We have officially moved our laundry room out of our kitchen!  

It was on my New Year's resolution list and it can be scratched off.

We stacked new front loaders (washer & dryer, that is) in the den closet, there was even enough room for my rolly laundry cart next to them… and it keeps the dirty laundry that is in the works out of sight (it used to pile up on the kitchen floor, lovely, I know). Sold the old washer and dryer on Craigstlist in less than 1 hour, and forgot to unload the clothes out of the dryer before we met the people who bought them, glad they opened the dryer door… as I would have been missing some of my favorite things.

Now… what excites me even more than the new laundry space is the new-found pantry space.  I've never had a pantry.  I've had my bread, crackers, what-have-you on the countertop in the corner of this here kitchen for 5 years.

We have a tiny little kitchen. I have no complaints though… it has all the necessities. We might be cramped when we have children someday, but for now it works, and the pantry is a huge help!

Now our new pantry is nothing fancy (we aren't fancy people): it's comprised of our green lockers from Round Top (for the broom, mop, Swiffer, paper towels) and a basic metal shelf from Lowes:

and

The husband (surprisingly) agreed with my idea to paper the walls of the pantry in grasscloth:

I chose Arrowroot Color #074 by Phillip Jeffries

And just because this is a kitchen that I think about often and have never posted on:

{Cottage Living. Photographed by Tim Street-Porter}

Heather Chadduck's kitchen featured in Cottage Living. Sweet simplicity. Here's what she said in the article about her kitchen:

The kitchen proved my biggest challenge. I took it down to the studs, pulling up three layers of linoleum and one sad layer of 1970s-era fake parquet to find the original hardwood floors in pretty good shape. Taking advantage of a perfect opportunity to paint a floor, I brushed giant diamonds and polka dots right on top of the oak, then had them lightly sanded (paint and all) and sealed. Now they look as old as the cottage itself.

I splurged on custom cabinets so I could get the layout I wanted, sacrificing storage space to accommodate my antique French blackboard and newly restored 1950s Chambers stove. My dad handmade the open shelving, my Christmas gift, which arrived just in time for the holidays. And now, after months of ordering takeout, I’ll confess that I love my kitchen most of all. My mom—fondly known as “Suga”—who endured the whole process over the phone, is just glad it’s finally done.

The whole article is here.

I love her Chambers stove, don't you!?  I wonder if she had to buy "mini" cookie sheets, I know mine wouldn't fit in that oven… but it's so darn cute, I could make due with smaller cookie sheets.