Decor8 Blogger House Party!
Decor8 is having a blogger house party, and I was tagged to do the virtual kitchen! As usual, I may be a bit late to the party, but it was fun doing it. OK, here's the client info:
Home owner: Young single mom (cookbook author) with a son living in a 18th century Georgian townhouse in Savannah Georgia approx. 2000 sq ft., 2 floors, 3 bedrooms (one is an office), and a large patio off of the kitchen. She loves to entertain, enjoys pastels and Swedish decor, decorating on somewhat of a budget but she can splurge on one expensive item per room. Loves pattern and feminine touches but can't deal with too much clutter.
Since I only had a few finishes to select, I thought I'd go a bit further and design this kitchen from scratch, exclusively for decor8's virtual client.
Let's go with dessert first...the one special item chosen for the kitchen was a (pricey) 36" induction cooktop from GE Monogram. For THIS client, a cookbook author, it's a dream come true. The super high power burners with faster response than gas, green technology, and super safety attributes (thinking of her child,) won, hands down. She's psyched and ready to cook up a storm!
Interested in living green, where she can, the countertop is made of recycled materials by Avonite. The cabinetry has green components, is painted with low VOC paints, and her appliances are all energy star rated, all this just for starters. The kitchen was designed to cover all sorts of activities beyond cooking. Our heroine will be able to:
a. do the cooking in an "open" setting, gazing out toward her child or the lovely patio beyond
b. prep at the island as well with a great line of sight all around
c. clean up at the sink with a nice expanse of windows
d. have good, and quick, access to all of her cooking items, tools, and cookbooks on the open shelving section
e. communicate with her child
f. watch tv cooking shows easily
g. hang out in the seating area with a laptop
h. spend quality time with her child
i. Have storage addressed in a variety of ways, maximizing storage, yet maintaining an open feeling
Oh, her aversion to clutter? Once she saw the storage and access possibilities of open shelving, she loved the look! She may be storing items in decorative baskets on the shelves as a compromise. So, here we go! But, first, take a look again at all these really great ideas and inspiration in the other rooms of our heroine's home, over at decor8. Thanks Holly/decor8, it was fun to dream for a bit....
And, let me obsess just a little more on the cabinetry. Look at the floorplan. It IS a very old, Savannah Home. Maybe we need to section off (in terms of a color), say, the sink base section, or the shelving section, and put another finish on the cabinets there. They could be a glazed, golden yellow finish, something like that. May go really well with the supersoft gray finish, shown below. Imagine for a minute...
And, here is a modern version of the informal, Swedish, cotton kitchen rug: 
Recycled countertop has bits of yellow, lots of white, and a very interesting grain pattern, unlike most engineered stones 
Yellow kitchen tools/accessories!
So, what do you think? Let's do a little more brainstorming. What do you like/don't like/would change, etc?
Participating bloggers were:
decor8, Creature Comforts, Style Files, Design For Mankind, Perfect Bound, Bloesem, SFGirlbyBay, AphroChic, Gracious Inspiration, Design Is Mine. and Making it Lovely. and moi.
Friday, February 8, 2008 at 11:38AM
