Just about this time last year we featured a few favorite romantically un-bathroom-y bathrooms, and now we're turning our focus to their kitchen equivalents. So, what secret ingredients set these cozy kitchens apart from their sterile counterparts? Let's take a look.
• Artwork! Since kitchens are notoriously short on extra paces,we're usually too busy trying to find a space for our pots and pans much less a piece of artwork. However, a little art can go along way. And a lot of art (ahem, picture #1), well it can transform a kitchen from nothing special to utterly memorable instantly.
• Mirrors. Sure stirring the pasta sauce isn't the ideal time to groom, but going beyond merely practical purposes, mirrors add depth, interest, and a certain degree of sophistication to almost any space especially when they have unexpectedly intricate frames (picture 2).
• Free-standing pieces. For many of us this may not be an option, but if you do have the choice, it can add the same level of homeyness that we bring to the rest of our rooms without even thinking.
• Something old. Odd suggestion right? We usually only think to bring the newest and most efficient features into the kitchen, which often leaves them looking cold and "catalogue-y," but simply switching out the ho-hum light fixture with an antique or antique-looking one (pictures 2,3,8) upgrades the tone and adds instant personality.
And let's not forget the fireplace (picture 4)— joking, joking...but man, that's taking kitchen coziness to a whole new level!
What other tips do you have for making your kitchen feel just as comfortable and inviting as the rest of your home?
(Images: 1: Living Etc., 2: House Beautiful, 3: Elodie Rambaud, 4: Southern Accents via My Notting Hill, 5,6: A Country Farmhouse blog, 7: Dwell, 8: Domino, 9: Better Homes and Gardens)
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Comments (28)
huh... for some reason, I absolutely adore the 1st picture, it reminds me of the place my parents live in :)
I don't know about that big mirror right over the stove. Beautiful, but when you live with a "mr. bacon" like I do I don't think that would EVER get clean.
The first one kind of stresses me out--I think I would feel like my kitchen was never truly clean, what with all the stuff on the walls. But the others are beautiful!
mirrors = instant unkitchen kitchen
this has really changed my perspective on how a kitchen can look. for the better!
i love the white, mirror, antique look. these are beautiful, though the last one really shouts bathroom.
Love the country farmhouse look, and the one from domino (that flash of turquoise), but as I start my spring cleaning, getting at grease and grime that my extractor did not, I shudder at the thought of that first kitchen... enough to give me a nightmare....
...and what's with the bathroom shot?
The whole kitchen is cute, however, having all that art on the wall above the stove/oven is highly impractical. If the person cooks, and hopefully they're putting that nice cooker to use, the wall decor will be ruined by dry heat, steam and grease. I suggest putting in an overhead vent in a light color and moving the art away. Replace the art with some colorful wall stenciling and some retro or shabby chic ceramics that can be taken down and washed.
I've always favoured this style once you accept they require more cleaning.
I like the black-brown/white look of third one, and the first kitchen is very sweet.
It would be a pain to clean all those pictures though - but I love the wall colour!
While I have neither the wall space nor the desire to hang anything above or around my stove and/or sink, I think these ideas could really work well elsewhere in the kitchen.
I definitely want to hang some artwork and maybe a shelf for my cookbooks/cooking magazines, and we've been looking high and low for a free standing piece to go in there and "cozy it up" a bit. Thanks for posting these.
I think the pink in the first picture also contributes to the unkitchen-ness of it. I really like it, along with the artwork, and I think I would accept the extra cleaning in exchange for the good feeling (at least for a while).
My orange kitchen decorated with Hello Kitty lunchboxes, Fiestaware, 50s pin ups, and artwork done by my kids and husband definitely fits into the un-kitcheny category. We love it, and everyone that sees it says it's totally us.
And it doesn't require a large amount of extra cleaning, so it's a win-win.
that first kitchen looks like a mess and so many of the others look like places you wouldn't cook in, a kitchen for exhibition purposes... fail.
I love the kitchen in pictures 5 and 6! It reminds me of my grandmother's kitchen. She had beautiful, thick cherry counters with a high-gloss, marine-type varnish.
Great topic! I don't have a formal dining area in the house I am renting - only an eat-in kitchen. So I created an 'un-kitcheny' kitchen for myself (I find eating in the kitchen to be a bit depressing) by dressing up my china cabinet, putting down a rug and hanging artwork. Unfortunately, the room still has a kitchen feel to it because the appliances and cabinets are there, but the furniture, rugs and artwork make it a more enjoyable space.
The mirrors, chandeliers and artwork are nice, but looking at all the photos, it seems that what they all (minus one) have is no upper cabinets.
I like the idea of a cozy kitchen...but these kitchens don't look like kitchens you could actually cook in.
Lovely photos. I firmly believe in adding elements to a kitchen to soften it - making it less laboratory more room. And I have always thought a mirror was critical to a kitchen (thanks to M F K Fisher) -- very useful when the doorbell rings and in between courses ... just to make certain the collar is adjusted, there is no flour dusting my nose, ect.
LSUgrad03 - you are so right! I have been noticing missing upper cabinets in a lot of kitchen makeovers.
It drives me nuts because my boyfriend and I are tall people and we both have back problems. We store very little in our lower cabinets because it is a pain (literally) to access them.
There is no way we could take out our upper cabinets. In fact, my dream kitchen would be full of upper cabinets. Anything lower down would have drawers (Of course, my dream house would also have very tall vanities in the bathrooms too, so I wouldn't have to lean over to wash my hands).
I'm all for thinking outside the box and being creative, but I am also about practicality and cooking. I am inspired when I step into a nicely designed kitchen. I'm inspired to use the facilities and cook up a nice meal. These kitchens would make me feel like I were back in my dorm where the bathroom sink was used to wash dishes and a hotplate was our stove. It just seems a little...un-useful. More for aesthetic.
They are nice to look at, just not my thing I guess.
My kitchen looks a lot like the first one. Cleaning it isn't a problem. I don't have a vent hood, as the kitchen is original to the house, ca. 1900, and I'd have to completely remodel it to put a vent in. Since I'm a vegetarian, I really don't have to worry about grease. It is fully functional, and cute, too. I hate the overly slick, institutional look that is popular in kitchens now. Everything looks like it has a coat of plastic over it.
Love this one! Here is one I designed that is also un-kitcheny - http://www.kuche-cucina.com/kitchens_TRD13.htm. Hope you like it!
I hope all of these kitchens have adjoining walk-in pantries, because they seem severely lacking in cabinet/storage space.
My kitchen is very unkitcheny, and there are a lot of pictures on the walls. I, like superbeetle, am a vegetarian. I also don't cook anything that has to be deep dried. I don't have a lot of cabinets because my family isn't big and because I don't believe in storing a lot. But I DO cook a lot! And I don't find cleaning a problem. So I guess, if the lifestyle fits, it's ok for your kitchen to be unkitcheny.
If the first kitchen inspires her to be in there and cook than I don't see a problem. It looks like a great place to hang out with your friend and have some tea!
Anyone who heats any kind of oil and doesn't have a vent is going to end up with a thin film of it on the walls and on whatever is hanging there. I would only want to display washables in my kitchen, but I don't actually see myself washing them or the walls.