31 Days of Building a Home - The kitchen

I should probably rename my series "10 days of building a home" since I have done such a horrible job keeping up with posting! I may stretch it out until I hit 31 days. Today I wanted to touch on a few more inspirational photos, this time the kitchen. You always hear that the kitchen is the heart of the home, and that is very true in our case. Everything gets done in the kitchen! When we changed the layout, it seemed like the options were endless! At first that was exciting, but it became quite daunting. Designing an entire kitchen when you are not a kitchen designer is a little overwhelming! 

Brad and I both wanted to have custom kitchen cabinets made, but all of our quotes were astronomical! I began researching Ikea cabinets and heard so many great things about them. I have been debating the idea of using Ikea cabinets and having custom cabinet and drawer fronts made. Ikea will allow you to only buy the interior components and not purchase the doors or drawer fronts. This gives you a custom cabinetry look at a fraction of the cost. When our decision was nearly final, we received another quote for custom cabinets. The quote came in VERY close to the Ikea price, so we are now debating the two.  I am liking the idea of having a pro help me make decisions about cabinetry because the options are endless. 

The picture below is my aunt's house. When I first saw her black cabinets and planked walls, I decided that I had to have them! Thankfully she sold this house before we started building, so it wont look like we copied her kitchen! =)

This photo is actually very similar to the lay out of our kitchen. We have the large window over the sink except we are going to do open shelves on either side. The island and range will be set up similarly as well. Sorry the photo is a little blurry.

Our house has two big columns in-between the living room and kitchen. I would like to incorporate them into our island, but I am not sure if it will work just yet. We tried to do away with them, but they are apparently holding the whole house up!

 If we don't connect the island to the columns, I may do an island similar to the one below. I love the X on the ends. 

 I also love how this one looks like a piece of furniture. So pretty.

 In between the dining room and kitchen there is a wall that we plan to make a butler's pantry minus the pantry. I am thinking something along these lines. 

 Here is another kitchen layout that is very similar to ours. I love the little built in wine rack in the island.

I will update again in the next few weeks on the route we decide to go with the cabinets.