Top 10 Things We Love in Our New Kitchen

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The number one question Cory and I get about our home is the new kitchen. Everyone wants to know “what do you love most about your kitchen?” So today Cory and I are revealing our top 10 things we love most in our remodeled kitchen by Lifestyle Kitchen Studio. In case you forgot, you can see what our kitchen looked like before the renovation in this blog post.

Top 10 Things We Love in Our Kitchen

Banquette Drawers

The storage in these banquette drawers has been a game-changer. It doesn’t matter the size of your kitchen, you can always use extra storage. Am I right? These drawers pull out for LOTS of storage that we use for Wrigley’s food, kitchen appliances and items we don’t use every day.

Dishwasher

We didn’t have a dishwasher in our old kitchen, and this one from Fisher & Paykel has been amazing. This single drawer dishwasher fit perfectly in our small kitchen to still give us extra storage underneath. You would be surprised how much we can fit in this dishwasher! For our small family it works perfectly to fit dishes from breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The best part is this dishwasher is super quiet.

Farmhouse Sink & Garbage Disposal

We also didn’t have a garbage disposal in our former kitchen, so this has been extremely helpful. Having a deep farmhouse sink to wash pots & pans and not worry if some food went down the drain has been #lifechanging. We truly LOVE the farmhouse sink design from ETNA.

Hidden Outlet

This hidden outlet was a last minute addition to the peninsula, and I’m so glad we added it. This outlet has been used SO MANY TIMES for kitchen appliances while I’m cooking or baking. The cover blends into the cabinet color for a seamless look that I love. You can learn more about this outlet from Sillites.

Countertop

One of the things we love in our new kitchen are the countertops fabricated by Premier Granite & Stone. The color of the countertops (Silestone by Cosentino) blends perfectly with the white subway tile, and I love how easy it to clean. Our old kitchen had tile countertops that crumbs would fall into and it was such a pain to clean. These countertops have been so amazing!

Lighting

If you remember, our old kitchen really lacked lighting which made it difficult to prepare meals. These lights from Hudson Valley Lighting have been truly remarkable for using in the morning and at night. I love the gold accents and the Edison bulbs in the lights. We also hooked our lights up to smart plugs so it’s been easy to turn the lights on and off with our voice.

Hardware

We have really loved the hardware from Belwith Keeler in our kitchen and bar area. The first photo is from our bar area and the second photo is in our kitchen. Hardware is a fun accessory for your kitchen, and the gold accents pair perfectly with the lighting.

Bar Area

This corner of our dining room was definitely wasted space before we installed this bar area. The wine fridge is great for any cold drink, and the extra storage on the side is helpful for extra glasses or accessories. We also use this area for our coffee maker so we also refer to this as the coffee bar. Both of us are looking forward to the day we can actually entertain guests in this space.

The Beam

If you asked Cory is favorite detail about the kitchen, he would say the beam. We knocked down this wall separating the kitchen and dining room to open the space (which was really needed). Luckily this wall wasn’t load bearing, but we still installed reinforcements and this beam for good measure. The beam really brings in a natural element and we stained the wood to match the floors.

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Two-Tone Cabinets

We went back and forth on the color of the cabinets for our kitchen. Originally we thought just white, but I’m so happy we went with this two-tone combination. The white uppers and grey/blue lowers look stunning with the dark wood floor and the white subway tile. These cabinets from Pinnacle Custom Cabinetry are truly gorgeous, and have worked so well in our kitchen.

Behind the Scenes

What you don’t see in these gorgeous photos are all the people behind the scenes that brought this kitchen to life. A huge shoutout to the entire team at Lifestyle Kitchen Studio for their hard work in putting this all together. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again – working with a designer is so important when you’re doing a kitchen remodel. TRUST ME. Thank you to everyone at Lifestyle Kitchen Studio for your help in making our dream kitchen come true.

Cory and I also want to thank friends and family in the industry who helped us with demo, electrical, HVAC, and plumbing (Marathon Plumbing, LLC is amazing).