In Search of a Kid-Colored Kitchen

Before we left for Scottsdale last week, Molly helped me pack up the kitchen and take some parting shots of its white tile floor, white countertops, and white appliances.

All of that whiteness looked clean, crisp, and spacious... for about five minutes after sweeping, swiffering or mopping. But life in our house includes messy kids and black dogs, who tend to barrel though the kitchen about a million times each day. After almost a year of obsessively sweeping about five times daily, we decided to update the kitchen and make it a little less white, and a little more kid and dog-colored. In other words, we're replacing the white porcelain tile with red oak hardwood floors to match the rest of the original hardwoods in the house, changing the white laminate countertops to a warm brown and goldish granite, and switching out all of the appliances to stainless steel.

We've lived through a kitchen remodel once before, but that was pre-kids. After just one day of dealing with our fridge in the dining room, using paper plates and cups, and having no access to any other appliances, I decided to pack up the kids and head to my family's cabin in Tahoe, where we could escape the fumes from the hardwood floors, and hole up in a snowy retreat for a few days.

We can't wait to see our new, non-white space when we get back!