retro kitchens - kitchen nostalgia or shredder material? #2

The one thing this kitchen has going for it is that it was secretly made to coordinate with this web page (I swear it did before I removed the yellow from the page), a project begun 40 years ago in a remote hamlet of western Oklahoma, being planned to later emerge from the kitchen graveyard for the WORLD to enjoy see gape at in March, 2007. What is wrong with this kitchen, let me count the ways:

• the cooktop is crammed next to the ovens
• the dishwasher is way too far away from the sink (the sink is purposely recessed to have the DW next to it, which would function well, but not if it were not recessed, thus no need to be so far removed, a little, sure)
  
• the unbalanced left side as opposed to the right, not that asymmetry isn't a good thing, but this isn't even asymmetry
  
• I feel like I will enter a cave if I stand at the sink - maybe if I got lucky, I'd go through a time warp and arrive in the future with no memories of where I'd been, an apron having been replaced with live-in help!
  
• the, um, rug - doesn't it just call someone to do the dishes? And, we know it's a woman with a house dress on.
  
• the top heavy wallpaper
• the fabulous gold countertops!
• if those are custom dishwasher panels, give me the UN custom vintage DW!
• Last but not least, and probably not last, let's not forget the black toekicks!

 
Did I forget anything? The one good thing I have to say is that there is not a hodgepodge of different door sizes to cause chaos, that's a minor good thing. OK, I'll say it....there's a little piece of me that just says "awwwwwwwww" when I see this kitchen.

one thing led to another...

...and I ended up with 4 houses in fabulous urban and resort locations, all mine! How lucky is that? We had the mega millions lottery drawing here 2 days ago, I think it was somewhere around $370 million! I guess I don't have to check our tickets...two people won, one in New Jersey and one in Atlanta. Goody goody for them. Me, I had it spent already...some for me and my husband, some for family, some to give to noble causes, making me guilt free as I turn shopping into at least a part time profession.  Oh yes, I guess some should be saved too.

As my husband and I dreamed (mostly me) which we like to do just before the "big one", I figured we'd get a penthouse in Manhattan (but where, uptown or downtown?), the house in the Hamptons, the house in Martha's Vineyard, a large apartment in Copenhagen (love those Danish kitchens) and maybe something in California, but that would come later.  Let's not forget about the Caribbean!

Four new kitchens.. Four different styles, how much fun can one have?  I may want to live in an 800 year old building in Copenhagen and have a sleek, minimalist kitchen, yeah. Love that combo. However, I do like to mix things up, to be eclectic. My preference is to layer several styles/themes into a room, although in small ways.

I feel my own kitchen right now is contemporary yet charming, two very different words! But, why not? contemporary/charming? traditional/minimalist? Sure. It's very doable. Don't feel you must be pidgeon-holed into one style, you just don't have to be. If you're conflicted about style, then the answer is you integrate both, or more. You don't have to know exactly how at the moment, just that you'd like to. That's a good enough start. What styles reflect who you are?

White Hot Kitchen!

The last post really hurt me. Everytime I looked at it, and I'm not kidding, I had anxiety! The yellow, the orange, the brown...the pain was almost unbearable. And, I can't wait to do it again!

So, now, for something a bit more current. Come with me, mod design fans, back to the future, and take a trip to Europe, (I'm not paying) in design style only, to where modern furniture design, truth be told, has its origins. In Scandinavia, in Denmark, to be specific.

Here's my good friend, Lone's kitchen. Lone (pronounced Lona) Bager is the owner of Kobenhavn Design, kobenhavn design, a to-the-trade supplier of modern Danish cabinetry, including wood countertops.  Lone is based in New York City, in the east village, and operates out of a fabulous design studio.

 

The philosophy of Danish design is that there is beauty in the "whole", as opposed to the individual pieces of the whole. The phrase "less is more" was invented just for this concept. It's about function, simplicity, and therefore, beauty. 

Note the simplicity and elegance of the cabinetry in the dining area behind the table in the second to last image. Pure function in classic proportions. The beauty lies in restraint. It takes a lot of discipline to allow this type of design to just "be". It's not so much modern, as timeless. Love it.

The cabinetry, affordably priced, is multiform and is available "to the trade" via Lone.