Our Dining Room Coffee Station

Today, I’m so excited to share one of my very favorite spots in our home currently: the coffee station!

When you have a smaller home, you have to pack a lot into a little: a lot of function into tight areas and a lot of style into a small home!  I’ve found that it’s been both a challenge and incredibly freeing for us to figure out how to live well here!  I’m planning a post for next week about how that’s going for us, but for now, I wanted to share one of my favorite spots in this home with you!

I wanted to make every nook and cranny work hard for function and style, so I put a lot of thought into little areas.  I’ve learned actually living in a house shows you how it needs to work, so there are some spaces I’m already planning to tweak as we’ve seen how they’d be used best.  But this one space I designed before we ever moved in and it’s working even better for us than I could’ve imagined, functionally and style-wise!  

When we moved in, the layout was very chopped up.  We planned to open up the main walls so that the house felt larger and an open floor plan fit well for this stage of our family.  Once we opened up the kitchen wall and installed the beams, I knew there would be a little nook left on either side of this hallway door in the dining room.

I’ll share more about the narrower nook on the left soon.  

But the nook on the right was 40″ across and I knew it was the perfect opportunity for some added function and pretty in the dining room.  I immediately thought of using it more like a buffet area that would provide storage and some pretty display for dishes and glasses.  We considered building in some cabinetry here almost like a butler’s pantry, but I didn’t love that idea.  I knew it would feel like the kitchen continued past that beam, which to me, felt like a clear divider.

So I set out to look for something unique that I hoped would bring some age and character into the old home we were making new.  And I absolutely love what we found!

We headed to my favorite local spot, Route 276.  They have amazing vintage stuff and antiques and great prices!  These two pieces were actually displayed next to each other: an old dresser and this chippy gray vintage kitchen cabinet.  I don’t know if I would’ve seen it otherwise, but seeing them there, side-by-side, I immediately pictured the gray cabinet hung over the wood.  And I knew it would add so much age and character.  Both pieces were $125, so for a total of $250, we outfitted this area with style and storage.  Anything else we considered would’ve been at least that, so we were really happy with the price for what we got!

I love the display storage above!  I chose my prettiest pieces to go here that are really special and get used.  And the finish on this gray cabinet is my absolute favorite.  

We did re-paint the inside and then poly the entire cabinet really well to give a clean, new finish for our dishes to rest on.

After we bought this, I was planning the function of the kitchen.  I quickly realized that there wasn’t a great spot for our coffee pot with the huge peninsula and few walls for it to rest up against.  And I thought this would be the perfect place!  It’s convenient and I love having the mugs close by….something pretty that was really functional!

The copper canisters I found on a yard sale and inside them, we’ve stored our coffee and different types of tea.  The marble tray was another Route 276 find when we were moving and I loved the idea of having it here to mix drinks and protect the wood top of the dresser.

Most of the dishes and glasses are vintage, but the new floral additions were a Christmas present this year from my family.  They’re from Anthropologie, but are no longer available, sadly.  It feels so special, like an heirloom I’ll have forever, and I love it so much.  I’ve started drinking tea daily with Rosie…I’ll share more on that tradition soon.  And I’ve really been trying to make it something special, so the pretty tea pot gets a lot of use these days.

I couldn’t be happier with how this little nook turned out…makes me smile every time I pass it!

On a total sidenote, how do you guys make your coffee?  Our Keurig is really old and we’re considering doing something a little different.  Any French Press fans out there?  What do we need to try?

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25 Comments

French Press fan here! I don’t drink a lot of coffee, but I love my $10 Craigslisted Starbucks French press. It makes great coffee, easy to clean, the coffee grounds go into my garden and uses no electricity. I use it for tea too. Highly recommended.

I prefer espresso, so I have the Delonghi Dedica Deluxe machine. Which I love, love, love. My brother has really been into pour over.

Good ole coffee maker. Love to make enough coffee once at a time for a few in my household to enjoy. Don’t like the
idea of making one cup at a time. My husband loves his Keurig, but I prefer my 12 cup coffee maker. Can’t go wrong. I sometimes wish I had a percolator. Reminds me of my mom’s coffee brewing in the mornings. Miss those days.

Homemade cappuccino. We have an Italian espresso pot and a little battery operated milk frother. Can’t live without it.

Love those pieces! I just bought a new Keurig (have the exact one you have and one 1st generation) but hate the new one. It’s 10 times louder and we have to get new reusable filters for it. We usually grind our coffee instead of using the premade pods. My husband uses a French press sometimes. You still need to heat up the water somehow to pour into the press. I really like the convenience of the Keurig especially when you and your spouse get up at different times in the morning.

