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~ A White Kitchen To Inspire

Minggu, 16 Mei 2010







Are you one of those people who just loves open shelving in a kitchen? Although I understand the love, I'm not in that group, entirely anyway.

Although pretty and great for grabbing something quickly, open shelving drives me crazy. I love the look of "open" only with glass doors instead. You can show some texture and color of your dishes, etc., but you don't have the problem of dust. And for most people there is also the grease in the air from cooking meats.

As you can tell, I'm not in love with doing more cleaning than necessary.

Another great idea from the kitchen featured here is the closed storage above the cabinets. When the owner planned her kitchen, she had the architect include a very high ceiling for the kitchen. This presents the problem of how to treat the cabinets in such a way as to keep them in scale, but still usable.

Excellent solution here.

A few years ago I feel back in love with the simple beauty of whites and silvers, again. We do go through whims of loving colors and combinations of colors don't we? After going through a strong white phase several years ago, I really craved color, especially the colors of the French and Italian countryside. Too much white is still a bit stark for me, but I continue to long for more whites in my decorating.

This kitchen utilized more expensive nickle finishes, but of course you can achieve much the same beauty with chrome. I never thought I'd come back to loving chrome. But you just never know what you will find appealing as time goes by. Most interesting is that this kitchen was completed at least 7 years ago, and still looks quite undated.

If I were planning a house right now, I would love to have a kitchen window like this one below. Even a smaller version, in a smaller space would be wonderful.

I especially like the wall finish. Mine has been golden yellow for a number of years, and will be painted a parchment color. This aged finish is like done like the gold one I'm painting over. So I will most likely do something like it again.

Although this is a big budget kitchen for most of us, it has lots of simple ideas to make a kitchen simply beautiful as well as highly functional.

I had white kitchen cabinets for many years. For my busy, and I guess messy, family it was so much work. I was constantly cleaning coffee and juice stains, scrubbing off dirty paw (kid and adult ones) prints, and touching up the paint from all the wear and tear. When I did the faux bois wood paint treatment on my cabinets, it was wonderful not to have all every little thing show up and look grimy on them.

Somtimes I think about painting them white again. But not today.

{Owner: Christine Ryan. Kitchen Designer: Eline Nealer. from Beautiful Kitchens 2003}

See Y'All Soon~

~ Joan of Arc, Antique Majolica Plate ~ Inspiration

Sabtu, 08 Mei 2010




This beautiful antique majolica plate has served as a starting point a few times while I was contemplating what colors to decorate a room with. One year even Christmas decorations were influenced by the colors when I incorporated the purple color.

I fell in love with the plate the first time I saw one at Renninger's Antique Market in Mt. Dora. It was priced at $165 and I had no idea what it should cost without doing some research on it, so I passed it by. After I got home, I found a set for sale from France and bought all six at a better price. Two went for Christmas presents to my mother and sister, one I sold to a good friend who already had one plate, and 3 stayed with me. One for Sweet Daughter, and 2 for me. And until I just wrote that, I totally forgot that one of them should actually be in her house right now!



The colors still suit my fancy just fine, beautiful lime green and turquoise. The purple is great accent color, but I don't use it in my decorating. The turquoise seems even more enticing to me now!

I've been asked a few times where I found this plate, so I checked to see if any are available on-line and they sometimes come up on Ebay. The price is excellent.

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A little about the plate:

It depicts Jeanne d'Arc standing in front of the Chinons' castle where she met Charles VII.

Joan of Arc/ The Maid of Orleans (French: Jeanne d'Arc) 1412-1431, is a heroine of France and a saint. Born a peasant in eastern France, she led the French army to several important victories during the Hundred Years' War, claiming divine guidance, and was indirectly responsible for the coronation of Charles VII. She was captured by the Burgundians, sold to the English, tried by an ecclesiastical court, and burned at the stake when she was nineteen. Twenty-four years later, on the initiative of Charles VII, the Pope
reviewed the decision of the ecclesiastical court, found her innocent, and declared her a martyr. (Source: Wikipedia

Have a Wonderful Weekend,
&
Happy Mother's Day!
See Y'all Soon~