Our Home

Smart Home Additions For a Relaxing Home

Your home is your sanctuary, safe haven and a place to unwind after a long day. I love creating cozy, functional spaces throughout a home to be able to enjoy it as much as possible. Whether it’s creating a spa-like bathroom or designing a kitchen that caters to your culinary needs, we can cozy-up our home through interior design. There are many ways to create a home that’s perfect for you. But another great way to make your home more relaxing is to incorporate technology. I’m sharing all of our smart home additions for a relaxing home and to help your home life run a little smoother.

Smart Home Additions For a Relaxing Home

Appliances that Create an Efficient Kitchen

One of the best decisions we made when we were remodeling our house was installing a Brizo faucet (similar). We have the Litze SmartTouch model. Our family is constantly in the kitchen, but my husband has been appointed to handling the raw meat in the family. It’s great to be able to touch the faucet with your forearm or elbow to turn it on and wash your hands.

We’ve had the faucet for about a year and a half now, and have had zero issues with it. Prior to purchasing it, I read some reviews that said the faucet just abruptly stopped working. However, we’ve had no issues and have only had to change the battery once so far. The only regret I have is not putting a SmartTouch faucet in our butler’s pantry.

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Our dishwasher, refrigerator and freezer drawers are smart appliances too. The refrigerator and freezer drawers are both from the brand, Sub-Zero, and our dishwasher is by Cove. Sub Zero and Cove are sister companies. What’s great about these appliances is that they’re all connected to one app on my phone. If the refrigerator is left open (which happens quite frequently), I get an alert on my phone. It also shows when the dishwasher is running, and when it’s finished. It gives me more piece of mind knowing that I’ll get an alert if our refrigerator or freezer is left open. With three kiddos, it’s bound to happen.

The freezer drawers are located in our butler’s pantry. We opted to put drawer fronts on the freezer drawers because we wanted them to look cohesive with the rest of the drawers in the space.

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Music Makes a Happy Home

After a long day, nothing is better or more peaceful than turning on some music and spending time with your family. We’ve had the Sonos system for a few years, and love it. I’ve actually been thinking of upgrading to the newer system because it has updated features. The Sonos system operates on an app. It’s up to you on how many speakers you want throughout your home.

You can place a speaker in every room, just a few or just one – whatever works for you. You have the option to play music in just one room or link them together and play a song throughout your entire house. The app is compatible with different music apps like Pandora and Apple Music. It plays great quality sound and works with Alexa, if you have one.

Saving Energy with Nest

Before we started our home remodel, we had the Nest, and decided to keep it after we finished the project. It comes in several colors to match the aesthetic of your home. We have the brass color, and it looks very sleek and modern.

Like many thermostats, you can set a heating and cooling schedule on it. Throughout the winter, you can schedule it to automatically turn down to a certain temperature. Then schedule the temperature to go up before you arrive home. In the summer, you can do the opposite to create an optimal temperature while you’re at home.

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It also has a smart feature where it will learn your patterns. If you like it warmer during dinner time, it will pick up on that trend. If you’re setting the thermostat to 72 degrees each night around the same time for dinner, it will automatically set that temperature for you after you’ve done that a few times.

It also has a motion sensor. If it notices there’s been no movement for a certain amount of time, it will adjust the temperature accordingly to save energy. It also sends you a report, detailing your energy usage patterns. This helps you determine if you’re being as efficient as possible or can improve in some areas, if needed.

Conserving Energy with Smart Shades

Another way to conserve energy is to install smart shades throughout your home. Closing the shades to block the sun at certain times of the day helps your home stay cooler throughout the summer months. This conserves energy with your air conditioner.

For convenience, we installed the Lutron Electronics shades and are all controlled by the Lutron app. You can also control them with Alexa, if you prefer that.

There are seven Lutron Electric blinds throughout our home and controlled with the Lutron app. The app tells me when each is open and closed, and can open and close them all from the app. You can also set up a schedule for each one individually. I get quite a bit of morning sun in my office, and it shines right into my eyes. Because of this, I have them closed until a certain time. Then, I have them open halfway to block the sun that is still shining through one part of the window. Finally, they open all the way once the sun moves away from those windows.

My office shades are from the Mirage collection, and the color is sand. They have a gorgeous texture too, almost like grasscloth.

Lutron offers blackout shades, but we opted for ones that let a bit of light in. They’re mainly used for privacy for our family, and don’t like the blinds to completely block out all the natural light.

