A kitchen brings life to a house.
A kitchen can be the heart of the home.
I was struck by this thought and revelation a little while back and how it played out in our house. Here’s the longish back story:
When we moved into our new-to-us house, it came equipped with a basement kitchen, but an empty kitchen on the main floor.
Like empty. Nothing there. No cupboards. No appliances. Just an empty room.
We moved in and our kitchen was in the basement. It worked fine. My dear husband even went to the work to fix me a gas line for my gas stove, so I could use it in my basement kitchen. There was an electric, coil cookstove in the basement kitchen, but it wasn’t in the best condition and I really liked my gas stove. I was happy to have it moved.
Once we were otherwise moved and mostly settled, we started on plans and some shopping around for our someday kitchen. We weren’t sure how quickly we would start the kitchen, but my husband was quite adamant on the fact that, “If we don’t start toward it, it definitely won’t happen.”
In the meantime, we cooked meals and washed dishes and had friends and family eat with us, all in our basement kitchen.
There is an outside entrance to our basement, so much of our comings and goings were through these doors. The back door to our house comes into our laundry and we used it some, but not nearly as much as the basement doors.
My laundry room floor and my rug in front of the back door stayed clean and neat most of the time, since the majority of our ins-and-outs and traffic was through the doors downstairs.
I was pleased with the system. It seemed like a good plan.
Keep the main floor cleaner.
Shoes and dirt mostly on the basement rug and by the basement doors.
Washing up done in the basement bathroom.
A great system!
Fast forward to the completion of my someday kitchen.
The system and plan that seemed to make a whole lot of sense and seemed to be working rather well??? There was now this phenomenon going on…
Suddenly, the traffic in and out of the laundry door had greatly increased.
The basement doors were still there. The rug was still there. The plan in my head was still there.
The clean laundry room floor and rug? Still there too. But not staying so clean, neat and tidy.
What was going on?
Here’s when my revelation happened.
The kitchen is the heart of the home. Everyone was choosing the most direct route to the kitchen. Naturally, the basement became the main entrance when that’s where you were headed for breakfast or lunch or to haul in groceries.
Now everything had shifted to the main floor. I had envisioned no-big-deal to still use the basement entrance and bathroom for coming in and for washing up.
And it wouldn’t be hard, but it is easier, closer, HOMIER, to head in the back door and into the kitchen.
My husband and I noted and talked about how our kitchen brought our main floor to life. Getting it installed and starting to use it just changed the feel of the main floor. A room can be there, but living in it, and using it, changes the whole atmosphere. Especially a kitchen.
Whether you cook a little or a lot, a kitchen tends to get a fair amount of use. There’s prep involved in the simplest meal and clean-up too! Most people have a few groceries and staples to store and everyone likes to be able to seek out an ice-cold drink!
Noticing our traffic patterns in relation to our kitchen, made me realize the impact the kitchen is in our home.
Kitchens speak of home. Conversation. Nourishment. Warmth. Gathering around the table. Food for our bodies and food for our souls.
Linking up:
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Your kitchen is so user friendly and homey. It certainly does draw people to it in a very warm way. Whether it was in the basement or on the main floor it’s a good place to be.
My kitchen feels so “easy”! I still think about it almost daily. Very thankful for it!
So true! It does seem to be a room that gets a lot of use!
Love the sentiment here, I have to agree, the kitchen is just where things happen. 🙂
-on a side note: feel free to share posts like these at the link party. 🙂 Not that I don’t enjoy reading your Monday posts, but they are not the type of posts that I would share on Facebook, this post is good. (and getting shared!)
Kitchens truly are a blessing and just “homey”!
And I know what you’re saying with your side note. 🙂 I just don’t have the time to put into linking up that would be nice and I started linking my Hello Monday posts a couple of places and then added a few more places that kind of fit home etc. and it’s easy just to do the same post. I never have enough time when it comes to blogging. Lots and lots of post that never make it out of my head! Or I forget about linking up…
Well, I totally hear you there! I link up only if I have time. Which means I don’t a lot of the time 🙂