The Prettiest Kitchen

Maybe one of these days when I'm feeling really brave I'll share the pics of this house from when we first bought it.  It was a foreclosure and while we saw great potential in the home, we also freaked out multiple times after the purchase that we had bought a home that would be better off condemned!  But thankfully Brad is a visionary AND an achiever when it comes to seeing beautiful things in the midst of giant messes and turned this place completely around.

If I had to pick a favorite room, it would definitely be the kitchen.  That's the room that I most wanted to make an impression while feeling comfortable spending lots of time in there.  This kitchen was fun in that it was pretty different from our last home, in my opinion.

So now I'll shut up and get to the pictures!

Isn't she pretty???  It was a really tough space to design because 3 of the 4 walls had either windows or doors on them so we had to somehow figure out how to make it work in a way that was pretty and functional.  Here's some specs on it all:

PAINT // We are firm believers in Benjamin Moore paint.  Literally all the white paint in our entire house is Cotton Balls by Benjamin Moore.  Brad recently discovered their Advance line, and while it costs a pretty penny, a little goes a long way and has an amazing finish.

CABINETS // Brad built these and I think they are absolutely amazing.  Like I mentioned, the layout of the kitchen made designing the cabinets pretty tricky, but I feel like these turned out beautifully.  We went with simple knobs and handle pulls in Oil Rubbed Bronze.

COUNTER TOPS // These are Impala Black granite counter tops that were sourced from a builder's material outlet in Minneapolis.  Best part?  From any store or cabinetry shop you would pay upwards of $2000 for these counter tops.  We got them for - wait for it - $700.  They were totally new but Brad figures they must've been left over from a job that ended up not using them.

LIGHTING // We purchased the lights over the island from Menards; you can find them here.  I'm in love with them, and in the evenings when they're on the Edison bulbs are burning, it's too pretty.  Perfect environment for a glass of wine :)

Just a few notes on the rest of the kitchen -- in the corner we had this awkward space that we weren't sure how to use.  It wasn't big enough for a breakfast nook with the island in its current place, and yet it was too big to leave empty.  So Brad remedied the space by building a little corner shelf and adding spindle legs to give it character.  I love it, though I'm still torn about how to decorate it.

Brad also found the old glass pane door at a past job site and kept it for our house.  I love, love, love what it adds.  The room it leads to is our tiny little mudroom that is still a work in progress :)

We're planning to get new stools for the kitchen island but haven't found any that we love just yet.

So there you have it.  Probably the only room in the house that's 95% done!  I hope you love it as much as I do!