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Cool Kitchen: Pretty and Practical

Today’s kitchen is actually that of a well-known design blogger, the talented Anna of Door Sixteen. Anna has been blogging about the restoration of her Newburgh, NY house since 2007, and her house was featured in an Apartment Therapy House Tour in February 2008 (where these pics are from).

Pretty and Practical

Pretty and Practical

I like this space primarily for one reason: it’s a great example of how to have a pretty and practical kitchen on a budget. Not including appliances, the budget for this space was approximately $1000, which isn’t bad considering how great it turned out. I like the freestanding units and how well they co-ordinate with the appliances; the result is a look that’s modest, considered, and somewhat industrial in feel.

Pretty and Practical
Pretty and Practical

The open shelving turns Anna’s everyday plates, bowls and cups into display items, which is a great idea for those of us with limited cupboard space. Other than a great print over the stove and a simple floral tea towel, there’s minimal “fuss” in this space. A well-edited collection of useful items (it helps to have a consistent “pop” colour; in this case red) is all this space needs for maximum visual impact.

Be sure to check out Anna’s inspiring blog, as well as the tour of her home at Apartment Therapy.

Cool Kitchen: Office Space

For today’s cool kitchen I’m featuring an old favourite of mine, dug up from the depths of the “Interiors Inspiration” folder on my desktop. This room is actually the office kitchen of Drew Barrymore’s production company, Flower Films. I don’t even remember where I found this photo, but I do know that it originated in the pages of Domino magazine, which featured the offices sometime in 2008.

Office Space

First of all, I love the shade of green on the wall, and how well it sets off the white fridge, chandelier and shelves of crockery. The wooden table, wicker chairs and butcher-block counters are a natural fit with this look. Throwing in the slightly-unusual black cabinets and the retro checkerboard floor keeps the whole thing fresh and fun. Perfect for a creative office, yes- but I’d love it in my own home.

Cool Kitchen: black & shiny

I was thinking about my post on black kitchens when I found this room on Ideal Home. While the high-gloss units aren’t exactly my style, I love how the fun and bright the entire space feels, unusual for a space dominated by black.

Cool Kitchen: Black & Shiny

The two-tone tiled floor and the floral wallpaper should fight with each other, but they don’t. The addition of wood and lots of white keeps things bright and airy, and makes for a cheerful kitchen that doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Colour in the Kitchen: Black

Ok, spare me the whole “black isn’t a colour” spiel. It might not be, but it sure does look great in these modern kitchens. Cooler  and edgier than white, black is dramatic and timeless. Here are some of my favourite kitchens in this dark non-colour.

From sarahleeab‘s photostream, this kitchen is minimalist and surprisingly light: 

black one

I like the mix of industrial and country going on in this scan, from the now-defunct Domino mag, via Tammy Manet‘s photostream:

black two

From another magazine no-long-with-us (House and Garden) and found on Farmhouse Modern, I adore this elegant space

black three

Black floor and walls are made fun with the addition of bright yellow accents, in this space from Living etc

black four

Not just black, but a mix of dark shades, this kitchen from Canadian House & Home manages to mix elegant, funky, retro and modern into one neat package: 

black five

From the same source, this space is slightly more traditional, with a classic mix of black, white and stainless steel: 

black six

Cool Kitchen: Dwell July/August

We’re still waiting for the July/August issue of Dwell to hit our doorstep here in London, and frankly, it’s beginning to irritate me. Sick of the suspense, I headed over to their website this morning to see what I’ve been missing. What I found was a slideshow and article about the LA home of architect Jeremy Levine. The style is SoCol Spanish meets ultra-modern, and I love what I see: 

dwell july/august

Besides the obviously wonderful combination of warm wood, crisp white and touches of black, I think this kitchen works so well because of all the horizontal and vertical lines at play. The wooden ceiling and floor increase the sense of horizontal space, but thanks to all the tall, white-framed cupboards, the feeling isn’t at all stifling. I like all the built-in nooks and shelves, which are not only practical, but draw your eye across the width of the room.

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