Oh, Martha.

Thanks to my little sis, I now have something new to marvel over.  There's a whole set of communities that are designed around the great Martha Stewart.  As the site says, these communities have homes that are "high quality" and "inspired by [Martha's] very own homes."  SERIOUSLY??  I can live in a home that's been inspired by Ms. Stewart's own homes?  Sweet.

Here are a couple of pictures of the kitchens of a two of these homes.

I'm thinking you're probably thinking "wow, B.  Those kitchens are sooooo different."  (is there a sarcasm font yet???)  Well, while they're not completely different, they ARE both lovely.  There's just something I like about the light and dark wood, plus the white countertops.  The mostly-neutral pallettes of both rooms are at once comfortable and stylish.  The slight splashes of color in there give just the right amount of life and breeziness to make me want to spend a lazy Sunday alternating reading and trying out new recipes.

To tell you the truth, I think I found my kitchen.  This little light-and dark is a trick that should be easy enough for me to do to my kitchen.  Because we're not planning on living in this baby forever, we don't want to dump a ton of coin into it, only to end up barely getting our money back when we sell.  It would be easy enough to stain the existing cabinetry to be a nice, rich darker color, and switch out the countertops that I HATE anyway to something white and clean-looking.  PS - IKEA has countertop service now.  Ta-da.

Soon enough, this  is going to look more like those.  And I can't wait!

PS - we're painting this weekend - get ready for some serious before-and-after pics!