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?
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!
I’ve told you before that I’m not a huge fan of deer antler trophies in interiors. Of course, if you are decorating a rustic cabin or your hunting lodge, that’s a different story, and if you like collecting all that dust, then I say go for it:
Appropriate here - Vertical Construction
I do hope we are coming to the end of the trend for antlers and skulls appearing in every kind of room and every style of decor. I mean, I know it is (or was for a while) totally post-modern and edgy, but I’d still rather not have cast-off animal parts and dead eye-sockets in my kitchen:
Hip and ironic? Thom Felicia
Ironic and even useful here
Downright sarcastic
I wonder, what’s next – hoof trimmings from your favorite race horse? How about toe-nail clippings from celebrities, arranged in little bowls, or no, even better, have them cast into your concrete counters, there has to be a market for that!
Apparently adding antler trophies to completely inappropriate surroundings, whether sarcastically or in absolute seriousness, is not as new as we might think. Look at this illustration (scanned from Nancy Lancaster: English Country House Style by Martin Wood) of the saloon at Ditchley Park, decorated by Nancy Lancaster in the 1930s:
Nancy Lancaster's Saloon at Ditchley painted by Andre Serebriakov
D’you think Nancy was being ironic when she dressed up the beautiful eighteenth century neo-classical plasterwork with these antler trophies? Or is this in deadly earnest? Actually, I wonder if it was a case of his and hers decorating – could it be that Nancy’s husband insisted on displaying his trophies, and the rarely-used saloon was the only place she would let him have them? If those particular trophies could talk. wouldn’t you just love to hear their story?
One word, but what a word it is. This is the holy grail, the word I have been searching for:
photo Fred Perrot at aufeminin.com
What’s that you say – “KITCHEN” not what you’ld think of as the ultimate prize after a long and arduous search? The point, mes cher amis, is that this mundane and even sedentary Anglo-Saxon word is on the wall in a French kitchen – sorry, cuisine. I knew it had to be out there, and here finally, is the proof (via).
I came across this Georgia kitchen by Todd Pritchett Design Studio some time ago (here) – it is a lovely fresh kitchen of the white inset, stainless steel, and carrara variety. What I can’t get my head around is that support for the eating counter:
Fresh and white
Painted Chimney Pot
Now I hate to be rude, and it’s probably somebody’s beloved family heirloom – but where in the world do people paint chimney pots? Is it an accepted art-form that I have just missed out on? And once you’ve painted your chimney pot, do you really want it taking up nearly a third of the available knee-space at your kitchen island?
The article describes it as a Wyatt Childs painted chimney pot; perhaps I am the only person in the world who has never heard of such a thing, and after today you will all be guffawing at my hopeless ignorance. It certainly stands out in this dreamy white environment and is doubtless a great conversation starter – what do you think?
OK, I can see it’s cantilevered. But I can’t help feeling it would look better if it did have some other visible means of support. Design that appears to flout the laws of physics can be eye-catching, arresting, thought-provoking. But in the kitchen, how would it be once the novelty has worn off? I think I’d find it constantly uncomfortable (via).
Taylor Smyth Architects via Design Milk
It certainly provoked my thoughts, anyway. What do you think?
In case you’ve ever wondered, the Kitchen Clarity “Oh, really?” category deals with the strange, illogical, or just plain misleading things that are said or written about the world of kitchen and bath design. The “Calamities” category, on the other hand, is reserved for kitchens or bathrooms that suffer from design done so badly that the result is dangerous, or sometimes hideous, or even both. Imagine my consternation then, as I browsed through Style at Home’s “Bathroom Trends 2010″ this weekend, to find a bathroom that could fit in either category, or both at the same time:
Styleathome.com Bathroom Trends 2010
First, these words jumped out at me, provoking a raised eyebrow and big “Oh, really?” :
If nothing else, 2009 was a year about communicable diseases, namely the H1N1 virus. In 2010, expect to see technological advances in kitchens and bathrooms, such as this brand-new self-disinfecting “antibacterial tile.” It won’t kill viruses, but when sunlight or artificial UVA light shines on the tile, the reaction with titanium dioxide kills nasty bacteria found in bathrooms.
Antibacterial tile? But doesn’t UV light kill bacteria anyway, without any special tile? Sure sounds like pseudo scientific mumbo-jumbo to me. I just had to mosey on over to the internets and look into this. And, knock me down with a feather, there does seem to be actual science behind the claim. I’m probably translating this into gobbledegook, but on the Active Ceramic site, I found that this clever technology involves a film of titanium dioxide and water, permanently bonded to the surface of the tile, which reacts with UV light to not only kill bacteria, but also to take environmental nasties and render them harmless. Amazing. And yes, it does kill bacteria much more quickly than plain old sunlight alone. They’ve even figured out how to make sure the titanium dioxide particles are too large to be absorbed, so that they are not harmful to humans. I’m not qualified to judge the quality of it, but this certainly seems like science to me.
Active Ceramics
Well then, you are surely wondering, why is this post still in the “Oh, Really?” category? Did you notice how that little blurb opened by mentioning the H1N1 flu virus, and in the very next sentence states that the technology doesn’t work on viruses? So why mention them in the first place? It’s still an overwhelming “Oh, really?” to me. And that’s before we even get to the question of whether the technology is necessary or useful in the average family bathroom – hospitals, nursing homes, public spaces, yes I could see it making sense. But for the home, wouldn’t soap and regular household cleaning be just as good?
Oh, and the calamity? The bathroom is a bit drab, design wise, but I’m not condemning it for that. No, it’s that step up to the shower and tub, with not a grab bar in sight, or even a wall to steady yourself against. Looks like an accident waiting to happen, don’t you think? And I really don’t suppose that micro layer of titanium dioxide has any sort of cushioning effect! If this is a trend for 2010, it’s one I’ll be taking a pass on.
by Martin Wood) of the saloon at Ditchley Park, decorated by Nancy Lancaster in the 1930s:
That pesky microwave
The Aga's best friend
A feast of color