While house hunting in the summer of 2015, it was surprisingly tricky to find a home with a kitchen that felt right to us. I wasn’t looking for perfection, but rather a house that had a great layout and good bones. I was on the look out for a kitchen that didn’t require a complete renovation, but I welcomed the need for cosmetic changes that would give us the chance to bring our own personality to the space.
When we found our new home, the kitchen spoke to me. It was big, open, airy, and had a fantastic layout. Sure, there were things like robins-egg-blue-paint, a quirky cabinet with poorly installed doors, dated counter tops, boring hardware and lighting, and mismatched appliances.
But all of those features could be easily changed. I was sold!
When we moved in, we decided to update the kitchen in phases. The first phase was to paint the walls, update the hardware and faucet to oil rubbed bronze, update the light fixtures, and replace the quirky cabinet with a few open shelves, which was basically my dream come true.
Those small, relatively inexpensive updates made a huge difference. The kitchen looked so much better and already felt more like us.
After living and cooking in our kitchen for the last few years, the time had come to do a bit more updating. But something struck me about our kitchen that I was a little surprised about: I loved the look of the black appliances we previously had in our kitchen. They helped show off the beautiful rich wood of our cabinets and looked great with our new dark hardware.
The kitchen at our previous house had stainless steel and I just assumed when the time came, we’d update the appliances in our new kitchen with stainless steel as well. But the more we lived in our new house, the more I realized how much I enjoyed the look of black appliances. On the other hand, I truly missed our sleek updated stainless.
What’s a girl to do?
It turns out we could have the best of both worlds with KitchenAid® Black Stainless Steel Appliances. I was in love at first sight when I first saw this suite of appliances. The Black Stainless Steel is sleek without being too flashy.
The finish is a matte black, almost charcoal with accents of chrome. I love that we were able to retain the look of the dark appliances, but gain all of the features and characteristics we love about stainless appliances.
Let me take you on a tour of our updated kitchen!
The KitchenAid® Dishwasher with Dynamic Wash Arms has hidden buttons along the top edge so the front of the Dishwasher is incredibly clean looking.
And can we talk about how quiet this Dishwasher is? I have to rest my hand on the front of the Dishwasher to see if it’s running—it is seriously that quiet.
Our new KitchenAid® Gas Slide-In Convection Range has 5 burners and the grates along the top create an even work space that I can slide and shift pots and pans around while I’m cooking.
It’s like a big blank canvas that allows me to experiment and create.
Plus, all of the oven controls are along the front which saves me from reaching my arm over a hot stove top while turning the oven on and off.
The design and layout of our kitchen has our microwave playing double duty as our exhaust hood. The KitchenAid® Convection Microwave Hood Combination fit perfectly into our space above our Gas Slide-In Convection Range.
It’s not only a countertop space saver, but it has a strong vent fan that I use often, especially when frying up pans of bacon or whipping up a stir fry.
If the Dishwasher, Microwave, and Gas Slide-In Convection Range are dreamy, wait until you see the KitchenAid® Counter-Depth French Door Refrigerator. The outside of the Refrigerator has a PrintShield™ finish that keeps it looking smudge free and lovely.
This is especially helpful because of all of the appliances, it’s the one that is most used by my kids. The French doors provide a nice wide opening that helps me reach everything I need.
In addition to our gorgeous new appliances, we added a subway tile backsplash, a big farm sink as well as updated our countertops to a natural quartzite for the counters and a stunning rustic maple top on our island.
To top it off, we created an exposed brick surround on our island making it a true focal point in the space. The combination of metal, wood, stone, and brick still makes my heart skip a beat. This is truly my dream kitchen!
*The Contributor of this post has been compensated by KitchenAid for this post, but this post represents the Contributor’s own opinion.*
