We don't want a dream kitchen

   

What is not to love about this? It is warm and cozy. It is functional. It looks like it might be in a cabin or an apartment in France or Italy. And so, so, so, not right for our house. Le sigh.

Well, we want a dream kitchen, but really didn't want a typical dream kitchen. You know, the kind of kitchen that looks like a kitchen designer designed it. (Scroll to the last image in this post if you want to see what I am talking about.) We didn't want everything to look perfect. We also wanted to keep it from getting too far away from the fitting in with a 1934 Colonial Revival. (I don't think anyone wants an actual 1934 kitchen--but I sure wish I could see what it looked like then.)

BUT...

We also realized we couldn't really have the kind of kitchen that we think of as our dream kitchen. Not only would it be hard to achieve the layered look we like so much, but it really wouldn't be right to put in the kind of rustic kitchen we are so drawn to. The fact that the new kitchen was going to be open to the family room also made us realize we had to make it slightly more polished than we would have done otherwise.

Truth be told, of all the images I have seen of kitchens, this is the one I love most. Like the best of a commercial kitchen looking really fabulous in someone's home. I even love the clock on the wall. And the juxtaposition of the ceramic pieces on the lower shelves above the utilitarian stainless steel mixing bowls. Well, it just makes a boy's heart flutter.

One starts to see a few themes emerge. Open shelves, utilitarian, mix of finishes and textures, casual, layered, looks like a kitchen designer was nowhere near the project.

In reality, this one wouldn't be a dream kitchen for me. But soooo many things are right about this kitchen.

The idea of a non-island island begins to emerge.

This one captures some of the joie de groove of the others but has more polish to it. I am a sucker for wood counter tops.

We've actually had the privilege of sitting and cooking in this kitchen on many an occasion. Belonging to my husband's cousins who have lived in the 1830s Greenwich Village townhouse since the 1960s, this is one fabulous, cozy, lived in kitchen. It has an old commercial Garland range that was there when they moved in and still works like a charm. The counter is a humble but very pleasant and efficient Formica. And the table, the table. I so want a table in the kitchen instead of an island.
(Photo by Paul Rocheleau from the wonderful book The House of Greenwich Village by Kevin D. Murphy.)

This is part of the large kitchen at Hillwood Estate here in Washington. That stainless steel island is the bee's knees.  (Photo from the blog Casey O'Brien Blondes)

So what did we learn from all of that inspiration? Utilitarian, function over form, layers, warm, open shelves, prefer table over island, if we have an island we want it to be an open one not one with a cabinet base, natural wood, stainless steel...As I mentioned earlier, most of our inspiration photos aren't right for our space, but we have tried to incorporate as much of what we like about these as possible.

Future posts will go into detail about the design we settled on.

Not greater than the sum of their parts

And then there were kitchens that had many of the elements we like, but the execution made them not quite what we would want. And others that had just one or two elements that provided inspiration.

Overall this one does nothing for me. But I do like the portable island.

The table and chairs help make this white kitchen cozier.

This has a very nice warm feeling to it, especially the wood counters. But the kitchen as a whole is a little too polished for my tastes.

My other half has always liked this image way more than I do. My main beef is that it feels cold. And I hate that island with a passion. I did like it for the windows over the sink. Windows like that, I am happy to report, will be a feature of our kitchen.

My scribble on the image kind of sums it up. "Too cutesy, designed, precious, ye olde"  I think its the work of  Thomas O'Brien.

Again too cold for me even though it has many elements we like.

There is part of us that considered really dressing it up. But we think we may leave this kind of glam for our butler's pantry / wet bar that will be near the dining room. (More on that in a future post.) I particularly like the contrasting red on the inside of the cabinet.

And this is what we didn't want

This is the kind of over-designed, everything is too perfect, kind of 'dream kitchen' that does not appeal to us.

This is by no means an unpleasant kitchen, but I don't want my kitchen to be elegant. Don't the like the ersatz furniture feel of so many islands. Lights are too fancy. The type of marble is too glamorous, would prefer a  more workman like Carrera. Upper cabinets on left too designed.

I could make a list a mile long of what I don't like about this kitchen. Headline: "Designer runs amok with too big a budget"