I love your coffee station – looks really beautiful. The taste of the coffee from the French Press is wonderful, but do you like to drink more than 1 cup ? You really won’t get more than 2 cups out of the French Press, so we save it for a special treat on the weekend, cause I definitely like to drink 2 or sometimes 3 cups in the morning (decaf). But it definitely tastes excellent from the French Press.

I think that’s what we’re looking for, Patricia – better coffee taste 🙂 We each drink one cup in the mornings, but sometimes it’s at different times. And then often, I’ll have another in the afternoon…I will look into it!

Love your coffee nook! I had green goblets like the ones you have on the middle shelf of the cabinet during my “green” phase in the late 60’s (brought back memories.) As for coffee, I’m a diehard Keurig fan – I’m on my third pot and still prefer the convenience of fresh coffee for every cup. I do use the refillable pod most of the time.

The cabinet and dresser combo is beautiful! And I love how functional the area is. I was totally eying that teapot – the pattern is gorgeous! As for coffee makers, we use one by Breville that is a little pricey and slightly bulky (though not more than a Kuerig). It grinds the coffee when you brew the pot so you’re drinking fresh grounds which makes a big difference in the taste. We got it as a wedding present and have loved having it!

I love that this is a spot you use every day. You can still use it as a buffet when needed, but I can’t see that being a function you’d need all the time. I think using as much of your house as possible is so important no matter what size your home is.

Love this nook!! And the rest of your home. I too used the Kuerig but went to a stainless percolater when the Kuerig died. Love it!!! Tastes like my grandmothers coffee ??

We’re major coffee drinkers so at our house house (from V60 to espresso). My favorite for a single cup is V60 (a ceramic older for the filter) and Chemex (curved glass beaker) for more than 1 cup. I’m not a french press fan. Love your setup – we have one similar and it’s my favorite corner in the whole house.

I don’t drink hot coffee (I’m an iced coffee lover), but my husband does. He has both a French Press and a Pour Over set. He swears by grinding his own beans and says he gets the best cup of coffee by using his Pour Over. He has a single cup French Press, but there are larger versions out there. I think it all depends on how much coffee you drink, why, and when. My husband loves the time he spends grinding his beans, setting up the Pour Over, and watching it steep. It’s a very intentional process and he says it helps him enjoy his coffee a bit more. The French Press is slightly less time intensive, but still makes a really good cup of coffee. Our daughter loves to help him make coffee every morning, and they have the ritual down pat. We have an electric tea kettle that is used to heat the water, both for coffee and tea, but he can also heat water in a pot on the stove. I know you are being very intentional with your habits, as shown by your sweet routine of drinking tea with Rosie, so I would think either a French Press or a Pour Over would fit very well into your life. Plus, you don’t have the bulk of an electric coffee maker to contend with. Both could be used for hot tea, and you could always buy ground coffee if you don’t want to deal with buying a grinder, though they are very small and wouldn’t take up much room. And you won’t have pods that sit in a landfill forever!

Ashley, I LOVE this so much!!! Seriously, love everything you said. I feel like our intentional living journey has come in waves, new pieces and changes at a time then more is added. I love how God has worked that way! But all that to say that waste and recycling is something I’m becoming more and more aware of now! I hadn’t even thought about the waste of the pods and we aren’t loving the cup of coffee that much. I love the ideas you mentioned of making coffee being an intentional routine…I’ve been focused lately on simplifying our life, finding joy in simple daily rhythms, and teaching Rosie to embrace those around the house…finding meaning and beauty in the ordinary. Anyway, all that to say how much what you shared resonated with me! So excited to check those out! I think what sparked this is there are a lot of local roasters now we really want to try!

I, too, love a functional combination of interesting pieces. And having glass doors to display favorite pieces is lovely. Freeing up the traffic patterns in the kitchen is an added bonus to your plan. Guests can help themselves and visit with you while you’re putting finishing touches on things in the kitchen. We’re really old school — use a Melitta cone to make our coffee. My husband swears by Peet’s Major Dickason coffee, which he grinds in a little old Braun electric mill, nothing fancy. Since I can’t drink much coffee, we use the smallest filters and just make one big cup or two at a time. It takes a bit of practice, but the result is delicious. Not sure I’d choose this method in a home with lively little ones, though. The cone assembly just balances on top of the cup or carafe, so it can topple over if “somebody” bumps into the counter by accident.

Peet’s coffee in a french press is my favorite. It is streamlined and easy, but then again, you’d lose your coffee station because you’d be making it on your counter by the stovetop.