My ancestral Aga
Right now I’m visiting my family in not-so-wild Wales, so I thought I’d give you a quick peak at my Mum’s hard working Aga. This is one of those kitchens that won’t be winning any design prizes any time soon, but it has been well used and loved for many decades now. It won’t be hard to tell we’ve done no styling here – this is unedited and unadorned!
Busy Aga
The kitchen designer here would have been my Dad, in the late 1970s. (Could you tell?) My Mum has changed the cabinet doors and in the last couple of years, replacing the ones Dad made. She also added that wall cabinet to the right of the Aga, instead of a little open spice rack we had there (which I rather miss).
It might not be elegant, but it works
The brick is surely a design feature
I love the light we get from the Winter sky this time of year – the sun shines through windows at extraordinary angles and gives everything a super-natural glow. The little ironing-room upstairs was lit-up by the sun this morning, and it almost looked romantic:
It's the light
Even the iron looks good
I’m calling it the ironing room – it was once my sister’s bedroom. The Aga flue from the kitchen below keeps it warm, probably the toastiest room in the house, and almost the smallest.
Hmmm, strange – my ironing in California has certainly never struck me as romantic. Must be something in the Welsh water…
What a great quote – so true. I have to get the tags to show on the posts again – I’m not really technical enough to do it on my own.
A friend who’s a chef just posted this quote on FB. Reminded me of some of your posts about kitchen tables (which I couldn’t find).
“When I walk into my kitchen today, I am not alone. Whether we know it or not, none of us is. We bring fathers and mothers and kitchen tables, and every meal we have ever eaten. Food is never just food. It’s also a way of getting at something else: who we are, who we have been, and who we want to be.” Molly Wizenberg
Well Shwmai! I’m about half Welsh actually, and I grew up there, but my mother’s side of the family all hailed from Scotland. In school in Wales I was considered English, then at college in England I was considered Welsh – now I’m British in America, and sometimes American in Britain. It’s confusing!
No wonder I like your style — I’m 1/4 Welsh.
Hi Alissa, and thanks for your kind comment – you made my day today.
Hi Paul – yes, I admit it is. I guess my Mum’s kitchen is the ur-kitchen tucked deep in my subconscious
Hi there, i just found your blog and just wanted to tell you that i love it! im an interior designer (commercial) and love seeing this other side of design.
Is that an upholstered chair I spy in your Mum’s kitchen?