The Welcoming Kitchen: 10 Favorite Kitchens

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, it's only natural that my thoughts are increasingly centered around the kitchen. I like kitchens that are warm and welcoming and might be described as 'unfitted.'. 

Looking at the kitchens I have selected for today's post, I have tried to identify what it is that makes them attractive to me. All of the kitchens I am drawn to have an amazing tapestry of interesting textures and materials ~ warm woods, stone, linen, glass, pottery, copper and stainless steel. They give these spaces a warm and welcoming feeling and make you want to pull up a chair and stay awhile. Many offer a farmhouse table and chairs. I think it is a must to have comfortable seating in the kitchen so family and friends can relax and keep me company while I cook. I often have small dinner parties in my kitchen because it is more intimate and homey than the dining room. I like kitchens that have limited upper cabinets, open shelving and are furnished like the rest of the house with old world accessories and beautiful old things that are not just collectibles but are put into use everyday. All of these kitchens have great lighting. Great lighting sets the tone for the space and offers an opportunity to make a style statement. 

{Interior Design Cindy Smith of Circa Interiors from The Welcoming House}

{Architect Ruard Veltman featured in House Beautiful}

{Circa Interiors; The Welcoming House}

{Circa Interiors}

{Designer Mark Williams; Traditional Home}

{Erika Powell, Urban Grace Interiors}

{Interior Design, Phillip Sides}

{Hinkley Lighting}

Love the styling in the kitchen above and would love to have a collection of those vintage cutting boards for my own home.

{Garden Variety Design, Jeannette Whitson}

It is so hard to pick a favorite from all of these images that I have collected but I just love Jeannette Whitson's kitchen.

{discovered on Bungalow Classic Tumblr}

There is a lot to love in this little kitchen vignette. I love the styling and the quirky, industrial island. I also like the way the roman shade is hung at the ceiling level above the french door not to mention the lighting.

{Melanie Pounds Interior Design}

{Ina Garten's famous kitchen}

{via}

I love the natural, bleached floors with the soft color of the painted cabinets. This kitchen will never go out of style. I love the addition of the antique table and chairs with their mixed finishes.

I love a kitchen infused with bright natural light. I could stand at that bleached wood cabinet and gaze out that window all day. I love the little silver cabinet knobs and the vintage light.

Do you have a favorite kitchen from this series? I would love to know what you think. 

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My Mountain House Kitchen: Before and After

I am one of those people that love to bring something old, ugly and tired back to life. Somehow, I think you get a more charming and personal space when you renovate, and pay homage, to what is already there. We could have just gutted the whole space and put in a bright, shiny new kitchen but instead 

took the road less traveled and decided to work with what we had.

I shutter as I post these before pictures and can hardly believe how far we have come. We are not yet to the after phase but I thought you would enjoy seeing some of the changes we have made. 

As I mentioned in earlier emails, we thought the kitchen had good bones. Now, as I look at the before pictures, I am absolutely floored that I always saw the beauty in this space. 

I will also say that I speak confidently here but often times, I second guessed myself. I found a lot of inspiration from blogs and Pinterest and often times just took a leap of faith. I have the greatest husband in the world who trusted me to know what to do. Take down that bank of cabinets. Remove the soffits over the windows. Recess the pantry even with the refrigerator cabinet. Let's replace the bi-fold pantry doors with old french shutters. Leave the planking on the ceiling natural - You should feel like you are in a mountain house.

A traditional galley style, the kitchen was nice and wide yet we felt like the ceiling was falling in on us. The main drag on this space was an imposing fluorescent light box. Notice the lovely yellow-green light cast over the before pictures. The ceiling in the kitchen, as well as the ceilings throughout the house, had stucco texturing that had yellowed over the years. You gotta' love the eighties wallpaper! 

The window over the kitchen sink looks out into the garden. 

I started by taking down the window treatments that were blocking the view and all of the beautiful mountain sunshine that streams in this window. That wasn't enough so I removed the (lovely) wooden trim piece and then decided to take an even more bold move and remove the soffit between the cabinets. I painted the cabinets and the soffits a beautiful gray to elongate the cabinets.

The before picture is below.

We have come a long way and are almost finished!

Here's a picture of the new sconce in place.

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Friday Entertaining

For today's Friday entertaining I wanted to share this kitchen I discovered here. This chic space packs a lot of design umph into a small space. I would love to talk to the designer to learn more about this kitchen. That incredibly gorgeous limestone topped island, the ceiling and that nailhead detail in the background have me weak at the knees. I also love the warm grays, browns and creamy whites mixed with the stainless steel of the professional appliances.

As for entertaining, I imagine that I am visiting with my three favorite college roommates and after a long day of shopping in the city, we return home to my stylish friend's home. We sit at the island {on those chic little benches} and watch while our talented friend makes us dinner. 

She serves us on handmade honeycomb ceramic plates like these from dbO Home made one at a time by a husband and wife team based in Litchfield County, Connecticut.  Follow their blog here.

We celebrate spring with recipes featuring fresh ingredients from the garden.

Spring Onion Tart with Honey and Pecorino.

Roasted Cumin Lime Carrots

Life is good!

This is the second post in my new series called "Kitchen and Dish". I'll pair an interesting kitchen with one of my favorite recipes and maybe an unusual floral arrangement, placesetting, tablescape or venue.

