Full Kitchen Tour | Intentional Organization, Design Inspo, & Favorite Products
Welcome to my kitchen! I’m excited to dive in and do a full on, in-depth kitchen tour today.
I will walk you through everything from the custom woodworking, my favorite appliances, my coffee and matcha corner, and speak more on the decor and choices we made to bring the space to life. I'll be sure to link* as much as I can below! (*may contain affiliate links)
Be sure to watch the full video to catch all of the deets!
Island
First we'll start with the island. I really love our island. It fits four people comfortably and we customized it to warm up the space.
Custom Woodworking: When we first moved into the house, the island was white drywall. We knew that we wanted to add wood to help add some depth to the kitchen and ground the space a little bit more. We ended up finding a woodworker here in Austin and we installed white oak panels, and it ended up turning out so beautiful! It really brought the space to life and helped us add more personality.
Barstools: Our bar stools are from Article. I really love these stools and highly recommend them. They're extremely light, which is not a good or bad thing. It just always surprises people how light it is when they pull it out!
Pendant Lights: Our lights are from Rejuvenation. I was not sure if I wanted to do black. For me, black accents weren’t something I was used to, because I like to do a lot of white and gold to keep things light and bright. However, we designed our kitchen around a Korean cabinet (we’ll get to that later!) that was passed down from my grandmother to my mom to me. I wanted to design the whole kitchen around it, because it's a very special piece, and the black pendant lights tie in super well with it.
Faucet: Our faucet is from Rejuvenation just like our hardware. Since I really wanted the golds to match, it worked out to get the faucet and the hardware from the same brand.
P.S. I received our Rejuvenation pieces for a multi-series partnership I did with them last year — I am so grateful to have been able to partner with one of my all-time favorite home decor brands to create our dream kitchen!
Fridge
Fridge: We invested in a built-in fridge, and I’m really glad we did. For a built-in fridge, you have to order a panel-ready fridge. The brand that we purchased is Fisher and Paykel (RS36A72J1N 36"). The process ended up being pretty smooth — luckily, the woodworker that we hired for the island had just previously installed doors for the same fridge at another house. So, it felt like the stars were aligning. He built it and put on all of our hardware from Rejuvenation. It looks really beautiful and it functions like a normal fridge. It’s very minimal. I definitely recommend it if you have space in your budget and timeline!
Fridge Hardware: Our fridge handles are 18”, aged brass pulls from Rejuvenation. It’s the same style as the other hardware in our house, so it flows seamlessly. However, one big con is that they do scuff up easily if you’re wearing rings (see here)! There are some dings and scratches now, and I wish I had realized it sooner.
Cabinet Hardware: Everything is from the Meadows collection — these are the knobs, these are the pulls. For the pulls, we did a mix of 6” & 8”, and our large drawers were 12”.
Matcha & Coffee Corner (my fav, of course)
Let’s move on to my matcha and coffee corner. You've probably seen this area before as I film a lot here. This is my favorite spot in the whole house, because this is where I do a lot of thinking. I'll be here making my matcha latte, and I’ll set my intention for the day. It's a ritual for me to be able to slow down, make my drink, and sip it slooowly. That is what this corner means to me.
I also just wanted to note that I am the only caffeine drinker in the house! Andrew doesn't drink coffee. He has pure, un-caffeinated energy. Love that for him… but, me on the other hand… :)
Matcha Goodies: My matcha whisk and matcha whisk stand are from our sister shop, The Homebodies!
Kettle: This kettle has been wonderful. I've had it for many years. I love how minimal it is, and I can heat to precisely the temps I need for my matcha and my pour over coffee. Kettles are clutch.
Coffee Maker: I love this coffee maker for when I am making more than one cup of coffee — although, there are many days I use it just for me! When choosing a coffee machine, I wanted to make sure as many of the components were stainless steel or glass, because I don’t like when hot water touches plastic. This one is the best one I could find that met my criteria, and so far, I’m really happy with it.
Favorite Appliances
Beast Blender: I love how sleek and quiet this blender is! It takes up way less space than my Vitamix, and it’s not as noisy! It’s quickly become a staple.
Aarke Carbonator: We drink a lot of sparkling water, and we love to make fun drinks when friends come over so our soda stream has been clutch for that. It’s also so nice that it doesn’t have a chord, and it stores so easily inside a cabinet.
Vitamix Immersion Blender: My immersion blender is such a game-changer! I use it all the time, and often question why I didn’t buy this sooner?! I really don't know. It’s been amazing. It's my favorite appliance right now.
Pantry
For anyone who wants to find a way to reorganize or invite more organization into their pantry, the answer is usually bins and containers. When you're able to group the like-minded things together, it just helps clear up the space, and it also helps you see what you already have. It helps me cut back on food waste and making sure I know what’s inside our pantry.
Kitchenware
Rug: I looove our jute rug — it’s held up super well amongst foot traffic!
Flatware: Our gold flatware is from Year & Day, and we've had it for about four years. It's held up very well. If you're looking for gold flatware, I definitely recommend Year & Day!
Stasher Bags: The best way to store snacks and bring food on-the-go.
Drawer Dividers: There are many options depending on the size of your drawers on Amazon, at the Container Store, and other places.
Pots & Pans: My pots and pans are from Caraway. I know that there's a lot of stuff on the internet about them being horrible — they're not the best pans in the world, but they're definitely not the worst. I will keep using them until I can't use them anymore and then eventually switch to stainless steel. I think I just don't know how to properly cook with stainless steel yet. So, that would be my next investment if I were to buy pans again.
Dining Area
Last but not least, let’s talk dining area. A couple years ago I would never have picked black chairs, but one of the words that kept coming up when I was searching our aesthetic and interior design inspiration was Japandi. I kept searching Japanese and Scandinavian minimalism interior design, and I really love and connect with this vibe. It feels calming and intentional, yet mixed with beautiful grounding textures.
Dining Table: I found this 86” table at the West Elm outlet. The color is called Cerused White. At the time they had discontinued it, but as of today (March 2023) it’s back. It came unfinished, so we ended up sealing it ourselves. When we sealed the table, it did make it a little bit more yellow and it brought out a lot more of the depth of the wood, but I love how it turned out. I think it looks really great in the space and we were able to fit 10 people at this table during our family reunion. We also got the bench that matched the table at the outlet.
Chairs: honestly, my favorite chairs I’ve ever owned and even more beautiful IRL.
Korean Cabinet: As I mentioned before, this cabinet is the centerpiece of our kitchen. It was the inspiration behind the black accents that we went with. It was my grandmother's, and she passed it down to my mom, and she passed it down to me — three generations of women — and hopefully I can pass it down to my future child. It looks beautiful here and feels very special. I'm not accessing all parts of it as it is old and I want to preserve it, but we do keep our placemats and our coasters on it, so it does serve a function.
Decor Thoughts
I am planning to do a full home tour, but a theme that you'll notice is that I don't do a lot of decor for the sake of decor. I like the pieces to have a function or a purpose. It's how I cut back on clutter and just reduce the amount of stuff that's in the house.
However, we do have a lot of plants. It's how I like to add life and pops of color when it comes to designing the space. I really like to feel like my home is a sanctuary and I want to feel calm in my space. I had so much fun designing this house! It’s a big compliment to me when people ask who our interior designer is, because it's meee. Haha!
Thank you all so much for hanging out with me and touring my kitchen… That’s a wrap for now!
***Not seeing a link to something? Chances are it might be tagged in my Amazon Storefront or on LTK. Check out those links.
