My husband Jim and I have a galley kitchen in our apartment in Atlanta. We use it primarily during the week while we are in Atlanta working with our clients. I confess that we do not do a lot of cooking there, rather a lot of take out and eating out. When we were designing this space, the first question we asked ourselves was: How can we open up this space and make it feel larger and more open? First, we decided that the cabinets would extend to the ceiling and match the crown molding to give the kitchen a more vertical direction. We opted for floating stainless steel shelving on one side of the kitchen rather than upper cabinetry, so it would feel less closed in. This arrangement works beautifully for us, and it allowed me to place glass jars on the top shelf, which I can't reach anyway, where I displayed our collection of matches we have collected from all over the world. This makes an fun statement, and whenever I eye a particular matchbook, it brings back a memory from a great evening spent someplace fabulous.

I decided to place a mirror over the sink to replicate the feeling of a window and hung an overhead sconce there for additional light. Instead of a table and chairs, I chose a high bar table and barstools, which are equally comfortable and a little more festive. This breaks up the height of the counters and also allows us to enjoy our view of downtown Atlanta when we are sitting there. I placed a small oushak rug in front of the sink to soften the space and break the horizontal plane of the marble mosaic floor.

I definitely found that editing what is in your cabinets is truly a wonderful process. Most of us do not need half of what is in our kitchen cabinets. There are generally a lot of unused appliances as well as other items. This kitchen has suited our needs perfectly and if we had it to do again, I wouldn't change a thing!