When did your purchase your home?

We purchased our home about 2-1/2 years ago when my husband's job brought us to the DC Metro area, but it was built a little over four years ago. We had looked at many homes, and this one just bowled us over.

I remember walking in the front door the first time and thinking how beautiful yet warm and inviting the house felt. It only took us a few minutes to decide on putting in an offer.

What is the style of your home?

Eclectic is probably a good answer. The house was originally used as a model home by the developer and they had the interior professionally designed and decorated with many custom touches. The exterior looks like an average two-story home, but the interior has beautifully textured walls, 13-inch custom moldings around the ceiling, more custom molding design along the walls on the main and second floors, custom drapes throughout, and a fully finished basement with plenty of room for entertaining.

The walls and colors felt very warm and Italian to me when we moved in, but we brought our own furniture which is a mix of traditional and Stickley mission. We really like how our small collection of mission furniture fit in with the design of the house and we plan to eventually furnish several rooms with the Stickley mission line.

What is your favorite room?

The kitchen is absolutely my favorite room in the house. I spend quite a bit of time in here cooking, writing, and photographing.

What do you like most about your kitchen?

The room has a natural flow and doesn't feel cramped, and I adore the color scheme. The cabinet space is very helpful for a food blogger because it gives me plenty of room to store the dishes and props I use for food styling and photographing. The island is great and we added a floating island with a butcher block top which I use as a baking center. It's perfect for shaping and rolling doughs and keeping my gear organized. It has a big pull out shelf on the bottom where I store flours and sugar, another shelf above which holds other baking goods, and a wide drawer that holds baking sheets, rolling pins, measuring cups and spoons. The attached sun room is where we eat our meals. It has plenty of natural light and I shoot most of my food photos there. The writing nook is also very handy with shelves for my favorite cookbooks.

What type of appliances do you use in your kitchen?

The house came with GE Profile stainless steel appliances and a four-burner gas cooktop in the island. There is a built-in convection oven and Advantium oven with both microwave and speedcook options. When the appliances wear out we'll make some changes and likely put in double-wall ovens and a five or six-burner gas cooktop. The cooktop doesn't have a safety feature where we can lock it out to protect the children, so we purchased a cover that completely conceals the cooktop and prevents anyone from accidentally lighting a burner. It also creates extra serving space on the island, which is perfect for entertaining.

Does your kitchen inspire you to cook and entertain?

I love to cook and having a beautiful space for cooking and entertaining is icing on the cake. When we have friends and family over, we always congregate in the kitchen.

How do you entertain when you are the mother of small children?

It's a bit of a challenge at times so we try to keep things casual and child friendly. We plan menus with adults and children in mind, usually selecting things we can prepare ahead, and sometimes making something special just for the young ones. I want family and friends to feel like they can bring their children, wander about, sit anywhere, just make themselves at home. There are play spaces upstairs and downstairs for the kids and they are free to go to any of those. In the summer we like to be outdoors, which is perfect for the children.

What else can you tell us about your kitchen/dining room?

Until we had this house I was never a fan of formal dining rooms and living rooms because they didn't fit our lifestyle. That changed when I walked into this house and saw the dining room, and I quickly decided it was too beautiful to sit unused. In a few years when the boys are a little older and hopefully less messy, we plan to eat dinner in there every night.

Though the kitchen is beautiful, the design didn't have adequate pantry space. The kitchen pantry is tiny and could barely hold my baking supplies, let alone anything else. Even our small bathroom linen closet is larger than the pantry. Rather than go through an expensive remodel, we installed heavy duty shelving in a coat closet around the corner from the kitchen, and that is now the pantry.