My new kitchen

My kitchen, my inspiration!

Today I want to share with you something which has been a huge inspiration in my life over the past few years.  You know I love to cook, I love entertaining and I just love food.  But sometimes if you have a kitchen that is just mediocre you get a bit out of sorts and it shows in your cooking.

Well a few years ago I was a bit out of sorts and wasn’t enjoying cooking as much.  Why?  Because my kitchen was old, ugly, boring and not laid out in a fashion that worked for me.  My inspiration took a vacation and I needed it to come home.  As usual I was cooking six days a week and it was becoming a mundane, uninspiring task.  I wanted to get excited about cooking again, I wanted to start making more great food, trying more new recipes and having family and friends over for dinner more often.

The old kitchen and that awful cork floor

By this time we had been in our home for 3 years getting a feel for what we wanted and how we wanted it.  When we bought the house we knew we would be renovating it pretty much top to bottom, so once we were settled in our thoughts went to what we could do.  We frequented all manner of showrooms, perused numerous magazines and had samples coming out our ears.  We knew we wanted to do the kitchen first (Wayne wanted me to get my groove back so he could eat more…..  Hehe!).  We planned, we changed our minds, we got quotes and drawings, we decided on colours and materials, we changed our minds………  It was a lot of planning but we wanted something that would suit us and we wanted it to be somewhat timeless as this would be an expensive project and one we wanted to last!

That big and ugly pantry!

What we knew for sure was the cork flooring had to go and that kitchen!  Well the whole thing had to be ripped out.  This was important to me; the big old pantry had to go as it closed in the whole corner of our kitchen and there was a lot of wasted space inside.  We knew we didn’t want high cupboards (when you are short like me anything above head height is useless).  What we did want was drawers, lots of drawers.  And so it began.

Out with the old!

The first day of the new build was so exciting.  I knew we would be without a kitchen for a week so I prepared myself by making some stews, soups and casseroles in the slow cooker.  I set up the laundry room as a makeshift kitchen with the toaster, kettle, slow cooker and a few utensils that would do everything I needed them to do.  Hey we did order pizza one night as well!  A girl needs a break every now and then.

In with the new!

The kitchen came out and the room was now a bare shell.  It was hard to imagine what it was going to be like when it was all done.  But I knew it would be good and I was already getting excited about getting into my new kitchen and cooking, cooking, cooking!!  Each day something new went in, each day it was starting to look more and more like the kitchen I had imagined.  Each day I got more and more excited!

Wow! I like it.

The kitchen came together piece by piece; we had to wait a few weeks for the splashback and then again for the new flooring but finally it was done, dusted and ready to be used.  And boy do I use it.  I still cook nearly every day of the week, I bake, I try new recipes and I have had a new lease of life (as has my kitchen).  It really does give me inspiration, even now after 2 ½ years.  I’m just so glad we have taken the time to get it just the way we want it and now we can enjoy, cook, entertain and have fun.

The cork is gone and the new floor is in

Oh and I forgot to mention, the shopping was great fun too!  I got knew pots and pans, a new red toaster and kettle, of course all new appliances and finally we were going to have a dishwasher.  Yippee!  Wayne was very happy about his new dishwasher…  And I love my birthday and Christmas so much more now as I can always think of a new utensil, cookbook, small appliance or gadget that my family can buy me.  They know what makes me happy and I know what makes them happy…  Good food!

Wayne loves his new dishwasher

My kitchen is now the heart and soul of our home again.  Full of love, fun, good food, wonderful smells and here’s hoping, a lot of happy people!

My kitchen, My inspiration!