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Welcome to my favorite place on earth, my kitchen. This little spot on earth is where I feed the ones I love most, where I express my passion for cooking, and pour out my creativity in trying new recipes that I share on this blog. It’s a special place to me and that I want to share with you. 

When we bought our house, the kitchen needed a major makeover; which was perfect because I finally was able to create a kitchen space that worked perfectly for me and my family and reflected my style. I am going to show you some pictures and explain what we did and why we did it… and share some little details with you, too!

A big island with seating was a must for me. I loved growing up and plopping down for breakfast every morning at the island while my mom cooked and sipped on coffee…and that is exactly what I do everyday. The large island is also great for extra cooking space, and for displaying food when entertaining when I am doing a more casual, “buffet style” party. Stools are the “Tractor Stool” from Design Within Reach.

Since we had such a large space to work with and storage wasn’t really an issue, I opted for open shelving instead of bulky, upper cabinets. I love the way it adds a modern touch to the room and that all my plates and bowls are right there, ready to be used when anyone needs it. It also makes it easy to add trinkets and art to the kitchen to give it more character. The Mexican-inspired watercolor painting was one we picked up at at an antique shop in Austin, Uncommon Objects. The funky little stone heads were from Big Mango here in Dallas, I freaking love them!! Lastly, below it is one of our favorite works of art we own, ‘Conquistador’ by Malcolm Bucknall. My husband and I both went to TCU (go Horned Frogs!) and we loved this unique piece and had to have it. 

I also love collecting cookbooks. I love sitting around and flipping through beautiful food photos and getting inspired to cook my next meal. Some of my favorites are: The Food of Italy, Healthy Dish of the Day, Cravings by Chrissy Teigan, and anything by Ina Garten! I also have little card holders filled with my grandmother’s old recipes which are so very special to me.

When we bought our home, there was a separate room designated as the formal dining room. Even though we entertain a lot, we decided to make the old formal dining room a study and move the dining room into the kitchen. I like the casual, genuine touch it has on even a fancy dinner party. The dining room table is a long story, but it was custom made and a real pain in my a$$ to be honest with you so I am not even going to give you the details on that one. The chairs are these Eames Plastic Molded dowel-leg armchairs.  The chandelier I bought from Market at the Dallas world Trade Center, but restoration hardware now carries it.

The adorable kids table and chairs are from Room and Board. Above it is a photo by the very talented and famous Texan photographer, James Evans, which we purchased on a trip up to Big Bend one summer. We went into his gallery, met him, and talked about all of his favorite photos and he had an interesting story behind the one we purchased. It’s a fun conversational piece and a special memory we will never forget!

Lastly, our most beautiful and prized piece of art is in our dining room, ‘the bather’ by Andy Dixon. Since Clayton and I have dated we’ve dreamed of owning a piece by Andy Dixon. We had seen his work at our favorite Art Gallery in Austin, Wally Workman Gallery, when we lived there in the past. For our 2nd anniversary, we drove down to one of his shows at Wally Workman and chose this fantastic piece and I can honestly say I will never get sick of staring at it. It also adds a fun splash of color to our modern kitchen, too.

When we remodeled we knew we had to add a bar area because when we entertain, my husband loves to play bartender. This is so fun but to be honest, he is the messiest mixologist in all of the land…so this bar here wasn’t only paying tribute to my husbands bartending skills, it was also a gift to myself to get him the hell out of my kitchen area!! haha. He has his own sink and everything so all his lemons, limes and glasses can stay in the bar where they belong! Plus, I really love the open shelving on the bar area, all of the bottles and trinkets add lots of color to our kitchen! 

One of my absolute favorite things, if not my very favorite, is our fun “garage door” style window we have that opens up to our back patio. We did this for two reasons… 1. because there was the tiniest window ever in the original kitchen and zero natural light, so this really opened things up and 2. now when we are entertaining, I am not isolated in the kitchen while everyone is playing outside! Take a seat at the back patio bar and talk to me while I am cooking for extra brownie points and snacks 😉 The barstools are by Bluedot.

So that wraps up my kitchen tour, and if you have any questions feel free to comment below. Special thanks to my beautifully talented friend and photographer Kristen Kilpatrick for coming and shooting me in my home. 

Outfit details: AG Jeans, Rails Button Down Striped Top (sold out but similar here), and shoes are Aquazurra that I’ve had for years and I can’t find them anywhere online to link! 

 



Welcome! I’m Alex.

I’m a food lover sharing healthy, simple, delicious, recipes from my kitchen to yours. Here you’ll find lots of Whole30, lots of healthy, and a little indulgence here and there because…it’s all about balance y’all!


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30 Comments

  1. Hi Alex! Now that you’ve had your fridge drawers for a while, do you still like them? We are getting ready to do a big renovation, and I’m thinking of foregoing a traditional fridge and just going with drawers. We will have a regular sized fridge and deep freezer in the garage. I don’t have a walk-in pantry so I need to free up as much space as possible for storage. I was considering doing two fridge drawers and two freezer drawers in the island.

    1. Hi Chelsea:
      okay– so i LOVE having fridge drawers but I definitely wish I had a regular sized fridge somewhere! I am thinking about putting one in my laundry room for drinks/leftovers. If I had that, I would be 100% happy! So i think that you’ll have a backstock fridge/deepfreezer– you’ll be happy! I have 3 fridge drawers + freezer drawer + a mini fridge near our coffee station (where I keep condiments, milks, etc).
      Hope this helps!

  2. Alex, another question! The lucite display shelf in your dining room- where did you find that? thanks!

  3. Hi Alex – WOW, I am in love with your kitchen!!! I’m also in Dallas and I would love to know who did your cabinets, if you don’t mind sharing. Thanks so much for the inspiration!

      1. Awesome, thank you! I was considering them already, great to see that they do such fantastic work. Thanks!