Fall @ Home - Kitchen & Keeping Room

The saying, "the kitchen is the heart of the home" certainly rings true for our family. We spend most of our time in the kitchen/keeping room area of our house.

Here's my kitchen. We refaced the cabinets about a year ago and added the dark hardwood flooring. We've gradually upgraded appliances and and added things throughout this year.

We hesitated about putting the plasma TV in (above the wine cabinet on the left), but I love being able to watch the news while I cook dinner and it will be great for college football parties this fall.

I recently bought the two floor rugs at HomeGoods, my favorite store for nearly all home decor! (Click on the photos to enlarge them)

A few little niches around the kitchen. This is the "traveling coffee maker"... it's the first to get moved to a new counter when the seasons and kitchen decor changes. My sweet husband just goes with the flow. He'll say, "Oh, the coffee maker moved again" and leave it at that.

Another one of my pastoral oil paintings. We sometimes call Adam "Boo" or "Booster", so when I saw that little pumpkin at Cracker Barrel, I snatched it up. And we must not forget the beloved candy corn.

These pilgrims were a gift from my mom, and she made the ceramic pumpkin plate many years ago. She used it at our house when I was growing up and often served her delicious pumpkin bars with cream cheese frosting on it.


This niche is the former home of the coffee maker...now taken over by this turkey and bowl of pumpkins.

Now for the keeping room. This photo was taken from the kitchen, and you see the wine cabinet with the plasma over it on the right. This room was an addition the summer of 2007 and it's been great to have the extra space.

Just like my blue walls in the dining room (see the post below), this blue sofa was a bit of a design challenge. I like it now, but it's been a struggle trying to work with. A not-so-wise-but-turned-out-OK-design-decision.

The window treatments in the keeping room are new...Doug just hung them last weekend. I went a whole year without any and I think they warm up and finish off the room nicely.

These two rattan chairs (from Sam's Club) are right next to the sofa. They had black leather seats and my window treatment fabricator recovered them. The large cornice above the chairs used to be covered in chocolate velvet and hung in my living room. (Ooops! Another bad design choice!)

A different view of the armoire in the photo above. The doors to the left lead out to our deck.

This little nook is the corner opposite the armoire on the other side of the deck doors.

This table is across from the rattan chairs.

Tomorrow's the final day of the Tour....the library and foyer