Kitchen Inspiration!

I am getting soooo excited! We are planning on having our kitchen renovation complete by April! Which means I am quickly trying to decide on everything I want to do. One major reason for doing the renovation is the fact that we don't have a dishwasher :( According to Nathan...I (Kelsey) am the dishwasher haha! Not really...he is actually a big help!

So we have gone back and forth on different ways to arrange the cabinets and appliances. A few weeks ago I got my Southern Living February 2013 issue in the mail and I fell in love with one of the kitchens they did a Before and After piece on. For those of you who also love Southern Living you can find it on page 26. It just so happens that the layout of this kitchen is extremely similar to mine. It is meant to be!! Here are a few pictures of my kitchen...

Now do you see why we need an update :)

My original idea with this little blue table was to repaint it and build an L-shape bench around the left side of it. I think it would've made a cute little breakfast nook. However, I am WAY more excited about the NEW kitchen!! Now keep in mind, mine will not be nearly as fancy as this one...Nathan continuously reminds me that this is not our dream home. He wants to use this house as a rental house when we upgrade so he is not wanting to put a large amount of money into it. But I am still excited :) I think I can make it look super cute on a small budget!

So here is a picture of what I am calling "Inspiration Kitchen"

Isn't it BEAUTIFUL!!!

And here is a rough picture of the layout





Layout:

As far as the layout goes...our refrigerator is in the same place as this one...#3. We are going to move our stove in between our two windows and hopefully find someone that can build an oven hood really similar to the one in this kitchen. I think the oven hood is my favorite part about it! We will leave our sink where it is under the left sink and we will add a 6ft island in the middle. I have gone back and forth about the island table like the one above. I think it is a really cool concept however I am afraid it would not be a functional as a full island. So I think i have decided to just go with the full island instead.

Decor:

I love the colors in this kitchen! In my house I have incorporated a turquoisey blue and a beigey grey. I LOVE blue!! My dishes are a very faint blue and I also have some blue linens that I adore! So I am extremely torn. I have looked for some fabric in the coral family but have not found anything I like :( But I did come up upon this amazingly beautiful fabric that is "You Guessed It" a turquoisey blue! Here is a picture of the swatch the ladies at the fabric store gave me:

I LOVE this fabric! So needless to say I have a feeling that I will be going with it!

Another thing I LOVE about this kitchen is the lantern light fixtures!! I have seen this exact fixture in three different kitchens...but I cannot find where to get them!! But I love the idea of a colored light fixture so I am going to keep looking!

And last but not least is the colored island! I love it and think I want to paint my island a different color from my cabinets. The cabinets and counter tops are both going to be white...so I am looking for the perfect paint color for the island. And if you know me you know it takes me a year to decide on a color! I better get to it!

Until next time,

Kelsey