i'm dreaming of a white... kitchen

We have kitchen stools!  After calling at least five World Market stores, we finally found a location that had more than a lone stool or two in stock.  Apparently these little guys are popular - we've had a hard time finding them in store anywhere.  The sales gal Hubby talked to was nice enough to verify actual stock on the floor and then put the only four they had on hold for us.  E was napping at the time and we were worried that by the time he woke up and we made the hour drive, one or more would be gone.  Luckily, they were all there when we arrived and were just as gorgeous as we remembered.  I barely withheld from doing a happy dance in the aisle.

By the time we got home last night, we weren't motivated to unload the car but Hubby got on it right away this morning.  We were curious how many pieces the stools would be in when the boxes were opened and were super excited to discover very minimal assembly was required.  Even the two year old was of assistance!

Swooning over the stools all day today got me thinking more and more about the overall look of our kitchen.  My Pinterest and Houzz boards are full of beautiful white kitchens, but none are exactly what I'm imagining.  We still need to pick out our counters, so maybe once we do that, everything will finally come together.  Who am I kidding?  I won't be sure of my choices until everything is in place and I've stood in the middle of the kitchen staring at everything at least twenty times.  Oh well.  Until I can do that, the inspiration board below will have to do.

Sources:
stools: Twist Swivel Stool from World Market

cabinets: Tolani in Chiffon by Merillat

drawer pulls: Liberty Hardware Cup Pull from Home Depot

knobs: Liberty Hardware Contempo Knobs from Home Depot

flooring: Ponderosa – Alamosa Hickory from Real Wood Floors

faucet: Moen Wetherly from Lowes

pendant light: Murray Feiss Urban Renewal Mini Pendant from Build

pendant light: allen + roth Bronze Traditional Pendant Light from Lowes

And, it might help, if I shared our kitchen layout.  We originally had an island included, but we're going to leave it out for now.  I don't want the kitchen to be so crowded that we can't easily move around.  Our old kitchen was galley style and it was difficult for more than one person to be in there.  The only thing I'm unsure about are the lower cabinets on the oven/cooktop side.  Does the asymmetry look weird?  I asked our cabinet guy to quote me to change the lower left cabinets to drawers/doors and the lower center cabinets under the cooktop to drawers.  If it's not drastically more expensive, I might do that instead.

The remaining kitchen decisions are: finalize cabinet layout, select granite for counters, finalize faucet, choose paint color and select backsplash.  Our builder/plumber prefers Kohler fixtures but I haven't found a Kohler kitchen faucet that I like in our price range.  For now, we've chosen a Moen one and are hoping the plumber agrees to install it.  We're also undecided on a backsplash and paint color.  We'll probably do a simple subway tile for the backsplash, but I'm not completely sure if we'll do white, like shown above.  We have a bit of time, though, because we're going to wait to do the backsplash later, on our own.  We're going to pick out the granite for our counters this coming Saturday, so I'll probably start thinking about paint colors after that.  There won't be a whole lot of paint in the kitchen, but we will have one wall of open shelves and then the dining area will also be painted the same color.  Maybe a dusty yellow?  Or a blueish-grey?

Spill your beans.  Things I haven't thought about?  Colors you like?  What you love/hate in your own kitchen?  Personally, I'm pretty excited about the pantry, dishwasher and ability to store all of my dishes/pans/small appliances in the kitchen itself.  The pretty cabinets, shiny appliances, and fun fixtures won't be so bad either.  Okay, I'm giddy about it all.  There's no hiding it.