The breakfast nook {reveal}

On April 24, 2018, I sat my eldest daughter down across from me on plywood and handed her a drink in a mug. I began telling her about how one day there would be benches and a table where we sat. We dreamed about what the space would look like and how we would gather there in the mornings to start our days together.

It has been about 7 months since that day. This weekend we finished the breakfast nook! It is the only corner of the addition complete, but it is everything I dreamed it would be for our family.  

The beginnings of the nook: we just guessed on what we thought might be a good size, spray painted the perimeter in the grass, and started construction.We dug the footing, poured the concrete, built a stem wall…and eventually the walls began going up.
I could not wait to get the pendant hanging in the nook. It is from Wayfair and was the first lighting fixture I picked for the addition. It set the tone for the rest of the space. I would have hung it that day if I could have…it was a sweet picture of what I had to look forward to in the months to come.

The picture below on the right shows our trailer, which we were using for part of our cooking and sleeping arrangements during building. I’m so thankful I snapped a picture with it in view. Since the addition is connected to our house, we needed to get electricity on as soon as possible, which meant I did get to hang my pendant early! I laid the flooring in the nook in the wee hours of the morning one Saturday. I remember getting the final board in and feeling so accomplished. I know every detail of every board in that corner.

Once the flooring was finished, my dad began building the nook seating. I wanted bench seating on three sides and it needed to extend from the wall, so that kids couldn’t kick it. Honestly, that was one of the most important aspects of the seating. If it was bench seating from seat to ground, my kids would be constantly kicking it and it would be consistently dirty. Thankfully, my dad can build anything.
My dad welded a base, attached it to studs, and then built the wood seating on top. I contributed by attaching all the screws 😉7 months later, here we are!The breakfast nook is the only corner of the whole house that is completely finished. Chris and I are losing steam, so it is a bit energizing to have one area DONE.We are hoping the counter fabricators are able to come measure for our counters this week. Once the counters are installed, my dad and I will finish building the island top and tiling the backsplash. Then it is the fun parts of adding shelving and decorating. At that point, the kitchen will be done! We are getting so close, but we are in a waiting game until the counters are here.

The kids and I have been gathering in the nook in the mornings to start our days touching base before we all begin tackling our own tasks. It is also where we eat dinner as a family. Our new kitchen has an incredible amount of seating to fit all the people that gather here. We will have seats for 27 all the time and 39 when the tables have extensions in! That might sound like a huge amount, but if you are around here for any length of time, you know we will easily fill that on a regular basis. When we built the kitchen, we built it for gathering people.

That being said, I also wanted an intimate place for our family and for when we have just a couple friends over. The breakfast nook is that spot and I am already so grateful for the conversations happening around the table.

I will also be sharing more kitchen resources and details in future posts. I am sure there are questions about the breakfast nook table my dad built – that deserves its own post. I hope to post about the nook table on Wednesday and our main tables later this week!

I tried to list all the nook sources below.

Sources:

• Beaded Pendant – c/o Wayfair
• Appliances – c/o Wayfair & GE Appliances Cafe Series
• Mirror – Hobby Lobby (watch for 50% off sales!)
• Macrame runner – World Market
• Striped pillows – Walmart
• Cream & Black pillow – Restore House (closed)
• Knobs – c/o Top Knobs
• White Paint – “Ultra Pure White” by Behr
• Green Paint – “Arugula” by Sherwin Williams
• Hanging glass pendants – Ikea
• Runner (rug) – World Market