Have a nice weekend!

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Friday Entertaining

Something about this interesting kitchen ignites my sense of imagination.

 I have chosen it to be the debut photo for my new Friday entertaining series called "Kitchen and Dish". I'll pair an interesting kitchen with one of my favorite recipes and maybe an unusual floral arrangement, placesetting, tablescape or venue.

I would imagine this is a chef's kitchen and the 'organized clutter' reflects the chef's love of collecting and entertaining. This chef has a seasoned cast iron skillet and loves to share his methods with his guests while he cooks. His table is eclectic, mixing vintage finds with silver and french linen.

For tonight's dinner the chef prepares:

Mac and Cheese Roasted Chicken and Goat Cheese

Doesn't this look delicious! The recipe features savory ingredients that have big impact like rosemary and goat cheese. It would be easy to prepare and allow the hostess time to socialize with her guests. I would keep it simple and serve this with a big salad dressed with a homemade herb vinaigrette.

I love this image of old silver and pearl handled flatware. It embodied how i like to entertain...use interesting things and present them in a casual, familiar way. I can easily see handing this tray over to a friend and having them set the table or simply placing the tray on the table and serving family style.

Little Flower School by Nicolette and Sarah

This natural arrangement could have been pulled together by a savvy gardener and would be so pretty in the entrance hall to welcome guests. It is the creation of Saipua Ryhanen and Nicolette Camille Owen, two boutique floral designers from Brooklyn who come together to teach at the Little Flower School. 

If you like arranging flowers, you will love this article from the NY Times about this talented duo. Here's a little snippet from the article:

Owen and Ryhanen encourage deli-flower shoppers to buy in tiers: bulky, real-estate-hogging items like cherry blossom branches, heather and lilies to create form, structure and a foundation (first tier); showy “face” flowers like tea roses and hyacinths to give a bouquet focus (second); and a gestural, attention-getting element like anemones or tiny undeveloped carnation buds for a sense of finish (third). “The face flowers you usually want to do in clusters of two or three — don’t spread them around, but do stagger their heights,” Owen says. “In placing them you want to avoid any suggestion of eyes, headlights, ears, antennas, arms or boobs. The massing rule also applies to color: like tones together.” Above all, as Ryhanen always tells her students, resist the impulse to build a pyramid: “Asymmetry creates movement....(read more here)

Tonight's dinner is served in the orchard in the late afternoon.

The lovely image above is from one of my favorite new sources of inspiration Kinfolk Magazine. I just subscribed so I could get the gorgeous quarterly soft bound volumes in the mail.

My favorite guilty pleasure is to sit in the sunshine on my front porch and flip through the pages of my newly delivered design magazine.

"Kinfolk is a collaborative effort to encourage a more natural approach to entertaining. It's the marriage of 

our appreciation for art and our love for spending time with family and friends."

Have a wonderful weekend!

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The Heart of the Home: Kitchen Time

{Steven Gambrel via Elle Decor}

Milk-glass light fixtures are suspended over vintage chairs and a stone-top table in the Manhattan townhouse of decorator Steven Gambrel. A fireplace in the kitchen would be the ultimate luxury.

With Thanksgiving just a few days away now, it's only natural that my thoughts are increasingly centered around the kitchen. I like kitchens that are warm and welcoming and might be described as 'unfitted.'. Don't get me wrong, I definitely want all the modern conveniences and functionality of a great kitchen, I just want it packaged into a handsome room that flows with the rest of my home.

Looking at the kitchens I have selected for today's post, I have tried to identify what it is that makes them attractive to me. All of the kitchens I am drawn to have an amazing tapestry of interesting textures and materials ~ warm woods, stone, linen, glass, pottery, copper and stainless steel. They give these spaces a warm and welcoming feeling and make you want to pull up a chair and stay awhile. Many offer a farmhouse table and chairs. I think it is a must to have comfortable seating in the kitchen so family and friends can relax and keep me company while I cook. I often have small dinner parties in my kitchen because it is more intimate and homey than the dining room. I like kitchens that have limited upper cabinets, open shelving and are furnished like the rest of the house with old world accessories and beautiful old things that are not just collectibles but are put into use everyday. All of these kitchens have great lighting. Great lighting sets the tone for the space and offers an opportunity to make a style statement. It's the jewelry of the kitchen.

I would love to know what makes a kitchen worthy of inclusion on your drool-worthy list. Please tell!

{Heather Smith of Circa Interiors}

I love the cabinets in this kitchen, the copper detail and especially this clever hidden storage.

{via Homestead Revival}

A basket is a great way to bring texture into the kitchen and provides a simple solution for organizing oils and spices on the countertop.

{Southern Accents: Amelia Handegan Interior Design}

This Charleston, South Carolina kitchen has been a favorite of mine for many years. It was featured in Southern Accents and is the work of one of my favorite designers, Amelia Handegan. It's old world charm will never go out of style.

{Charlotte Home and Garden; Kitchen: Heather Smith}

If I could pick just one of the kitchens featured today to be my forever kitchen, it would have to be, Heather Smith's kitchen. I love the cleft face bluestone she chose for the countertops!

{via Cote de Texas}

{Jackye Lanham Interior Design}

{Jackye Lanham Interior Design}

{Steven Gambrel}

(Steven Gambrel}

{House of Windsor via Veranda}

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