Archives for May 2015

With our move to DC rapidly approaching, I can’t stop thinking about how to organize and decorate our new place. Although trying to determine how to fit the content of a two-story house inside a townhouse is stressful, the upside is that I’ll have a lot of home-related content to share with you as I figure it all out! Which brings me to today’s topic: kitchen essentials.

The kids and I aren’t moving until Levi’s preschool ends in June, but Jordan and I would like the house to be as close to finished beforehand. So I went down yesterday to start setting up the kitchen. It’s not that I don’t trust Jordan to figure out where to put everything (well, not entirely); he’s just really busy with his new job.

Our kitchen is significantly smaller than our Omaha kitchen, but it doesn’t feel cramped because of its floor-to-ceiling windows and the over-the-sink cut-out looking into the dining room. The upper cabinets extend to the ceiling, which is nice, but there are fewer lower cabinets in which to store pots and pans, small appliances, and bakeware.

Oh, and there’s no pantry.

After spending several hours in the kitchen yesterday, I came up with an updated list of kitchen essentials we’ll need to help make the space work for us. For example, our new fridge doesn’t have a water dispenser!

Obviously, that’s not the worst thing in the world, but since we haven’t used a water filter pitcher in almost six years, we need to get a new one. Any Brita would suffice, but I love the modern look of this Soma water pitcher (1).

Because of the lack of storage, some food items may have to live on the counter. I’m a sucker for typographic kitchen canisters (2) like this set from West Elm.

We also don’t have a ton of extra drawer space for all of our cooking utensils, so some will have to go in a crock next to the stove. This vintage-looking utensil holder (9) would be a fun contrast to the kitchen’s super contemporary look.

Instead of replacing the Keurig machine that died just before we left Omaha, Jordan and I would like to try making French press (5) coffee instead. That means we’ll also need a coffee grinder (4) because freshly ground beans taste the best. And although it’s not necessary, we’ve been enjoying my parents’ milk frother (6) and now can’t don’t want to drink coffee without warm frothed milk.

We were hoping to add a hot water dispenser to the kitchen sink to help speed up the manual coffee-making process , but it doesn’t look like that’s possible. Instead we’ll need either an electric kettle (3) or a whistling tea kettle (8) that we can leave out on the counter.

With a growing list of kitchen tools that’ll need to be accessible, we’d benefit from some extra storage. The kitchen could fit a bistro table, but a kitchen cart (11) with shelves or a classic baker’s rack would be a better use of that space.

Believe it or not, Jordan is the primary cook in our family. (Ok, if you know me in real life, you can probably believe it.) I’ve just never been interested in cooking. However, his new commute means he won’t be home early enough to make dinner.

Gulp!

I’m kind of freaking out about having to cook every night, but I’ve heard that using a slow cooker (10) is basically life-changing so now I must have one.

Finally, our collection of dish towels is just old and sad. Half are from Jordan’s bachelor days (!) and the rest are just well-worn from years of use. I’d love to start fresh with a set of modern screen printed linen tea towels (7).

Besides ladles and peelers and colanders, what are some of your essential kitchen tools? What couldn’t you live without in your kitchen?

PS – Some ideas for the townhouse’s backyard patio.