Our own little island...

After many months of debating and changing our minds and spending money on other things, we finally got a kitchen island! Here is what our kitchen looked like before our living room was styled by Emily:

And here is our new tropical getaway! Err... I mean island.

We removed the little bar from the open wall and put this sturdy black island in the middle of the kitchen.

We used to have our silverware in this cabinet because we didn't have an appropriately sized silverware drawer.

I still have trouble remembering that the forks and knives aren't in the cabinet anymore!

A little story about this island: I originally wanted this one from Crate and Barrel (in black), but it was a bit expensive and my husband wasn't sold on it. He didn't like that it was on wheels and thought the kitchen would look better with something built-in (or at least something that looked built-in). So, we just put the idea on the back burner.

Then, on one of my husband's weekly trips to Home Depot, he saw this one and noticed it's incredible price, $399. He also noticed that the one next to it was the same model, but smaller, and it was $100 more! He sent me a picture and got the ok to pull the trigger. I was so excited!!

He called a bit later to let me know that they didn't have it in stock, but that he could pay for it then and they would transfer it from another store. We asked my mom to borrow her SUV the following day and were all set to bring it home and put it together. Well, the one from the other store was damaged. They offered us an "upgrade" to the smaller, yet more expensive version to which we replied, "Hell no!" This happened a couple more times before the angry pregnant lady in me came out and my husband had to get pushy. Finally, they were able to find one in yet another store that wasn't damaged and now it's here! It was worth the wait.

We love having the extra storage and counter space. It's nice to be able to both prepare food at the same time! Right now, we have these beauties sitting on top of the new island:

Carrots, tomatoes, and peppers from the garden! The other veggies are from the store.

Now that we have our new fridge and island, our kitchen face lift is almost complete! Next step: re-grout the tile floor and paint the walls a light gray. I also plan on adding new window coverings and wall art.

What do you think?