They say a kitchen sells a house

I feel like many of my posts have focused on the kitchen. I guess I shouldn't worry about that too much, the kitchen is one of the main reasons we undertook this project in the first place. On the other hand I haven't offered much in the way of substance even on the kitchen. On the third hand I have some lovely pictures that John took and I don't feel like waiting until I have time to do a more substantive post. So here they are.

The lovely brown bowls are actually cafe au lait bowls that John's brother bought him in France when he was studying there in the 1980s. They have a wonderful feel to them as well.  The matte finish subway tile has a similarly pleasing feel.

One thing I don't like about many kitchens with open shelving is that they treat them as display areas and they looked staged. Before we moved back in I think we had vague plans of buying beautiful but useful thing to put on our open shelves. Didn't want to stage them, but definitely wanted them to have some visual interest. (You may remember some of our inspiration images.) Since we have moved back in, guest beds and other immediate furnishing needs have taken precedence over finding the perfect melange of kitchen item to populate our open shelves. Horror of horrors, our long serving plain white dinner ware from Crate and Barrel has not only diminished in quantity over the years but a few plates even have chips. There is no way we would put them on the open shelves. But necessity meant that we did and the effect wasn't half bad. Doesn't mean we will keep them forever, but it works for now. 

Even the haphazard way I plopped things up on the shelves when I unloaded boxes back in December has worked out pretty well. Being overwhelmed with all the unpacking and the holidays, I didn't have time to really think about how to arrange things. The net effect however is fairly pleasing and perhaps even worked out better than if I had thought about it too much.

Like the kitchens in our inspiration photos the practical items really warm a kitchen up and make it feel like a real place. My tray of oils, vinegars, and hot sauces along with the two crocks of utensils definitely give off a homey vibe.

Let me say a word about electrical outlets. Modern building code requires a ridiculous amount of outlets with strict rules about how far apart they should be. But here is something to watch out for. When the electricians were onsite getting reading to set the outlet boxes in the kitchen our architect sent over a layout that showed where they would go on the backsplash. He had placed them in a logical way that is fairly typical to what people do, but it looked so wrong to me.  They were so prominent and were ruining the image I had in my head for the backsplashes. At first I didn't say anything because I assumed it had to do with code. But then I looked around online to see how some of our favorite kitchens handled it. So I went back to the architect and after many emails back and forth we came up with a good plan.

Outlets weren't shown in earlier elevations so seeing them on this drawing made my heart sink a bit. They just ruined the simplicity f it all. But then I found out that code had nothing to do with it and we had a lot of freedom to move them around.

Although it took a few rounds and lots of looking for good examples online the end result is quite pleasing. Even better is the fact that the two light switches on the ends were reduced to one and moved off this wall entirely. If you go back up to the photo and look, I think you will see we got it right.

I love my Jenn Air wall oven as much as I love the Lacanche range.

Hand towel rack near sink. I've liked these rollers in more rustic kitchens, but I resisted it at first for our kitchen. I think it works because it is in a spot that is hidden from the family room.