Installation is quite simple. It’s basically hanging the brackets on each of the windows, and the blinds snap in. I chose the black metal valance in our office and have fabric-covered valances in the bedrooms. You can also opt not to have a valance. Our shades are battery-operated as we didn’t have an electrical hookup in our windows. But if you’re building or doing a remodel, you can have electricity installed in your windows, and the shades can be powered that way too.

A Vacuum That Vacuums for You

That sentence – a vacuum that vacuums for you – is enough for me to say, “I’ll take it.” We have two dogs and a cat, so having our Roomba run every day and throughout the day helps keep the pet air to a minimum. I can schedule it to run at certain times of the day, and it works well on hardwood and carpets. It’s also compatible with Alexa. I love the sleek design of it and that it features an edge-sweeping brush to get the corners where a lot of pet hair likes to collect.

Putting little touches of convenience throughout your home makes your life run much smoother and efficient. Start small with smart additions to your home and do what works best for your family.

Do you like utilizing technology throughout your home? Let me know in the comments below how you use technology in your home!

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Our Home

How to Design a Functional Mudroom

Mudrooms are such a functional use of space for any home. It’s a space to keep your everyday essentials in one place and help your family stay more organized. It doesn’t have to be a big area. It just has to be designed right to provide maximum functionality to fit your family’s needs. I’m sharing our mudroom design and decor and how to design a functional mudroom for your home.

How to Design a Functional Mudroom

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The Mudroom Before Our Remodel

When we first built our home, the mudroom wasn’t very deep and had three small lockers. At the time, we only had one child, and the space was working fine for our family’s needs. Fast forward to three kids later, and we needed more storage space for all our kids’ stuff. Things like backpacks, winter gear, sunhats, shoes and jackets were all things that needed a home – somewhere other than our kitchen table.

To create a larger space for the mudroom, we took the space from our corner pantry in our kitchen. That gave us a room that is now 9 feet long and 5.5 feet wide. This was a win-win for our design because that also meant we gained more cabinet and counter space in our kitchen.

Cabinet Storage in the Mudroom

When we were thinking about storage space for our new mudroom, we knew we wanted a locker for each family member, including my husband and I. I also wanted to have a dedicated locker for our vacuum and broom storage. So that meant we needed six lockers total.

Each of the six lockers are 19 inches wide by 18 inches deep. They were custom-built by Mountain Crest Cabinet. They built most of our cabinets throughout our home.

In each locker, there’s a rack to hang coats and backpacks. We also opted to include two small drawers in the bottom of each locker. In the drawers, we keep seasonal things like ski pants, gloves and hats in the winter, and summer essentials throughout the summer. The seasonal items that aren’t being used are kept in the basket at the top of each locker.

Below each locker is a drawer for our shoes. There is nothing more glorious than having a place for each kid’s shoes, and they’re not floating around your house. The drawers are fully-extending drawers and have a wire mesh on the front. This helps the shoes air out without the room smelling like one big shoe. For the broom and vacuum locker, we had an electrical outlet installed to charge our Dyson stick vacuum. So once I’m finished vacuuming, I can just pop it back into the locker and charge it, as opposed to charging it somewhere in the house and then putting it back later after it’s charged.

Decorating the Mudroom

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The cabinets are painted Dorian Gray from Sherwin Williams, which is the same color I used for our kitchen desk area. I like to try and stay consistent with colors to tie different rooms together. The hardware is from Schaub Hardware. They’re a 6-inch, solid brass handle.

On the wall opposite the lockers, we installed 6-inch vertical shiplap, and painted it Benjamin Moore Simply White. We also hung a few hooks on the shiplap for school backpacks to easily grab on our way out the door. On the top half of the wall, we had a floral design wallpaper by NewWall hung.

Because it’s such a high-traffic area, we put a Ruggable rug in the room. It’s so nice to throw it into the washer periodically and have it come out looking brand new again.

On the floor, we used a black 12 inch by 24 inch slate floor tile, and think it works nicely with our gray cabinets.

We finished the space with an upholstered bench to sit on while putting on shoes.

This is one of the most used spaces in our home, and I’m so glad we decided to expand it. Let me know if you have any questions about the space in the comments below! I also have a highlight saved on my Instagram talking about the room.

Where do you keep your shoes, backpacks and purses in your home? Let me know in the comments below!

