UPDATE: Credit where credit is due – I did a little detective work to find that this award winning kitchen is the work of Jeanne Rehkamp Larson of Rehkamp Larson Architects in Minneapolis:

Photo Susan Gilmore via Desire to Inspire

The kitchen does a brilliant job of mixing contemporary and traditional elements to create a space that is completely current.  A great balance of warm and cool, old and new, practicality and whimsy – I’m loving the rainbow stools and the scalloped trim at hood and island.  True timelessness is difficult to achieve, but this must be pretty close to it, in a totally post-modern way.

Related Posts:

• Scandinavian Cottages
• A question of proportion?
• So simple
• Agas, looking cool
• Great new kitchen for an old house

Summer Cottage - Hus&Hem via Emma's Design Blog

Did you notice the lamp on the left? There’s no escaping them, even in the country, it seems.

Anitta Behrendt via Desire to Inspire

Simply white - Skona Hem

White and open - Skona Hem

Any one of these would be perfect for preparing picnics and easy summer food – definitely the right mood for the lazy days of August, if you are lucky enough to experience those!

Related Posts:

• Beautiful Kitchens, Beautiful Photography
• Summery Swedish Kitchens
• So restrained
• Spring kitchens
• Classic Swedish Spaces

1st Option

The trouble is, it just has an overall cold and unwelcoming look, the lighting design, as far as I can see, is tragic, and that table is not so much vintage and charming as old, broken and inconvenient – it should probably have been left out in the potting shed. It does look quite sweet, if not entirely practical, dressed up for a meal – and do you see how the chilly whites have been made to look warmer and creamier in this picture?

The table laid

I’d really got so depressed by the kitchen, I had abandoned the idea of posting it at all, until just this week when I came across it again at the entertaining Swedish/British blog Trendey.  Henen (one half of the sister duo behind Trendey)  made me laugh when she described the subway tile as “public toilet style” – how’s that for saying it like it is? Henen is obviously far more industrious than I am, and actually found some pictures of the kitchen as it appeared in the BBC TV cooking show that helped make it famous, “The Delicious Miss Dahl”.

Sophie Dahl in the gussied-up kitchen

Isn’t it amazing what color on the walls, draperies,  flowers, and bright accessories can do? A charming blonde ex-model posing as a domestic goddess doesn’t hurt, either. The sudden appearance of a gas cooktop is even more amazing – though I suppose it wouldn’t have been good TV if her deliciousness spent the entire time with her back to the camera cooking at the Aga. Both she and the kitchen do look, well, delicious,  in the TV show, even if the critics weren’t universally kind (don’t miss this entertaining exposé). Here’s a charming little sample for you:

-

-
It’s enough to make me want to run out and buy some rhubarb.

Related Posts:

• English style cottage kitchen
• Music while you work
• Sleek and simple kitchens
• Monday gallery – kitchen tables
• The Cook’s Chair