Happy Tuesday! Please excuse the dark, grainy cellphone photos — contractors have been in the kitchen all day, so it’s been tricky to get good light for pictures.
There’s a lot happening around the house right now: fun projects, but many of them at once. With Christmas fast approaching, we’re racing to finish enough so the house will be ready when family arrives on December 25th.
Our appliances arrive on Friday, and the final kitchen work is scheduled for both before and after that. We’re hopeful it will be complete, or at least mostly finished, by Christmas. The flooring, cabinets, and countertops are in, so we’re getting very close. The plan is to paint the walls and ceiling next week.
Outside the kitchen, new flooring will be installed this Wednesday and Thursday in the family room and home office. Yay! The downside is the entire house is a bit of a mess while we juggle everything, but we have two weeks to pull it together before guests arrive.
Since many readers have asked for updates, I’ll answer one of the common questions about our galley kitchen layout. I won’t go into every detail now because I’ll share a fuller update after Christmas, but here’s the scoop on the sink situation.
^ kitchen before ^
For months I debated moving the sink to the back wall to take advantage of the view out the window to our backyard and distant hills. It seemed like a lovely idea, and we explored options for opening the space or even shifting the kitchen into the dining room.
Eventually I realized there were strong reasons to keep the kitchen in its current footprint and leave the sink where it is. In a narrow galley kitchen every inch matters. My main concern in a small kitchen is breaking up counter runs too often with sinks, appliances, or differing counter heights — that reduces usable workspace.
By keeping the sink where it was, we could install a long uninterrupted stretch of countertop and add many drawers and cabinets, including beneath the window where an outdated low desk and microwave used to be. The extra storage was essential, so this decision felt like a win: we preserved a clear view through the windows while gaining lots of functional counter and storage space for baking, serving, or just daydreaming.
This photo is far from perfect, but it gives an idea of the layout and another peek at the room. The walls and ceiling planks will be painted — I’ll cover that in a separate post.
Depending on the day we sometimes see a lovely sunset out the back corner window. Other times the late-afternoon sun is bright and we have to shield our eyes. In December it gets dark quickly; this image was taken around 4:00 p.m. when daylight faded fast.
There will still be typical kitchen tasks like loading and unloading the dishwasher, food prep, baking, making coffee, cleaning, and enjoying a clean workspace. Having an unobstructed counter under the window means we can work and gaze outside during many tasks, not only when standing at a sink.
The layout feels light, bright, and efficient. With the sink on the side of the kitchen, we can enjoy evenings in the living room without constantly seeing a pile of dirty dishes in the main cooking area. Overall, I already love how this plan is coming together: it balances the view, natural light, function, and style even in a small space.
That said, a window over a sink is special too. To give the sink wall its own focal point, we replaced the ordinary window with a round one that fits within the existing opening. It will be trimmed and finished soon — more photos will be coming shortly.
Here are a few inspirational photos that show counters placed directly under windows rather than sinks or upper cabinets. This approach keeps the view clear and delivers a clean, calm look.
Related Posts:
My kitchen design board and more kitchen update posts are available on the blog if you want additional background on our remodel.
Have a great Tuesday!