Another Kitchen Thought

Here's the deal: I really, really want a formal dining room. I am not a fan of the "open layout" trend. When entertaining, I want it to look easy with a spotless house and a lovely table setting in a room that feels special. But if the only dining space is in the kitchen, which is also completely open to the living room, that means my guests can see all the dirty dishes and countertops I didn't have time to clean up before their arrival. For these and other reasons, I don't think open layouts are Donna Reed approved. However, with our price range, we can't afford to be too picky. If a house otherwise meets our requirements, I don't want to get hung up on its lack of a formal dining room. I mean, I'm not Donna Reed. Get over it. But, I had a great idea today. I mean, I was SOOOOO excited when I thought of it. I later realized that the excitement was probably more from a nondrowsy allergy medication/coffee induced high from this morning. I've calmed down a little since then, but I am still excited about it nonetheless.

What if I dressed up my kitchen/dining area to make it feel a little more fancy? Like the kitchen is now part of the formal dining room. It's so simple, I don't know why it didn't dawn on me before. In fact, all two of my readers (hi Mom, hi sister) are probably thinking, "Duh, Cameron. That was so easy, we didn't already tell you that because we thought you knew." In fact, I think I'm excited because of the simplicity, and it's my blog. So humor me. :)

This morning I was checking Twitter, and one of the bloggers I follow linked to the following pictures and commented on how she'd like to throw a cocktail party this kitchen. What? A cocktail party in a kitchen? After seeing the picture, I understood what she meant, and my wheels started turning.



See?! Totally begging for a cocktail party. While this kitchen isn't completely my thing, I love the idea that it represents. My kitchen can feel special like a dining room. (I just have to really make sure I have time to clean up those dirty dishes and wipe off the counters.) (On another parenthetical note, I am SO loving the capiz shell chandeliers I'm seeing everywhere lately.)

Thinking through this concept, a kitchen I posted about previously came to mind:


This kitchen is open to a casual eating area (for all intents and purposes we'll say it's not a formal dining room even if we don't know that for sure). We already know the kitchen is beautiful from my previous post. Then, the designer has given the eating area extra oomph with that chandelier and dressier chairs. The important thing about this kitchen/dining room is that it feels special, but it also feels comfortable and inviting. It's not necessarily begging for a cocktail party, but it would be a perfectly appropriate dinner party setting. This kitchen is much more my style than the cocktail party kitchen, even though I think the cocktail party kitchen is fabulous!

I'm having so much fun with this, I'll almost be sad if we do buy a house with a formal dining room. Almost. :)