Kitchen

One of my absolute favorite home design sites is Houzz.com. If you ever have a few free hours on your hands, this is a fabulous site for dreaming and drooling. The basic set-up is that designers, architects, builders and home owners upload photos of all things house. Once you set up an account (it's free), you can create an "idea book" where you can save photos of your favorite things. Not only that, but you can make a comment to describe what appeals to your about that particular item. And if you know the source of an item, you can tag it, and link to the supplier. Brilliant! Anyone with an account can create an article to share, like "purple doors," "walk-in pantries," "wall art with trains," to mention a few I've searched or read. I just picked this one off the home page: "Eight Great Uses for a Lonely Corner." Really, there's nothing you can't find on this site.

Since we've been thinking about building for a few years now, we have a pretty good general idea of what we want to do with our house, but there are a few design elements that overwhelm me. Specifically, the backsplash. Because of my brain injury, a lot of the popular backsplashed out there are really too busy. I'd rather my brain focus on what I'm cooking that trying to keep my vertigo in check! At the same time, I'd like to find something subtle, with a bit more color than the classic subway tile. A pattern can be okay, as long as there's an order to it. Our cabinets will be maple espresso and our counters will be a white quartz, so a little punch of color is welcome. The backsplash is the least expensive way to experiment--other than paint, of course. Our kitchen is also pretty open, so we wont' need a lot of backsplash, which means it's one area I could splurge in, if I found something I really loved.

Guess what? I found something I really, REALLY loved. Step into my dream:

I was on a Houzz idea book bunnytrail when I saw THIS! These are our cabinets, in our color, with our exact hardware. We'll have similar white quartz countertops, too. The main difference is that we'll have blonde cork planks for the flooring, which is soft and quiet. (My brain cannot wait to ditch these hardwoods!)

What really drew my eye is that even though there's quite a lot going on, there is order with the columns, and from a distance (like the first picture), it's much more subdued than other options out there, without being completely solid colored.

The generous architect who designed this kitchen was kind enough to upload this pictures as well:

BEST of all, some kind person tagged the photo so I could learn that the tile is Matchsticks Mosaic by Ann Sacks. I'm not a big trend girl, but I know enough to know that if something has a full name attached to it, it isn't on the bargain bin. Niels and I found a shop that carries it, so we went off to see how insanely expensive it is, and if I hate it in person.

I didn't hate it. I absolutely LOVE it. It looks blue online, but it's actually a gorgeous green that goes beautifully with the rest of the green (and plum) accents we have in our great room. It is on the high end, but we'll price it out and see where we land. I do have some fall back options, but for now, this is my backsplash.