I design kitchens for a living and I have not had time to properly prepare a meal for myself and my family in quite a while. I bought myself an Insta-Pot as an early Christmas present and, for better or for worse, I’ve been using it like it was the last appliance on earth. I’m sure there are gourmet, delicious meals you can make in these, but I’ve just been dumping bags of lentils, opening up cans of tomatoes and robotically dumping vegetable stock into mine like I’m on day two of a 48 hour shift. I like to add rice the next day to extend it and then just sit back and listen to the crowd roar.
I know I’m not the only working mom out there who looks at making dinner during the work week as another chore to get done because, for the most part, these are my clients. I am privileged to work with smart, funny and hardworking women who open their door to me – invite me into their kitchen and talk to me frankly about how they cook (or don’t cook) for their family. They let me open their cabinet doors, they show me their work day kitchen counter clutter, they point out the sample patch of paint they’ve had on their wall since the second baby was born and they make me feel normal and at peace with my busy life. Yes, some people are clean and uncluttered but I’ve noticed that they aren’t any happier or less happy than the people who run messy most of the time and sometimes the reason it’s clean and uncluttered is that they have cleaning people in every week.
I help busy people create beautiful kitchens with the goal of creating a space to hang out in, do homework in, laugh with family, eat take out and then also, to cook in. A kitchen who’s sole function is primarily dinner, is missing what it’s like to live in 2020. It’s missing how busy modern life is and how much we crave time together or even time alone in a comfortable, beautiful space where we can listen to music, laugh, make a mess, dump things into an Insta Pot, attempt a 4 course meal and order pretty much anything you desire from your phone. Don’t think other people have it all figured out. What I’ve learned is that it’s not “figure-out-able.”
Here are some kitchens that are floating my boat right now. What do they have in common? They aren’t white! I still like white kitchens, but I’ve jumped onto the color bandwagon and it’s pretty exciting over here.
“I’d rather be partly great than entirely useless.” – Neal Shusterman
The Colorado Nest 
Brilliant ideas! Thank you for sharing!