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Our Home

The Best Neutral Paint Colors for Your Home

Starting the process of designing and remodeling a space in your home is fun and exciting. But it can also be overwhelming, especially when you’re deciding on paint colors. We recently did a remodel to most of our house, and had to make lots of decisions when it came to paint. Today I’m sharing my favorite paint colors, and hope it helps you narrow down your search for the best neutral paint colors for your home.

Neutral Paint Colors for Your Home

It’s usually the same story. You’re standing in front of the gigantic wall of paint swatches at your local paint store, and it feels like there’s no less than one million options. You’re usually having a full blown conversation with yourself in your head. Will this look different in the light in my home? Is this too dark or too light? And your thoughts just go around and around. I wanted to share my best tips for choosing paint, and I’ll also break down each color I used throughout most of my home.

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Tips for Choosing a Paint Color

One of the biggest tips I give someone is to always, always get a paint sample for a color or colors you’re thinking about. Then paint a swatch on the wall of the room to see how it looks in the lighting in the day and night. If there’s not a small sample jar you can take home to use, then I’d suggest getting a paper swatch and tape it on your wall.

You also want to consider your decor you’re incorporating into the room. Will that paint color match? Using a very neutral color like a shade of white, gray or taupe are all pretty safe to stick with. The great thing about using a neutral color like these is you can change out your decor over the seasons and years, and the paint color will usually go with most any decor you use. Neutral colors allow you to get longevity out of your paint, so you don’t have to paint every time you redecorate. That saves you time and money. 🙂

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Paint Colors I Used Throughout My Home

Main Floor

For our main floor, I used Benjamin Moore Simply White. This is a very popular shade of white. Benjamin Moore’s website says this color is great for walls, trim and ceilings, and we ended up painting all of those things in our home Simply White. However, we did do different sheens. Flat is on the ceiling, eggshell is on the walls and trim and satin is on the doors and shiplap.

My Office

My office is painted Benjamin Moore Simply White on three the walls, and the accent wall is painted Sherwin Williams Iron Ore. It’s a softer black, almost like a smokey gray.

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Guest Room

Our guest room is Sherwin Williams Requisite Gray. This color is a warm gray, which is sometimes lovingly referred to as a greige. Sometimes gray can come out too light and cold-looking. Requisite Gray has some warm undertones. When it’s painted on a wall, it looks like a clean, fresh gray.

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Kitchen

Four our kitchen desk area and office built-ins, we chose Sherwin Williams Dorian Gray. This is another warmer gray, but it’s a deeper shade than the Requisite Gray.

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Our kitchen cabinets have a custom mix made by our cabinet maker that was created to compliment our floors. Unfortunately, I don’t have that formula.

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Exterior

We painted our entire exterior Benjamin Moore Simply White too. What can I say? It’s a versatile color. Our timbers and tongue and groove are painted a semi-solid stain to match Sherwin Williams Morris Room Grey – a warm, hearty color. It’s a great color to use on cabinets as well.

I think that covers most of our house! If you have any other paint color questions, please let me know. Happy to answer any questions.

Do you have a favorite paint color you use in your home? Let me know in the comments below!

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Our Home

White Oak Hardwood Floors in Our Home

If you’re building a new home or remodeling, flooring is one of the more challenging decisions you have to make, in my opinion. It’s not like paint where you can easily go over a color you didn’t necessarily care for. I’m sharing our white oak hardwood floors in our home, why we chose them and my review of them.

If you ever have a questions regarding furniture in my home, be sure to check this section of the blog!

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White Oak Hardwood Floors in Our Home

If you’ve ever been to a flooring store, you know you can get overwhelmed quickly. There are so many different options to choose from with varying pros and cons. I think flooring is one of the hardest decisions to make because it’s not an easy fix to simply replace flooring. It’s usually a contractor laying the floors. If you’re not happy with the flooring you chose, it’s not an easy or budget-friendly fix.

That’s why it’s important to do your research before you purchase your flooring, and be absolutely sure it’s the right one for you and your lifestyle before it’s laid. If you have children or pets, you’ll want to be sure you choose flooring that’s durable with easy maintenance.

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Why We Chose Our Flooring

Hardwood floors have notoriously been the type of flooring that’s the hardest to maintain, and many people decide not to go with hardwood floors for that reason. However in our research and quest to find the perfect flooring, we found that there are some great hardwood options that are both durable and on-trend.

