, which we like because it adds tone-on-tone depth. On the long back counter, we have solid white Silestone “White Zeus Extreme.”

By the way, has anyone seen Ruby?? Ha, she was sooo tired yesterday. We snuck out of town on Wednesday to visit my family while Ruby spent the night at daycare, which means she played nonstop for two days!

So what’s left in the kitchen?

1. Shelves. We plan on adding two long shelves to the open wall between the windows. I’m really anxious for those to go in… but it’ll require yet another trip to Ikea first. We bought a shelf last time we were there, because of course they only had one in stock. But then in an even bigger OF COURSE, it turns out the brackets we bought don’t go with the shelf we bought. Go figure. Ugh.The shelves will be a great way to bring some color and life into this kitchen, because let’s be honest, it’s a little boring right now.

2. Window coverings. We ordered some bamboo roll-up blinds this weekend, so I’m excited to get those installed. The bamboo color will help to warm up the room and make the windows look a lot less naked and exposed. I totally got caught peeking on the neighbors in their back yard last night. Oops.

3. Garbage disposal. So I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this, but I have no idea what I’m doing half the time with house stuff. I ordered a kitchen sink that was literally the first one I found when I was scrolling down the page on HomeDepot.com that had the square corners I wanted, undermount, the right size, stainless steel, and in our budget. When our contractor went to install the garbage disposal, well, it needs a separate part because apparently I bought a sink with some sort of fancy square drain. I didn’t know! Well, whatever, the sink is super pretty and the part is on its way.

4. Organizing. We’ve been putting things away over the last few days, trying to figure out where everything should go, which is always fun and a little overwhelming. We’re still in I-can’t-find-anything mode, and at least a quarter of our kitchen stuff is still packed from when we moved in December. I think this is going to take a while.

5. Decorating. As I said, as much as I love this kitchen, right now it’s kinda boring. It’s sooooo white and kind of clinical. Yes, we are totally aware in case you were saying, “wow that’s a lot of white,” like the guy who installed our countertops, umm, ok guy thanks for the input… So anyway, it needs some life, color, depth, warmth and just something/anything other than white (how ’bout that pink dish soap though, right??). The open shelves will give us a place to add character, but I’ll also be looking for a few other ways to make the whole space feel more homey and comfy, including the dining area and living room, since they’re all one big space now.

So that’s our new kitchen! We’ll keep updating you with new things as we go and also talk about a few aspects of the kitchen more in depth, so stay tuned!