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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This is quite the handsomest Rayburn or Aga I’ve come across in quite some time – it looks quite at home in this contemporary setting, doesn’t it?. Like that perfectly tailored suit or classic purse that may not be the height of fashion, but never goes completely out of style, either. (Check out the house it’s in too, at Mark Guard Architects)
Handsome and harmonious
I’m not so convinced by the next one, though. I’m inordinately fond of a classic cream Aga, but I’m not enjoying it in this setting: (by Mastro & Skylar Architects via Desire to Inspire)
It's not playing my tune
I usually like eclectic – I’m definitely not a fan of slavishly following the recipe for a particular “theme” – but harmony is so important when putting apparently disparate elements together. So what is it about this set-up that bugs me? I think that flue disappearing into the wall makes me most uncomfortable. And then there’s a dissonance between those skinny countertops and the chunky black top of the Aga. Maybe the blackness itself is part of the problem: it does rather emphasize both of those niggles…
Eclectic, or off-key?
The difference in depth is a problem for me too, as if the Aga was an afterthought. Oh yes, and now I look again, why are the pulls horizontal on one side, and vertical on the other? I can see the logic, doors versus drawers, but I don’t see any beauty in it. Definitely can’t blame the Aga for that (as if I would ever blame the doughty Aga for anything). No, I have to conclude this is a match made not in heaven, but in “the other place”. What do you think?
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I’m so excited to be invited to a Fashion Week Event in New York City as a guest of Brizo, the fashion forward faucet people. Late next week I’ll be meeting up with some fellow designers and design bloggers, learning about the Brizo products, and attending the Jason Wu fashion show. Wow – I’m still kinda hoping they don’t find out who I really am before the event is over (just joking)!
Kitchen by fashion designer Jason Wu, featuring Brizo Pascal
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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?
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Air New Zealand Sky Couch
Did you see the Air New Zealand economy class “Sky Couch” announcement this week? Clearly designed so that slim and consenting adults can stretch out even in cattle class – though what happens when they hit turbulence, I don’t know. How much better it is than a regular economy seat, I wouldn’t like to say. But however you get there, I have found some very good reasons to travel to New Zealand, straight from the portfolio of Parsonson Architects, a collection of clean, light-filled, ocean-view houses:
Pekapeka
Light and air in Pekapeka
Simple Kitchen in Raumati
Not as white as it looks - Raumati
Steps from the sand in Raumati
Sun streams in to Manly Street House
With this view, nothing else matters
I’m not sure if that’s an iconic mid-Century chair, or a dorm-room standard from Target – perhaps it depends on the context? And in that context, the chair is really irrelevant, I think.
When I was growing up in South Wales, my Dad often toyed with the idea of emigrating to some English speaking, up-and-coming, country: Canada, Australia, New Zealand, they all sounded so promising, especially during the dark times of three day weeks and power cuts as our heavy industries coughed their last gasps. Funny thing, he was an ocean-loving man, and his objection to New Zealand was that so much of the coast-line was privately owned, and not accessible to the general public. Not like in Britain, where it’s almost impossible to privately own a beach, because, below the high tide mark, they are almost all already owned by the royal family. And luckily, the royals are gracious enough to share. It’s clear from this that my Dad would not have been suited to America – an immigrant to the USA would have to come with the attitude that “yes, the beaches can be privately owned, and I’m gonna get me one” – very un-British indeed! If these beautiful houses demonstrate what you can do with your private piece of coast, maybe it’s not such a bad thing after all - just as long as you’re willing to share…
Views forever - Raumati
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Today’s kitchen collection is all about efficiency. Clean lines and stainless steel all the way.
Here the look is softened by wood floors and counter, white cabinets and frosted glass. The stainless steel is dominant, but it’s livable: (Click photos for links)
A south-west London home, via filmlocations.co.uk
No softening at all here – this kitchen is lean and mean:
Something better be cooking in London's Chelsea
The hood and island retain the sharp-edged restaurant styling, but otherwise this Italian kitchen is all about sophisticated city living:
Italian style - photo Andrea Martiradonna
This one must be too sophisticated for me – I can’t figure this photo out at all. I’m just not evolved enough to be Scandinavian, I suppose. Still, blonde wood, Hans Wegner, and stainless steel – it looks promising, doesn’t it?
Steel reflections - photo Patric Johansson
A lot of stainless steel means a lot of cleaning and polishing – one thing in a restaurant setting where you have a team of underlings to do it for you – quite another in the average family home, don’t you think?
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Something I’ve always thought about that lyric, is that when Christina Rossetti wrote it, she was really, really tired of Winter. And she had seen quite enough snow for a lifetime already, thank you, and would be quite happy not to see any more ever again.
In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan,
earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone;
snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow,
in the bleak midwinter, long ago.
Well, poor Christina was the daughter of an Italian father, and at least part of her childhood was spent in poverty in Victorian London when the family had financial troubles. There must have been plenty of bleakness for her to cope with – I think she knew what she was talking about. You may well be wondering where I am going with this, and what it might have to do with kitchen design – so here you are, some truly bleak Mid-Winter kitchens:
First, frosty wind, and earth hard as iron – I don’t know whether those are laminate or faux-painted cabinets, pretty cool, but they look hard and earthy to me. And the Winter tree in the freezing fog just rubs in the bleak part (via)
Joseph Dirand Architecture
Next, water like stone – don’t you just see ice shards in those triangles, icicles in the chandeliers, black ice in the flooring?- Though I’d love to know what is going on architecturally – or is it just a stage set? (via)
photo Adrian Briscoe
And of course, snow on snow outside, and snowy white inside too (via):
Italian Winter
Brrrr. Better get cooking, decorating, accessorizing – something!
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A tilesetter's revenge?
Brizo Day
Blue kitchen