We chose the California Classics Mediterranean Collection in the color Bilbao. It’s a double-smoked french white oak with eight inch wide planks and 72 inch boards. The longer the planks are, the more cohesive and streamlined your flooring will look.

This specific flooring has a good amount of texture. It’s hand-scraped with a matte finish, giving it an authentic wood floor look. The coloring matches the aesthetic of our home perfectly with a good mixture of gray, brown and white. They have a nice color variation in each of the boards, which creates a more natural look.

Our golden retriever pretty much destroyed our hardwood floors we had before the remodel. They were walnut with a shiny, slick finish, and you could see every single scrape that he ever put in there with his nails. So choosing a floor with texture and color variation has been a game changer.

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Selecting Pre-Finished Flooring

We decided to have the floors prefinished instead of the them sanded and finished in our home. The reason we did that is because the floors would have only been able to have three coats of sealer on top of them. If we chose to have them prefinished, the floors would get eight coats of sealer. Because we needed something as durable and strong as possible, we opted to have them prefinished.

The flooring has engineered four-millimeter sawn veneer, and finished with a super low gloss urethane finish for better durability. The California Classics Mediterranean line offers a wide-variety of colors too.

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Questions I Get Asked Often About Our Floors

Q: Are your floors slippery?

No, they aren’t at all. I think it’s because of the texture and matte finish.

Q: What do you use to clean your hardwood floors?

We use the Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner, and it’s worked well.

Q: If you spill liquid or drop crumbs on the floor, do they get stuck in the grooves of the texture?

No, we haven’t had any issues. If we spill something, we wipe it up, and the liquid doesn’t get into the cracks. The crumbs are swept up nicely with our vacuum.

Do you prefer hardwood floors or another type of flooring like luxury vinyl plank? Let me know in the comments below!

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Kitchen

Modern Kitchen Cabinet and Island Design

Like many households, our kitchen is the heartbeat of our home. We love to cook and eat together as a family as often as we can. I’ve mentioned this before, but we lived in our house for 14 years before we did our home renovation. Because of this, we knew exactly what we needed to make the space more functional for our family. I’m sharing all the details of our modern kitchen cabinet and island design.

Modern Kitchen Cabinet and Island Design

How We Designed the Island

When we were in the beginning phases of designing our kitchen, we knew we needed more counter space, and create a better flow to the footprint of the kitchen. Our old island was oddly shaped, and it was contributing to the odd flow. Therefore, we removed the old island and installed a symmetrical, rectangular-shaped island. It’s 8.5 feet long by 5.5 feet wide. I also wanted to make sure the hood above our range was centered with the island and pendant lights.

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The island countertop is Mont Blanc Quartzite. It’s two inches thick with a perimeter of 1.75 inches. The edges are mitered. I get asked often why we didn’t do a farmhouse sink. The undermount sink we chose was the same type of sink we had before the remodel, and we loved it! We had that sink for 14 years, and it didn’t have a stain or scratch on it. That’s why we chose a granite composite material from Blanco America. Stainless steel is too hard to keep clean, in my opinion, and scratches easily. We also love the tilted drawer feature the undermount sink allows for to store our sponges for cleaning dishes.

Functional Island Storage

When I did a question and answer poll on my Instagram stories about our kitchen, a follower asked how much space is between our island and range. The space is about 45 inches of space. The area feels big enough to move around in, and small enough that you don’t feel like you’re hiking back and forth from the range to the sink.

Our recycling and trash bins are to the right of the sink. Because we wanted the entire island to look consistent, we put drawer fronts on the trash and recycling bins. Similarly, our dishwasher is to the left of our sink, and also has a cabinet front on it. We had a small amount of usable space available to use to the left of our dishwasher. Therefore, we decided to install drawers instead of a cabinet. They’re each 10 inches wide, and they’re such a functional use of space for storing things like dish towels, aluminum foil and storage bags.

Brick Backsplash and Cabinet Colors

The kitchen cabinets have two tones to them. The first color we used was Benjamin Moore Simply White for all the white-toned cabinets. The second color we used, and the dark of the two is stained a custom color by our cabinet maker to match our wood floors. I wish I had the exact color because I get asked this quite often. Because of the contrast of the two tones, it helps break up the space, and gives it more depth and interest.

The hardware for the cabinets are from Rejuvenation. I wanted the cabinets to all have a consistent look, so we chose six-inch pulls for each of them, regardless of the cabinet’s size. The refrigerator, tilt drawer and dishwasher have larger pulls with the same finish. I was hoping Rejuvenation would have the same style of pulls, but just in a larger size. Unfortunately, they didn’t though. I found some with the same finish as the smaller ones, and they work well.

