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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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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Here’s and interesting concept for a kitchen – not only portable and compact, but completely collapsible too – the work of Burkhard Schäller, the Magdelena Gravity kitchen exhibited at the Talents section at Ambiente 2010 Consumer Goods Fair in Frankfurt (via)
A kitchen framework
The sink elevation
A cooktop for minimalists
A place for everything...
... and everything in its place
I guess you are in serious trouble here if your utensils happen to be a different shape or size! Could this really be the future of kitchen design?
.
Images © Burkhard Schäller
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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?
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Or the other way around – it doesn’t really seem to matter. I think it’s a safe bet that most of the beautiful white and gray marble adorning so many of our favorite kitchens and bathrooms doesn’t come from Carrara in Italy any more, because if it did, how could there be anything there but a giant hole by now? (Hmmm, though, a quick web search reveals that they do quarry 1 million tons a year in Northern Tuscany – I think that’s probably quite a lot – and check this link for just one list of all the different marbles “also known as” Carrara.) So that’s one million tons, plus all the look-a-likes. That’s got to be, technically, a whole heck of a lot of the gorgeous white stuff. And here are just a few rooms where it plays a starring role: (Click on the pictures for links)
via locationworks
Designer Erin Martin via Bilblog
via homeportfolio
via Rambling Renovators
From the Daily Mail
via Country Living
Mlinaric Henry and Zervudachi via Desire to Inspire
via mi casa es su casa
Artichoke ltd
Joseph Dirand Architecture
Artichoke ltd
Whew, is that enough yet? Country or city, large or small, contemporary or traditional, this stone is absolutely everywhere. (And please don’t shoot me if I have some Calacatta in that second picture – I’m having some color rendering issues with this screen). Don’t get me wrong, I love this stone, and I know it’s been used for furniture since at least Roman times, it’s absolutely a classic. But is it beginning to suffer from over exposure? Especially the white marble with white subway tiles thing – is it a trend we should leave in the aughts? And if we do, what must have counter material will replace it?
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Isn’t this a delicious white kitchen? And that sofa looks so inviting – the one red cushion is masterful. A great example of clean contemporary design working in an older home. (Just look at the thickness of the walls, and the sash window). But is there something about the perspective, or is that restaurant style faucet nearly touching the ceiling? I think I would have picked a slightly smaller one for this particular kitchen.
via filmlocations.co.uk
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If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you probably know I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about focal points in kitchen design. I know for many (both?) of you readers this is old hat, but with new clients the question of whether it makes sense to make the dishwasher disappear behind a panel fequently comes up. The answer, of course, depends on so many things – they style of the kitchen, the location of the dishwasher, and where it will be viewed from, being the main ones.
As always, a picture is worth 10,000 words (especially words of mine!) Here’s a situation where I would have preferred to see an “incognito” dishwasher – centered in the cabinet run like this, and in stainless steel to boot, it becomes a powerful focal point. And a dishwasher just isn’t what I would choose for that.
Dishwasher as focal point
Now I realize that the other appliances are stainless steel, so there is an argument for matching the dishwasher to them. But if, as I’m assuming, the dishwasher wall is the main view from a living or eating area, I’d rather keep the view quiet, and focus instead on accessories in those open shelves, or on the counter. The fact that symmetry in the base cabinets does not correspond with the uppers bugs me a bit, too – and that would also be de-emphasized if the dishwasher disappeared. (photo via).
For comparison – a perfectly disguised dishwasher in this photo by Roland Persson (via) – even down to repeating the lines of the drawers in the panel. Keeping those horizontal lines going is so important in this modern European style.
Dishwasher disappeared
Incidentally, d’you see how the sink isn’t centered in the window? Obviously done for practical reasons - to allow some clearance between the dishwasher and the corner. Does it bother you? (Nor me).
So just one more picture (up to 30,000 words, now – a positive dissertation). Here are stainless steel dishwashers that are easy to live with. For one thing, they are behind an island, so are not able to dominate any views, and for a bonus, there are two of them, symmetrically arranged, so they actually emphasize the focal point at the sink and the window, rather than competing with it:
Victoria Hagan's kitchen via Architectural Digest
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