Once we decided to officially break-up with our kitchen, we needed to find the right person to help us move forward. After a lot of searching on-line, numerous phone calls, and a handful of visits with potential contractors, we met with Sam Adams of Cherry Design+Build, who was an architect with construction experience before starting his own home remodel business. After the consult, the good feeling stayed. We were very impressed he would design the kitchen personally and be on-site gutting the kitchen with his team while making sure every design detail would make its way into our kitchen.

Part of our homework was to find pictures and note kitchen elements we liked that would act as a guide for Sam’s design process. Of course this can be really dangerous on Pinterest with all it’s very pretty yet heavily stylized pictures, so I made sure to look for the elements that were important to me and helpful for Sam. As we started looking at our influences, Mr. V and I found great relief to see we were picking out very similar images. Here are a few our favorites:

I saw the above on another blogger’s site and nearly fell over. It was posted right before we decided to call contractors (talk about amazing timing). Once we committed to having Sam do the design and remodel, I immediately searched for the post. While it shows a super fancy version of what I wanted (and beyond what we could afford), it did contain all the basic elements I wanted in our new kitchen: white cabinets, dark counters, sleek but understated hardware, shelving along a back wall for cookbooks, and very inviting. This kitchen was totally wooing me. (image)

White apron sink. Swan-neck faucet. Subway tile. Giant letters spelling EAT. Loved that more than anything while Mr. V was all about the other elements. (image)

Get rid of the knife block. Replace with a magnet strip. Reclaim the counter space. (image)Inspirational take away: we didn’t need to knock down walls to find our new kitchen. (image)

Coming up next week: finding the cabinets and countertop, surviving a kitchen remodel (with tykes to boot!), and unveiling our new kitchen! Cannot wait to show you how it all came together next week!

Cherry Design+Build is a partner of Sparrow Soirées. All opinions expressed are my own.