The kitchen of the imagination – Johnny Grey
I’m sure I’ve told you too many times that I’ve been lucky enough to meet design hero Johnny Grey recently, and to attend his lecture on the “Post-Culinary Kitchen”. The lecture contained such a wealth of ideas, it could keep me busy with blog-posts (and design inspiration) for months to come. One of the most fundamental things the lecture and discussion touched on was the difficulty most of us experience in getting our clients (and ourselves) beyond the details of appliances, cabinet styles, materials, and colors, to arrive at the essence of what we really want from a kitchen. Johnny had a really valuable suggestion, that we should look right back to childhood, to where our images of comfort originate – probably not in kitchens themselves, but in the interior landscapes of the pictures and stories that were important to us then. One obvious inspiration is the rounded shape and earthy comfort of a hobbit dwelling:
The stuff of childhood dreams - a hobbit house
For me, I think it would be a Romany caravan – as small children, my sister and I used to use pillows and bedspreads to transform our big chest of drawers into one on a regular basis:
A Gipsy Caravan
Comfort and adventure in a single package
Perhaps a little thatched cottage – so long as it is not occupied by a wicked, child-eating witch:
Thatched cottage at Merthyr Mawr
Or even the Captain’s cabin of a sailing ship:
The Captain's Quarters
It’s not hard to see just how far from this deeply rooted sense of comfort most hard-edged, shiny-surfaced, modern kitchens really are – and how the “soft geometries” and rich materials of Johnny Grey’s designs relate directly to that sense. What child, or adult, for that matter, could resist this window seat? It is close to the action, but separate enough to make the perfect reading or day-dreaming retreat:
Rounded shapes, and a window seat to retreat to (Image Johnny Grey Studios)
The playful colors and shapes here are a child’s fantasy grown-up and made real – and of course, the fact that this is actually on a boat doesn’t hurt, either:
Playful colors and shapes - soft geometry (Image Johnny Grey Studios)
What do you think – have we gone too much in the direction of streamlined efficiency in most of our kitchens today, pushing playfulness and comfort right out? What would be the inspiration behind the kitchen of your childhood dreams?
Ah, matron and jam sandwiches, midnight feasts in the dormitory – had a few of those escape fantasies myself, to be honest.
I have five brothers and all of the kitchens in my childhood dreams were in the boarding schools I used to beg to be sent away to. I’m the wrong one to ask this question.