The backsplash is real brick that is cut thin. The bricks are about ½ inch thick, and they were applied the same way full-size bricks are laid. They’re beautiful and would do it again in a heartbeat. However, they’re hard to keep clean. If you splash grease or tomato sauce into the mortar, it’s hard to wipe it out because of the bumpy, rough texture. We discovered that quite quickly, and knew we needed to find a solution for the backsplash on the range.

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Range Backsplash

We had a custom sheet of glass made to fit inside the range area to protect the brick from stains. The first piece of glass that was installed had this blue tint to it. It almost looked like a car windshield. One bit of advice is to ask for a low-iron concentration in the glass, if you want a very clear piece.

If you want to know the details of our appliances and walk-in pantry, be sure to check out our kitchen renovation part two post!

I hope this post is helpful, if you’re starting a kitchen remodel. It can be overwhelming at times to redo a kitchen. If you take little bits of information from a variety of sources, you’ll find the inspiration you need to create a functional and beautiful kitchen that best suits your family.

What color cabinets do you prefer in a kitchen? Let me know in the comments below! And as always, let me know if you have any follow-up questions.

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Office

My Feminine and Chic Office Design

Whether you work from home full-time or not, it’s nice to have a functional office where you enjoy working. When I was designing my office space, I wanted to create a peaceful area where I could be productive, and I think it turned out to be just that. Today, I’m giving you a tour of my feminine and chic office design and sharing all the details about the decor.

My Feminine and Chic Office Design

During our remodel, we changed the blueprint of the space by closing off the door on the wall where the TV now is. The only way to enter the office now is through our master bedroom closet, which I must say is fantastic. No one usually bothers me here, and I can knock out a lot of work. The only thing I regret about the overall layout is how big the office is. We took about one-third of the room to expand our master closet. When we were creating our design plans, I wasn’t working from home full-time. Had I known I would be in the future, I probably would have kept it a little bigger. But it works fine, and I adore the coziness of it.

Neutral Paint Colors & DIY Frame TV

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Most of our interior walls throughout our home are painted Simply White by Benjamin Moore, and chose that color for the office’s three white walls. The black accent wall is Iron Ore by Sherwin Williams. It’s a softer black than the other black colors used in our home. The black wall really makes the TV and frame pop.

I have the QLED Samsung TV in my office. I created a frame to go around it to give it that custom look. I have that process saved in my Instagram highlights under “TV Frame DIY.” When I have the TV turned off, I have the TV on art mode to make it have the appearance of an art piece. I also have a highlight saved on how to do that in my Instagram highlights under, “TV Art Mode.”

Under the TV, I incorporated a wood and cane console that’s under $250. Then I added two coffee table books with a simple small bowl and a marble tray. I finished the table with a few other accent pieces and faux stems.

Bookshelf Styling

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On the right side of the room, we have a built-in bookshelf to display decor. The shelves are painted Dorian Gray by Sherwin Williams, which also happens to be the color we used for the kitchen desk area and mudroom lockers.

On the wall next to the window, I have a freestanding glass bookshelf. If you have office supplies that you need to store, utilize baskets or other decorative boxes to organize them and incorporate them into a shelf in your office. You can also store supplies in things like a console or your desk.

For shelf styling, I like to use consistent colors in a v-pattern and then anchor the bottoms of the shelves with baskets. You also want to choose a few colors and then carry them throughout your shelves. Texture is your friend and helps add warmth to the overall look by adding woven baskets and natural wood pieces.

If you have space to include several books in your built-ins, turn them so the pages are exposed and not the spines. That way, they’re a consistent color, and you don’t have to use book covers for all of them.

I can click the “Shop the Photo” underneath the shelf photo to find pieces I used for styling. For a more visual reference, I have an Instagram reel showing how I styled this exact shelf.

My Desk Space

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I opted to use a round table in place of a desk in this space. I didn’t want the desk or table to overpower the office, and think this is the perfect size for the area I was working with. If you’re looking for a functional yet comfortable and stylish office chair, this one is a great option.

To finish the desk space, I added a clear vase and faux floral tulips. These tulips were all over Instagram, and they’re without a doubt the best faux tulips I’ve ever seen. They look and feel so realistic, and they’re only $17 for 20 stems. Crazy! They also come in 17 different colors.

