Kitchen tour part 2...

When I first started planning my kitchen a year ago I joined Pinterest and starting pinning away inspiration photos. Then when I hired Heida Woodworks of Raymond, MN to build my dream kitchen I showed Brad the above photos, the layout I wanted and said I hope you can make it work - as you will see the father-son combo of Brad & Brandon Heida made all my dreams come true.
Let's start the cupboard tour on the right lower drawers which are my plate storage drawers. I also have many divided utensil drawers but neglected to take a photo of them.
My trash & recycling bins are next...
Flanking the sink is a towel rack and...
a rack to hold cutting boards and cookie sheets.
Next to the dishwasher is my double decker silverware cubbies...
and both corners hold extra deep lazy susans.
The majority of my upper cabinets are glass fronted with a ridged glass (seeded glass was above my budget) - after all I've been collecting dishes for years I may as well view them daily.
Next up is my baking cupboard which is behind those 2 large doors coming down to the countertop...
Here I store and use my mixer and other small appliances including the microwave and all my baking staples. The doors open and slide back in like in a tv armoire.
Below the baking cupboard is a rack for all my baking pans.
Between the baking cupboard and the stove is a single glass cupboard filled with my collection of bowls and below is this neat recipe I found for a happy home.
The lower cupboard stores all my sauce and frying pans and measuring cups.
Flanking the stove are the neat drawers I pinned that look like 4 small but are actually 2 deeper ones.

The whole while I planned the kitchen I had glass mosaic tiles picked out for the area inside the stove hood surround. It wasn't until I actually purchased them and held them up in this area that I decided they were too modern looking for me and went with plan B which was painting the backsplash the same warm melted milk chocolate color that I used on the rest of the backsplashes. I then found a canvas I liked for $10 at Big Lots and sprayed it with 6 coats of spar varnish which is highly moisture resistant (they use it on boats). Any grease or stains that splash on this picture are easily washed off now.
The fan itself only takes up room to the top of the mantle shelf so above the mantle I have 3 more doors of storage. I look forward to changing out the decor on this mantle as much as I do the one above my actual fireplace.

The sides of the surround house my spices and flavorings and sprinkles for baking.

All my lower cupboards that I didn't take a photo of house pull outs...no more kneeling on the floor and reaching to the back of a shelf for me...it is my dream kitchen :)

What I love best about my kitchen is the warm, comfortable feeling it gives us. The mocha cork floors are so soft to stand on - they were purchased from Fragodt Floorcovering of Raymond, MN. I wanted warm cream for the cupboards and Heida's had the lacquer matched to the color "cashew" from Pratt & Lambert paints. I picked out a milk chocolate paint color for the backsplash to bring the browns out in the granite and requested the back of the display cabinet above the fridge to be stained choc brown as well. It was Brad's (Heida) idea to bring the brown stain up to the crown moulding instead of cream paint and what a great idea it was!

The tour is done...the remodeling is done...it's time to start cooking and posting on the kitchen blog and get out the camera and bring the birds and flowers back to this blog!