We have been mulling over kitchen plans for 6 months.  Six.  Because this will be one of the largest projects we take on in this house, we want to make sure we get it right.  Originally, way back in January, we shared with you our first layout idea:

It involved taking out half of the wall between the kitchen and living room and making a peninsula.  We ultimately decided this wouldn’t be the best because of the lack of usable counter space.

Later, we presented the idea of taking the wall completely down and putting a big island in place.

We loved both of these ideas for us.  Really.  We are big entertainers and love having people over, so the idea of a completely open first floor appeals to us.  But then reality set in.  Our plan isn’t to stay in this house forever.  We are thinking more like…five years.   So although the big, open living room, dining room, kitchen appeals to us–opening the front door and seeing the entire kitchen does not appeal to everyone.  In fact, as it turns out, it doesn’t even sit well with the majority.  Dirty dishes are best left hidden, I suppose.

We have gone back to the drawing board with the plans to keep the wall up and are back with what we feel like could be the one that gets the final rose.  We will still be removing the corner pantry and the peninsula to maximize the space and minimize the claustrophobia.

The sink side of things has a few upgrades too, mainly the window is getting larger.  A lot larger, but there will still be room for smaller open shelves to house our plates and glasses and a few other daily-use items.  We just love the convenience of our open shelving–no way we’re giving it up.

In the center, we envision a small work surface, like this one from West Elm, with a stainless steel or granite top.  We are even toying with the idea of DIYing one ourselves.

Even after six months into the process, we still have kinks to work out before we bite the bullet, like backsplash, flooring and lighting–thank goodness all of our favorite inspirations are collected in one place on our “Kitchen Reno”pinboard and we can sit down drool and decide what will be best for this house. Gah!  Tell me we can work in some carrera marble!

And although it is not as exciting as tearing down a wall, we feel like this may be the right design for our house, but as always, don’t hesitate to weigh in!