Dream Kitchen

My husband and I rent, so I can’t make any changes to our current house, but lately, I’ve been dreaming of the perfect kitchen. I dream about it a lot when I’m spending a lot of time in the kitchen cooking. This happens a whole lot around the holidays and any time I’ve got a few days off of work.

There are lots of things a kitchen should have. The most important of those things – at least for me is storage. I want my storage to be adjustable, multipurpose, and there to be a lot of it. My current design sense has left me with a love for open shelving – of course that would mean that I would actually have to keep the things on that shelving clean and organized, but I think I could do that for my dishes and baking sheets. Many of my friends love bright colours at the moment, with a lot of them choosing to look into chroma panels and how they can be used for shelving. Although it isn’t my thing, I can see why having such a bright shelf can really make the kitchen look modern.

I love this open concrete shelving I found over on Simple Everyday Glamour. When I think of concrete, I don’t normally think of it as being something so stylish and definitely would never have considered using it in a kitchen. However, recently concrete has been making a comeback as being part of a chic kitchen and, with the price of concrete being so low, it’s great for anyone on a budget. I think if I had the right kind of wood, this would be a great way to store all of my dishes, pots and pans. They would be clean, organized, and easy to get out.

I also love this open vertical shelving I found on the GE Monogram website, as part of their Coastal Kitchen design. It would be a great place to store my tea towels, as well as keep my baking sheets, cutting boards, and the marble slab I use when making candies. I never can find a good place to store that thing, and I think this would be perfect.

I have also been trying to find more info about farmhouse sinks. They come in so many different styles and colors that it can be hard to pick out the one you like best.

Now one thing that I currently have setting on my counter, that I wish I could store in a cabinet is my KitchenAid Mixer. I love that mixer, and I use it all the time, but it does take up a lot of counter space, and sometimes I wish I could store it away and use that counter space to cool the cookies I just mixed up. I think this solution from Classic Kitchens in Oklahoma is perfect.

It’s a shelf that pulls out, lifts and locks in an upright position when in use, and goes back in the cabinet when it’s done. And for a bonus, the bottom of the cabinet has a pull out drawer where I could store my other mixing bowls, or maybe my handheld KitchenAid Mixer.

And speaking of appliances, I have dreams about what kind of stove, oven, and refrigerator I want too.

I really want a gas range, with an extractor fan/exhaust. Our current house has an electric range with no fan or exhaust at all, and sometimes, cooking can be a little…. smokey – especially when I get out the cast iron. A friend of mine suggested that I get in touch with a home improvement service similar to CostShed, who might be able to help install an extractor fan in my kitchen over my stove, but I really want a gas one.

I’d also love an oven that sets off the floor. My grandmother had a counter height oven as long as I can remember, and it was amazing. It’s a lot easier to get things in and out of the oven, especially larger, heavier things like a turkey. Now, I don’t bake a lot of things that would cause me to need an oven that was set up so high, but I might someday, so why not get it now?

And on top of that… did you see the double refrigerator in the photo above? That is something that I do not need, but I would love to have it. Even if we used one entire side to store things like ice cream and sodas. It would be amazing. Actually, I wonder how much it would cost to just have the kitchen in the photo above installed in a house. There really isn’t a thing I don’t love about it, as long as we can add some vertical shelving for my baking sheets. Maybe underneath the oven?

Of course, even though utility is the most important thing in a kitchen, it doesn’t mean that I don’t want a little style too. I’m absolutely in love with these kitchen stools made from (very large) old springs.

I actually think that the springs might be old tractor parts, so this could be something that I might convince my husband to make for me one day. That is assuming that they aren’t worth more to scrap than it would cost me to buy bar stools.

What would you have in your dream kitchen?