The Kitchen: A Gathering Place

Still recovering from Thanksgiving?

We are!

 In order for us to celebrate with all of our family,

Rob and I tend to experience Thanksgiving groundhog day style.

The pants are definitely feeling snug.

We have a few sneak peeks of the Christmas tree.

Rob and I put the tree up on Thanksgiving.  Tisk tisk, I know.

But I can't begin to tell you how special it was.

It was our alone time before jumping in the car and heading off

to our families homes.

We would love to have a holiday at the cottage.

Could we?  Well sure.

I'm a perfectionist though.

Rob would pull out the dishes and prepare a feast in a heartbeat.

I, on the other hand, want the house to look it's finest.

I want the heart of the home, the kitchen, to sing to my guests.

Ridiculous, I know.

Not long ago, I blogged about some of the things we'd

 like to eventually add/replace to the kitchen.

Add quartzite or marble counter tops.

Replace the back splash with something simple and classic.

Install a yummy farmhouse sink.

Change out the hardware to something a little more "us."

Since that post, nothing substantial has taken place.

There is always something that preoccupies our time and funds.

Ah hem...the refrigerator, which I may add, is making me lose my mind.

Counter depth free standing refrigerators are small.  Seriously, small.

And after paying a carpenter to fix the cabinetry and an electrician

to run a new outlet and water line...is it worth it?

Looney woman, I'm telling you.

Behold the beast himself.

He's definitely showing his age.

This is our first priority at the moment.

Counter tops next.

Here are a few more shots of our kitchen that

I've so creatively kept off the blog.

I spy a hole in the kitchen island.

We purchased a new gas cook top when we moved into the cottage.

Nothing fit the original cook top size.  

I'm developing a twitch.  Patience, right?

I spy flower tiles scattered amongst our back splash.

Country, maybe.  But not the look we're going for.

If you look above our island, we have two recessed lights.

We would eventually like to convert those to pendant lights.

Lighting is equivalent to jewelry, in my eyes.

Of course, I'm not on a diamond budget.  But I'm finding myself

drooling over styles that are sky high.

I'm loving these country industrial pendants.

Yoke pedants are shown here in a bronze finish.  Truly stunning.

Did you see that hood? Oh my...

The sloane pendants are over the top.

Erica Powell does no wrong in my book.

This sloane single pendant in burnished brass from circa lighting

would be my first choice.

$525....stopped me in my tracks.

If anyone knows of a similar light at a more reasonable price,

 please let me know.

We'd like to install the wall mounted apron sink that we found a few months back.

Because of the low window sill above our sink, we may experience some problems.

If it could work out, I'd like to remove the doors below the sink and add a

beautiful linen skirt, just as the fabulous Joan from for the love of a house did.

Another woman that can do no wrong when it comes to design.

Here is a lousy crooked photo of our current hardware.

I haven't been able to find the hardware I was so desperately on the hunt for,

but I did stumble upon a few that meet our criteria.

Or we've considered sticking with a polished nickel look.

The popular gilmore pull from Restoration Hardware is sure to please.

The kitchen appears to be the favorite room for me.

It's also proven to be the most expensive room.

Figures.

We're going to continue saving our pennies so that we

can invite our family and friends over for an upcoming holiday.

I hope that we can begin to show you some progress in the near future.

*photos courtesy of visual comfort blog, chicago's kitchen lab, urban grace interiors, circa lighting, for the love of a house blog, van dykes restorers, van dkyes restorers