My Favorite Room - Our Farmhouse Kitchen
Hello sweet friends. Today, I am joining part of the Blogger Stylin' Home Tours - Favorite Room addition, hosted by the ever lovely Lindsay of The White Buffalo Styling Co. If this is your first time stopping by, thank you so much for dropping in! Hopefully you have already stopped by the lovely Carries' tour over at Dream, Green, DIY.
Some day, I will live in a farmhouse. Someday I will have rolling hills and acres of maple trees surrounding our home. Until them, I am happy with our farmhouse kitchen. It works so perfectly for our family and the style is so welcoming and bright. It set the tone for the rest of the house - both in style and function - and like all homes it seems, is where most people congregate. But that wasn't always the case. You see, it seems, my style use to be a very different color scheme, a lot more stuff and a builder's grade kitchen. There is nothing wrong with our kitchen as it was, other than a few too many rooster decorations, but it just wasn't working for us. About five years ago, we were at a crossroads, unsure if we should move or stay in this house. There were a lot of things at play and a lot of variables to consider. After months of trying to figure it out, I was at the local deli picking up a large order. An acquaintance from church saw my struggling with all that I was carrying, stopped what he was doing and carried all of my stuff to the car for me. That was all it took. I could see no reason to leave a community that was filled with people like that. In fact, I should probably write him a thank you note. We started considering staying and decided that if we were going to stay, we wanted to enjoy our house more and have it work better. And in the ultimate game of dominoes, what started out as just updating and adding to the molding, lead to a full renovation of our home. Actually, we had architectural drawings made for a MAJOR overhaul with an addition and major changes. One morning, my husband got up way too early, had way too much time to think and had way too much coffee. By the time I got up, he had it all figured out. We would leave the footprint of our house the way it was, but make the space we had work better for us. 
So we took one bay of our garage and turned into a laundry room and mudroom. But moving the entrance to the kitchen down the wall and removing the very small laundry room, we were able to extend our kitchen four feet. Four feet may not seem like a lot, but it was enough to change the layout of our kitchen to a better flow, more cabinets and the most important thing on my list - a sit down island. 
The simple white shaker cabinets contrast with the wood island just enough to keep it bright and warm all in one. We have added some details along the way including this fun little table and the DIY tea towel. Sometimes I feel like I am not worthy enough for this stove - I am not sure I am that good of a cook! But we do love it and it has served us well. I have always been a fan of vintage toolboxes and I usually find a place (or three) for them in my kitchen. There is almost always one on my kitchen table. Our table was made for us by my father-in-law before our house was even complete. It was made from wood that was cut and milled on my husband's family's farm - not sure it gets better than that. Except that it does. The finish is filled with imperfections, but the best kind, like the pattern of "Z"s when my daughter was learning how to write. We love to eat at our kitchen island these days. It is quick and easy and lends itself to conversation. But, when we sit at the table, we always seem to linger longer. That is my favorite. There is also a fun little secret in our kitchen that you can find here.
(More details on our gallery wall can be found here)
