What I Love About Our Kitchen & What I'd Change

Anytime I'm in a home, the room I'm most eager to see and the one I'm likely to spend the most amount of time in is the same - the kitchen. It's truly the heart of the home in my opinion. I love standing around a kitchen, glass of wine in hand, chatting away while something delicious is cooking. That's my ideal way to spend an evening with friends (Remember when friends could come over for supper? In Montreal, that's still a distant memory with Covid restrictions, but at least they're fond memories).

One day I dream of designing my own kitchen and making all the choices. Perhaps when we move in a couple of years to a slightly larger flat in the same neighbourhood. Anything larger than our current house in this neighbourhood will be a big price jump so we'll probably have to go fixer-upper style. Meaning I might get to realize this dream! Thinking ahead, and just because I love kitchens, I'm always noting what I like and don't like in a kitchen. My own kitchen being my case study, here are the things I know I love and those I just don't. 

WHAT I LOVE

I love a white kitchen. Food and spices and grains and cookbooks bring the colour I want - keep the rest white, I say! White cabinets will probably always be my choice.

I love our subway backsplash. We had it done years ago and it made a huge difference! 

I love that our kitchen is open. There are only three walls with the other "side" left open to the rest of our open concept home. 

I love having an island with stools. It's a natural place for the kids to take most of their meals, for homeschooling Oli, and for meal prep overflow. Under the island is also where I store our compost bin, recycling, and garbage (not shown) and a huge tub of our all purpose flour (shown).

I love our magnetic knife strip.

I love how I display my cookbooks.

I love having clear canisters for grains and flours (buying in bulk saves packaging and money, plus it's pretty).

I love displaying my favourite tea pots and dishes (I'd love real open shelving, but since we aren't able to renovate this kitchen I removed the doors from our cabinets).

I love how there are a lot of drawers.

I love our appliances. We bought the stove and fridge secondhand off kijiji when we moved and have never had a problem. We won't move them though.

I love that we installed under cabinet lighting (cheap, from Ikea, provides a lot of light!)

I love our sink faucet - the head is extendable so the entire sink gets clean as well as large awkward things like big pots. Couldn't ever go back to a stiff faucet!

I love how we hang our pots and pans to save space and for ease.

I love our Montreal print (by Bess Callard)

Ahh, that felt good. I should do this more - listing all the things I love about something. Especially when that something is a kitchen I can find myself complaining about from time to time. Highly recommend! And definitely start with what you love, because next up is less peachy.

THINGS I'D CHANGE

I'd change the corner sink - it's so depressing washing dishes in a literal corner! No view, no space, no light. Whyyy??

I'd change to a gas stove in a heartbeat.

I'd change the range hood, as ours works very poorly (or maybe we just have bad ventilation living on the second floor or a triplex?)

I'd change the countertops in a flash. White or pale grey quartz, please.

I'd change our corner cabinets. The foldable doors are wobbly and awkward and corner cabinets are never used to their potential as the far apex of the corner is just way too far back! 

I'd change our cabinet faces to shaker style - ours are more traditional with some moulding that isn't my jam.

I'd change our island from the Ikea unit we currently have to a built in, real deal, matching countertops to the kitchen, island. I'd also make the island a bit longer so we could fit three stools across the one side.

The most major change I'd make is natural light! I really really want my kitchen of dreams to have a window. Seems like not much to ask, but you must consider that we live in a classic Montreal triplex, which means windows on the front and back only. But a girl can dream...

I loved hearing from you on this Instagram post all the things you'd change and love about your kitchens. Keep the comments coming over there!