I anchored the desk area with a beautiful rug from Loloi Rugs. It’s the Sky 1 5×7 in Blush/Grey.

For my window treatments, I kept it simple and used the Lutron Electronics shades. You can read all about them in this post here.

I’m so happy with how this space turned out, and I have a cozy space to work and be productive.

Now I have to know would you take more space from a room like an office to make a bigger closet? Let me know in the comments below.

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Kitchen

Our Kitchen Butler’s Pantry and Appliances

This is part two of our kitchen remodel. Be sure to read part one here before you read this one. In the first post, I shared our inspiration for our kitchen and the design of our cabinets, island and kitchen layout. Today, I’m sharing the details of our kitchen butler’s pantry and appliances.

Our Kitchen Butler’s Pantry and Appliances

Butler’s Pantry Design

Prior to our remodel, our pantry was on the right side of the hood and range. It had originally went all the way back to the wall where the garage is. We decided to close off the doorway to the old pantry and add a 90 degree angle for more counter space. And we’re actually using the old pantry space for additional square footage for the mudroom now.

For our new pantry, we wanted a large, functional space. We added a bit more square footage and took some space from our third car garage that wasn’t getting used and created a 12.5 foot by 8 foot butler’s pantry. This was the only square footage we added during our remodel, and we kept the rest of the house’s existing footprint.

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In the pantry, I wanted to continue the same design that we did in our main kitchen area. The base cabinets are stained, and the upper cabinets are painted Benjamin Moore Simply White. We also have the same countertops in the pantry that we have in the kitchen – Mont Blanc Quartzite. We store our toaster, coffee maker and other larger kitchen gadgets on the countertop in the pantry (when I’m not shooting content), so we aren’t taking up usable space in the kitchen.

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We included a beverage cooler in here, so drinks weren’t taking up usable space in our main refrigerator. The drawers to the right of the beverage cooler are freezer drawers for extra freezer space.

All the cabinets to the left of the beverage cooler are drawers used for storage. When I’m not creating content for the blog, we usually utilize the open shelving on the two far sides of the upper cabinets for things like our mixing bowls. As you walk in to the right, we added a sink for doing dishes and easy clean up. But I wish we would have included a touch sprayer like we have in our kitchen. Maybe one day we’ll add one. They’re so convenient for cleanups!

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The other side of the pantry is used for food storage. I love the open shelving to see everything we have for easy food prep and cooking. The two bottom rows are drawers for easy access to food in the back of the shelves.

We have a lot of traffic coming in and out of here because the door to the patio is inside the pantry. So I included a Ruggable rug and love that I can wash it as often as necessary.

Kitchen Appliances from Sub-Zero Group

All of our appliances we used throughout our kitchen and butler’s pantry are from Sub-Zero Group. We opted not to do a double oven and instead did a microwave and steam oven that sit next to the refrigerator. All of our cooking appliances are from Wolf, which is a company under Sub-Zero Group.

The steam oven can bake things like a regular oven does. It makes the best bread, and gets a nice crusty outside with a soft inside. The steam oven can also reheat food. Depending on what you’re reheating, you can choose the “moist” setting to reheat things like pasta that you don’t want to dry out or the “crispy” setting for things like french fries, pizza, egg rolls or casseroles with a crunchy top. The steam oven doesn’t boil water or cook things like oatmeal, however. It doesn’t need to be connected to a water supply. You simply fill a small drawer with water. Easy!

Our range and oven are also from Wolf. Our stove top is a duel-fuel gas with an electric oven.

We wanted our dishwasher, refrigerator and freezer drawers to have panels on them, so they would look like cabinets and blend well into the space. The refrigerator and freezer drawers are from Sub-Zero, and the dishwasher is from Cove. Cove is another sister company under the Sub-Zero Group. If you want the same look, you’ll need to choose panel-ready appliances. Our cabinet maker took the size specifications and made the doors for each appliance.

The cabinets where the steam oven and microwave are located are very deep. So it’s great to store large cooking pots and pans that don’t typically fit into a standard-sized cabinet. For example, we make paella quite a bit, and the pan is large. So the two drawers underneath the microwave and oven are extra deep and wide enough for the paella pan. The cabinets on top of the steam oven are where I keep my cookie sheets and full-size baking sheets. I included slots in those for easy organization.

What’s one thing in your kitchen that makes cooking or storing things easier? Let me know in the comments below!

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