Did you get a chance to check out kmldesign yet? I just can’t resist sharing some great images styled by Katrine Martensen-Larsen and photographed by Stuart McIntyre. These vintage accessories bring so much charm and life to a contemporary stainless-steel and white kitchen:
Old meets new
Study in contrast
There’s even a quirky silver tufted chaise tucked away at one end of the kitchen, as well as a generous table, with what looks like an antique bench and vintage chairs…
There really is a sliver chaise back there
and of course a lovely red 50s style refrigerator at the other. But I wonder how long it takes visitors to notice “minor” details like these, when they first have to get past the full size half a car on the wall?
The elephant in the room?
Maybe the mini is not for everybody – not many of us have that amount of wall to play with, even if we do happen to have half a vintage vehicle lying around. But what enormous fun it must have been to put this kitchen together! Oh dear, I can feel an antiquing attack coming on …
It's all about the accessories
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I’ve been hunting for that elusive cook’s chair again – I’ve always thought that a comfy place to sit with your cup of tea and a book right in the kitchen is such a great idea. Am I the only one who likes to read a few pages while my pot comes to a boil, or the oven comes up to its temperature, without actually leaving the room? Judging by the difficulty I’m having finding kitchens with the right sort of chair, perhaps I am …
Living etc Nov 2007
I like the chair here, but I don’t fancy my chances with that range:
Location Works
I really love this kitchen, in what was clearly never intended to be a kitchen in a Georgian house in London. There is a comfy sofa right there, but I think it’s more a case of a kitchen in the living room than a sofa in the kitchen:
Cook's sofa?
Almost as good as a big squishy armchair, I think I could make do with a Windsor armchair in the kitchen – although this one is looking a little lost, right in front of that door:
Parsons Architects - Windsor Chair
I spy another Windsor chair in the corner here – warm and toasty by the Aga, that’s just about perfect:
Windsor chair in Aga land
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One interpretation of the post-culinary kitchen is a kitchen that completely vanishes when you don’t need it. Not a single appliance or even a utensil to disturb your perfect living space:
Living etc
There are definitely days when a big up-and-over door would be useful to hide the debris left by my culinary endeavors – this one appears to defy gravity:
Location Works
Then we have not only the up-and-over door, but also clever swiveling boxes to hide the counter top clutter – you just know that has been dreamt up by architects, don’t you:
Architects Adelaide Borniche and Nicola Marchi - Marie Claire Maison
Here the exotic wood panels hide almost everything except the island with its cooktop – but that little oven does become rather a stand-out:
Living etc
And here, at least when you’re seated, there’s little to see except a quiet wall of storage – and of course, the faucet:
Jean Pierre Lemoine via stylinrooms.de
Sliding doors are another way to hide all evidence that you actually cook in your kitchen – though once again, the faucet on the island does rather give the game away:
Joseph Dirand Architecture
What do you think? Have kitchens become so offensive that we need to hide them away like this? Although I do find a nice, big, deep sink very useful for stashing pots and pans that I haven’t been able to clean before serving, on the whole I think I prefer to celebrate food and its preparation rather than treating it like a guilty secret.
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I just came across the Beautiful Kitchens blog, an offshoot of the UK magazine of the same name. I’m borrowing a couple of pictures here, showing a neat solution to those pesky ovens and other appliances that clutter up your lovely clean cabinet runs:
Now you see it...
... now you don't
It’s not every kitchen that needs to hide appliances behind a pocket door – but this solution certainly can change a busy view to a calm and restful one, and avoids that favorite bugbear of mine, microwave as accidental focal point.
If you’re like me, and like to see kitchen design ideas from all corners of the world, not just our local standards, hop on over and check Beautiful Kitchens out – you won’t be sorry!
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Is it a problem if your kitchen looks better with the cabinet doors open than it does with them closed? Not that there’s anything horribly wrong with this – clean lines, glossy white and stainless steel, it has all the hallmarks of a classic modern kitchen:
Friendly clutter is first aid for this kitchen
But it is telling that in order to make an interesting photograph, the stylist has added a scattering of everyday clutter, and even opened the cabinet door to reveal some warm colored plates and dishes inside. Proof, if you needed any, that we humans need to put our personal stamp on the places we live in, we need our friendly clutter to feel comfortable. No doubt this kitchen looks perfect when it’s all cleaned up and put away, just like a page from an architectural magazine. But that kind of perfection isn’t real life, is it?
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I came across this charming little place on the interwebs a few months ago – it’s in a home converted from a turn of the century store in Port Melbourne, Australia. Everything looks as though it has been well-loved for generations. The kitchen almost looks as if they made that peninsula out of orange crates, doesn’t it? I only wish we could see a little more of it:
Charming kitchen with a home-made look
The bathroom is rich in original features and quirky charm, too:
The tub is equally dilapidated
Still south of the Equator, this time a Victorian country home in South Africa, with a kitchen that looks as if it could have catered to generations of the same family: (via Frank Features)
Well worn and well loved
Plenty of character
I always want to know what kind of stories rooms like this could tell – though I do wonder where exactly the line falls between old and inconvenient on one hand, and charmingly characterful on the other!
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Here we go, another wonderful word for Wednesday. I absolutely love those gloriously worn floor tiles, and the battered cabinet as island is delicious. But finding an old shop sign doesn’t mean you have to put it in your kitchen:
I don't see any, do you?
If a completely random word with no apparent relationship to anything in the kitchen weren’t bad enough, there’s even a misplaced apostrophe to completely make my day!
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Top Ten Kitchen Design Crimes
High contrast - black and white kitchens
An Italian kitchen, black and white and beautiful