The kitchen is, without a doubt, the place where I spend the most time during the day. To be accurate, our entire family tends to congregate there, despite it being the smallest room on the first floor. There is an eat-in counter, but only one stool (we are saving for ones we love rather than buying more cheap ones that fall apart). There is a giant window that looks out into our back yard so I can see the boys playing while I chop veggies and prepare meals. There are things I love about our kitchen, but mostly it is outdated and strange.

For the past 3 years, Andrew and I have discussed renovating it. And then we realized the renovations we would want to make would be astronomical in expense, and we may as well move if we are going to go down that road.

So, no renovations.

But, as I perused my “Kitchen” board on Pinterest, I started noticing a theme. Simple. White. Wood elements (I would kill for hardwood floors). Subway tiles (maybe). Open shelving. And I decided that there are a few things we can do that don’t cost a lot of money that I feel will make a drastic difference in the space. 

The first, most obvious thing, is paint. We have plenty of windows and natural light in our kitchen, but the medium-finish on the cabinets makes it almost cave-like at certain times of the day… especially in the winter. And let’s face it, the Swedes are onto something with their white walls: I’m figuring that because they must live with so many hours of darkness for part of the year, the white helps tremendously.

And so, with a huge bucket of primer, I have been painting. Every day during Emil’s 2-hour-long nap, I set Milo and Oliver up with an activity (one I will share with you this Thursday) and get to work. As soon as they are in bed for the night, I am back at it, listening to podcasts of This American Life and various music (thanks, Mary) as loud as I dare. It feels really, really good to finally do something to this space that I inhabit so often.

The downside? Everything, I mean everything, is in disarray right now. There are drawers on the dining room table drying, cabinet doors on our back deck and scattered throughout the kitchen, propped up haphazardly against walls, the contents of our cabinets are in the basement or spread out over every available counter space. It’s a wreck. But once it is complete, I think it’s going to look amazing.

P.s.- I will keep you updated on the progress of the kitchen as it comes along. The above paint is just primer. We decided on Martha Stewart’s “Pure White” after trying several different shades and brightness, and I will show you a picture of that once it’s in.

P.p.s.- Do you know how crazy-making it is to try to choose a white? Too bright, too dull, too bluish, too creamy, too stark… aaaaaaaahhhhh!

Our dining room is our major multi-use room. It is large, but in an awkward way. When we first moved in, we had no idea what to do with the space. We had a regular-sized dining room table placed in the middle of the room on an 8 x 10 ft rug with way too much space all around it and no flow to the room. We are definitely not formal dining room types of people anyway, so it seemed strange to us to have a dining room table as the focus of this space.

So, we adjusted. A year later, I have finally come to peace with what the space currently is: a play area, music area, and dining room all in one. And though I’m sure we will change it as the boys grow older, for now, it works, and I love it.

The kids’ corner

While we do have a playroom on the second floor, we found that our kids usually just wanted to be where we were. Before we set up this play area in the corner of the dining room, Milo and Oliver would bring all sorts of random toys downstairs and we would end up with piles of toys, baskets of animals, random cars, ride-on toys, building blocks, you name it- just piled up along the wall. It drove me crazy how there was no order. So after organizing and putting up an old shelving system that I’ve had since college, we chose some toys to store downstairs to encourage creativity (and peace and quiet).

We kept it simple. At the top, hidden in an old wooden crate separated into thirds, are the essentials we need for diaper changes: two different sizes of diapers, wipes, and burp cloths and diaper cream samples. The middle shelf holds natural materials that we have picked up on nature walks: pinecones, pieces of bark and birch building blocks, plus a bowl full of different-shaped stones, the “doorbell house” from Grandma, and a basket full of wooden people and a wooden fishing game Oliver got for Christmas. The bottom shelf: building blocks. Keeping it simple makes choosing activities easy, and makes clean-up quicker when it’s time for bed.

There is enough space behind the lamp to store Oliver & Milo’s guitar, and the chalkboard gets a lot of use (though I cleaned it off for the picture- trust me, there was no Picasso going on there anyway). To the right of the chalkboard is their play kitchen, which also gets a lot of use these days.

Under a little basket with a few friends in it, we store all the baby toys and random things that get brought down from the playroom throughout the week. At the end of the week, we go through it again and take stuff back upstairs. This may seem a little anal, but trust me, it gets ridiculous if not managed. I am well aware that our kids have too many toys, and also feel that it can be overwhelming for them to be in contact with it all the time, all at once. We have quite a few things packed away in the basement and rotate them up throughout the indoor months. But for our dining room, we try to keep the toy craziness contained.

The kids also have a play table that has some toy storage underneath. The table is perfect for activities like puzzles or building, but mainly they use it for snack time. We usually eat dinner in the kitchen, but when we make an effort, we all like to sit at the big table together. For company (who usually bring a few kids of their own) the little red table serves as extra seating for the littles, though as I’m sure most of you with kids have experienced, very little eating actually occurs at a kid’s table!

And there you have it! Our dining/playing/music room! Check back next week for more of our home tour, when I show you a room that is actually painted black… and it works!