I'm so excited to kick off a four-part series today! I'm teaming up with Nebraska Furniture Mart and Whirlpool to share my kitchen makeover (#wmnKitchenMakeover).
Obviously as a food blogger I spend a lot of time in my kitchen. When we bought our home five years ago we were lucky to have appliances included. Those appliances have served us well but we are ready for an upgrade.
The biggest problem is our refrigerator. The previous owners of our home had to have brought it with them; our home was built in 2001 and the refrigerator is from the 1990's. Don't get me wrong - it keeps stuff cold, as Jacob says, but it's really starting to rust and the ice maker stopped working a few months back.
Jacob "offered" to paint it to hide the rust. I lovingly said "no way".
The stove, microwave and dishwasher are all Whirlpool and are all still in working order but I knew I wanted a "set" of matching appliances.
I started my research online to get a feel for styles, features, colors and prices. There are so many options it's easy to get a little overwhelmed but looking at a wide range of products helped me figure out what I did and didn't want. I also read a lot of reviews to see what consumers thought.
After that initially research, Jacob and I measured our space to further narrow down what would fit. This really is an important step and I love that Nebraska Furniture Mart puts space planning resources on each product.
Now for the fun part - Jacob and I went to the Nebraska Furniture Mart here in Kansas City to actually see the appliances. On the website, it does show what is "in store" so we knew we'd be able to see a similar, if not the same, product.
If you've never been to NFM it's an experience. It's massive and has a ton of products to choose from. The appliance section alone probably has 150+ refrigerators on display. They have great employees to answer questions at a moments notice. But, they let you look without pressuring you.
We might as well check out recliners...while we're here.
We quickly found ourselves gravitating towards the Whirlpool products. I loved the look of them and we'd had such good luck with our existing appliances it made sense. Jacob was thinking he wanted stainless steel but I wasn't sold. Our current appliances are white, cabinets are white and our space looks nice and open. I didn't really want stainless steel breaking up the space.
Once we landed on a refrigerator we moved our way to the dishwasher, stove and microwave to find the coordinating piece. I'm such a nerd but I love the look of them all as a set!
To recap, here's the steps for appliance shopping bliss:
- Research what's available.
- Determine your must have's.
- Measure your space.
- Narrow down options.
- If possible, visit NFM to preview appliances.
- Buy and wait for install!
NFM Series:
Part 1 - My Kitchen Needs a Little TLC
Part 2 - Kitchen Makeover - Install Day!
Part 3 - Breaking in the New Appliances
Part 4 - Kitchen Makeover Final Thoughts
This series is sponsored by Nebraska Furniture Mart and Whirlpool but all opinions are are my own.
