Happy 70 Degrees!

I thought it would never get here - this gorgeous spring week. So, I am outta here. If I had to be stuck inside, though, I would love to be stuck in my new favorite kitchen ever.

This kitchen was designed by Tish Key for the 2006 San Francisco Decorator Showcase and shamelessly swiped from Deliciously Organized. I am not really feeling the upside down bouquet of dead flowers light fixture but I love the rest: taking the tiling up the wall, the cabinetry, even the skirt is adorable! And I don't care what you say about I.T., the yellow just looks like a sunny day.

Have a great, warm weekend wherever you are.

I Love Meryl Streep Again.

I saw Julie & Julia yesterday and am happy to inform Meryl that she is off my shit-list from the whole Mamma Mia debacle. She was wonderful and really stole the movie (it should have been renamed Julia & Julie).

I was completely charmed by the love story between Paul and Julia Child and fell a little in love with Stanley Tucci, too, as Child's doting husband. Nora Ephron wrote the screenplay and cleaned it up tout de suite (the book and Julie's blog had the f-bomb every other word and offended many delicate readers).

The kitchens Julia Child cooked in were very small and tended to be unfitted because they lived in Europe in the late 40s and early 50s. Which is funny because the larger and fancier the American kitchen has become, the less cooking actually goes on in it. I love a kitchen with tiled walls and a big pine table in the middle of it, separated! (gasp!) from the family room so I can hide the mess I made from actually cooking! I've always been a renegade...

Speaking of kitchens, the new issue of House Beautiful is a must-buy (and not because it's practically THE ONLY SHELTER MAGAZINE LEFT!). Windsor Smith did this Polo Blue kitchen which I am head-over-heels in love with. There are also black rooms galore (so Black is the New Black, after all, or is Blue the New Black? whichever, I solemnly promise not to use that phrase anymore :-).


But I do find myself admiring blue in a way I never did before. So when I saw 500 Days of Summer starring my girl crush, Zooey Deschanel, I fell in love with her little apartment. Simple, blue toile, iron bed, white-tiled kitchen, quirky little touches like origami birds. Sweet. Sweet movie as well, although as it warns: it is not a love story.

Free! Kitchen Stuff.

Paul from Residential Kitchen Design is having a contest. I am doing my part for the economic stimulus of our country by helping to promote it. (Click on images to enlarge.)

The deal is this: Paul is co-sponsoring a Tell Me About Your Fantasy Kitchen contest along with Metallo Arts, the creators of these fab range hoods (available in a world of colors and designs) and hand-wrought counters whereby you go to his blog and enter by telling a wildly creative story about what your fantasy kitchen looks like. Contest details are on his blog here.

The winner receives a $3200 gift cert. toward the range hood or zinc or pewter
countertop of his choice (plus 10 hours of Paul's design time for a total value of $4500). Aren't they gorgeous? So, if you're into it, you have until April 2 to enter. Good luck!

(Apologies to people who subscribe on a reader: I can't get this to post properly for some reason!)

The Perfect Kitchen.

Back in the early days of my blog (lo, those many months ago) I did a post on my Dream House Tour which you can see here. Well, I think I may have a kitchen replacement. *insert angel choir* Tada!

Click on photos to enlarge.

The kitchen of Lindsey Buckingham (oh, yes, of Fleetwood Mac fame, looking quite fresh and unharmed by the 70s) and his wife, Kristen. As you may recall, I am currently obsessed with black cabinetry (see my post here); these are painted B. Moore's Night Shade. I love the white island to change it up and if that's not the most perfect kitchen table ever, then I don't know what is. The extra scrumptious Murano chandy was reportedly an eBay find.

The photos look the same but they're not. My scanner is only so big and the bottom photo shows the stove on the right with the cow painting on the range hood. I love cows in the kitchen. Heh.

The floors are paved cement tiles. They give me a backache to look at but they sure are purdy.

I am in love with her art studio (and jealous) and their veggie garden. Beauteous to the eyes, tasty and useful in the kitchen.

All from the March issue of Elle Decor, still in production, thank god. Get it while it's hot.

P.S. You may be amused as I was to see that Nathan's long-dreaded awaited Top Design spread appears and Ms. Russell spends much of her editorial explaining how it was that he won. Ha.

If you are here from Decorno, here's the editorial (just click to read):


You can also click here to read my original post on Nathan's win.

Black Is the New Black.

photos from House Beautiful, Jan. '09

I am usually drawn to white kitchens with marble counters but I find I am tiring of the look due to its ubiquitousness. Don't get me wrong; I still love it. It's just that all of my favorite kitchen renos in the past few years have resulted in white kitchens with carrera marble counters and stainless appliances.

It looks like black is gaining ground, starting with the black beauty above. The cupboards are beautifully done in Benj. Moore's Midsummer Night. I like the difference in materials on the island versus the counters but I could do without the cordoned off appliance "garage." I'm also not sure of the necessity or utility of two sinks that close together, even though one is for prep. I love that the top cabinets go all the way up. I also like the counter stools from Crate & Barrel, even though they appear to be major butt coolers. The floor looks like mosaic tiles or something but I believe it's floor runners. The cow head is a nod to Country French kitchens but I'd love to see an unfitted cupboard on that wall (assuming it'd fit) or some art rather than the mirror, even a blackboard such as that in the photo below.

Industrial Strength kitchen, Mary Engelbreit Home Companion, Dec. '08/Jan. '09.

I do not, however, like shiny black appliances. Except for Viking Ranges and this massive La Cornue (neither of which are shiny) which appears in Ina Garten's (Barefoot Contessa) Paris apartment in the Nov. '08 issue of Town & Country. You really have to be a major kind of a cook to warrant it and it helps if you live in Paris, just because.

The floors are very good-looking trompe l'oeil wood painted to resemble limestone and tumbled marble. Again, perfect for Paris.

I am loving the black but my absolute favorite kitchens are unfitted. I'll try to do a post on unfitted kitchens after the new year.