French Kitchen Design - Paris Inspiration!

As the Tour de France (which I LOVE to watch every year, often multiple times a day) is heading toward the great finish in Paris this weekend, my thoughts this morning went to the incredibly inspiring colors, textures, materials that I encountered in the streets of Paris over a week long leisurely stay. I've been compelled to write about the Tour de France and kitchen design more than once!

I started looking at my many images of Paris. I began to look at which pieces within a given image could be used as design inspiration, to be translated into a kitchen plan. By looking beyond and around the objects in an image, you can bring a sort of abstract yet highly authentic design concept into a kitchen design. Open your eyes and your mind and the inspiration will come!

Inspiration for your kitchen design theme can come from travel, nature, your home town, a literary work, really, anything. It doesn't have to come solely from looking at images of other kitchens! By looking elsewhere for inspiration, in unexpected places, you can create a kitchen design that is highly personal. That, to me, is a very exciting way to plan the aesthetic layer of your kitchen!

I isolated 40 images that I felt had great ideas that could be translated easily into design concepts. Maybe I'll do a few of these posts. 

Below: Soft, calm, green-as-neutral accented with a small amount of black and oh-so-elegant soft and light silver...music to my eyes and what a color palette for a kitchen. Don't miss the gilt gold factor!

Below: Complementary colors on the color wheel, this warm blue and warm gold are perfect aesthetic companions. This hardware can translate into lighting fixtures, faucet, sink, hardware and other accents combined with blue cabinetry, countertop or flooring.

Below: Colorful artwork brings life into the kitchen as well as a feeling of culture, telling a story about the overall design of the kitchen. Anywhere you can find room for art in the kitchen, do it! I've been saying this since I started this blog in 2007 - art will stir the emotions in this very utilitarian space

Below: Industrial and authentically worn stainless steel meets elegantly worn wood flooring in the always wonderful European herringbone pattern. The cool/warm thing - always an interesting contrast

Below: That elegant look of paneling, but look closer and you'll see that it is applied molding - SO easy to do, even diy. Anywhere you can logically frame something will transform the kitchen into....Paris, and don't forget to frame the ceiling and possibly paint sections within the paneling

Below: These 3 images below feature a similar color palette, lovely for a kitchen. Again, the cool/warm factor is a natural, and the images show various combinations of lights and dark, each color, allowing the opposite color to pop. To my eye, these are all sophisticated yet easy to use colors in the kitchen. The very dark door MAY be a bit of a trendy color in kitchen cabinets today, but I would like it as a countertop color. Love the blue/gray street!

Below images pertains to the above grouping but is intentionally blurred to remove bad things that happen on the street!

Below: Happy color as seen in the very traditional door design yet viewed as a friendly, casual design element. A color such as this blue can be used in an accent piece in the kitchen which is usually a better choice due to an otherwise potentially overwhelmingly heavy balance. Or, do small pops of color like the great purple color seen in the flowered vine, an analogous color to the navy door and window, but in a light color for added interest and contrast. Love the navy, beige and gray colors in that image.

Look for inspiration anywhere! Start a folder in a project management system of some sort that might be labeled color, inspiration, ideas, design concepts, what I love, whatever makes sense. Or, of course, in pinterest! It's a fabulous way to discover your own, very personal, definition of creativity. It's fun too!

The Intoxication of Paris!

Seven nights in Paris...it's taken me so long to begin this post because I just don't know where to start! How about I start with adjectives? Paris was:

incredible, amazing, beautiful, sexy, charming, colorful, historic, elegant, modern, rustic, delicious...and I'll add another "incredible!"

The view from our apartment below over the Seine:

My husband and I stayed for 7 nights. We rented a luxury apartment overlooking the Seine, decorated in blacks, reds, and browns. It was TRES chic! Ok...the luxury part? My husband received a trip from his employer for many years of service and truth be told, we could have made several nice trips out of the gift and stayed at decent places. Instead, we made one small trip and then, um, decided to BLOW the rest of the travel $$ after airfare, on a fabulous apartment. Yeah....we're glad we did. Sometimes you just have to blow the money, you know?

Which brings up an interesting subject. I never feel a need to stay within bounds of whatever I perceive my "class" to be (don't we all have a perception?)...which changes depending on my mood. Could I afford to stay in that apartment for an extended period of time? No! Should I feel comfortable in a luxury apartment that I could barely afford to rent for a week? Why not? And I did feel comfortable the moment I stepped into the building!

Prior to selecting the apartment, we were feeling responsibly frugal. The more we looked at apartments online, however, the more we were falling in love with the fantasy of living in Parisian luxe for a week!

As a designer, it is an experience to stay in beautifully designed surroundings. Good design that I can live in, even temporarily, is a memory for me and a thrill. I'll always have Paris.... :) For Steve, he, too, said let's do it and we thought Paris was the PERFECT place to indulge! 

The Kitchen Parallel

I can surely make a parallel to kitchen design. When it comes to material costs, of course, you must reconcile what your heart AND your head tell you and that is the tricky part. But, if you fall in love, say, with a walnut wood countertop for an island and if you truly can afford it, take care that your "default worry alarm" does not shut off your dream state, only to select a less expensive (but practical) material, crushing the dream yet leaving you feeling (yes, unnecessarily) responsible. Being frugal in a situation such as this when one does not need to be, in my world, is borING! 

Design beyond your comfort zone. Find creative budget solutions which are always out there to find and feel good about that. I've done that, to the max, actually. But, also feel good when you've just.got.to.have.the.....whatever. Go for it, spring for it, indulge your kitchen fantasy. You deserve it, you're worth it, and yes, the material thing you love does not have a pulse, but I sure get lasting joy from some of my possessions and experiences, even over decades, don't you?

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