Snapshot of a kitchen corner

Every kitchen, no matter how large has a corner that sees the most action. For us, it's the corner to the left of the sink, where I bake and my husband makes his morning coffee.

Yes, those are cookbooks on the windowsill behind the mixer. I keep the 3 or 4 that I use all the time right there. Plus a kid's foldout book for the little ones to "read" if they aren't interested in what I'm doing.

The coffee maker is a Nespresso Pixie. It's amazing (I don't drink coffee but so far everyone else agrees). It uses the little pods (you can see them in an acrylic cube on the left (thanks Amy Ruth!), which means way less mess than grinding your own beans, tamping them down, and the whole process of a traditional espresso machine. The machine on the right is a milk frother, super cool. It can froth either hot or cold, and I use it for hot cocoa for the kids.

This is the perfect spot for these items due to it's proximity to the sink:

When we had our counters fabricated they left us with a small square of extra marble. I think this is pretty standard practice, and is supposed to make up for the fact that they estimated 6 slabs of Calcutta Oro for the whole house, and we wound up with 8 slabs (yikes, way more money), plus two slabs of Lagos Azul for the fireplaces (surrounds and hearths). So, where was I? Right, the small leftover square of marble in the kitchen. I put my hot pots and pans directly on the counters (or more likely, on the stove, where I find the burners act as built in cooling racks), so I didn't need it as a trivet, and I wasn't going to cut on it (I have a nice end-grain cutting board from Ikea for that). I decided to use it to put my cleaning supplies on next to the sink.

Before we got our counters, we did a ton of research about materials, and settled on marble, even though it can stain and takes more care than man-made materials like Corian or Silestone. My husband liked the movement in the veining, I liked the texture it brought to our all white kitchen. And everything we put on it looks that much nicer, don't you agree?

Linked to:

Made in a Day, Tuesday's Treasures, Tip Junkie

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday, Thrifty Decor Chick
Savvy Southern Style