Sunday, May 16, 2010

~ A White Kitchen To Inspire







Are you one of those people who just loves open shelving in a kitchen? Although I understand the love, I'm not in that group, entirely anyway.

Although pretty and great for grabbing something quickly, open shelving drives me crazy. I love the look of "open" only with glass doors instead. You can show some texture and color of your dishes, etc., but you don't have the problem of dust. And for most people there is also the grease in the air from cooking meats.

As you can tell, I'm not in love with doing more cleaning than necessary.

Another great idea from the kitchen featured here is the closed storage above the cabinets. When the owner planned her kitchen, she had the architect include a very high ceiling for the kitchen. This presents the problem of how to treat the cabinets in such a way as to keep them in scale, but still usable.

Excellent solution here.

A few years ago I feel back in love with the simple beauty of whites and silvers, again. We do go through whims of loving colors and combinations of colors don't we? After going through a strong white phase several years ago, I really craved color, especially the colors of the French and Italian countryside. Too much white is still a bit stark for me, but I continue to long for more whites in my decorating.

This kitchen utilized more expensive nickle finishes, but of course you can achieve much the same beauty with chrome. I never thought I'd come back to loving chrome. But you just never know what you will find appealing as time goes by. Most interesting is that this kitchen was completed at least 7 years ago, and still looks quite undated.

If I were planning a house right now, I would love to have a kitchen window like this one below. Even a smaller version, in a smaller space would be wonderful.

I especially like the wall finish. Mine has been golden yellow for a number of years, and will be painted a parchment color. This aged finish is like done like the gold one I'm painting over. So I will most likely do something like it again.

Although this is a big budget kitchen for most of us, it has lots of simple ideas to make a kitchen simply beautiful as well as highly functional.

I had white kitchen cabinets for many years. For my busy, and I guess messy, family it was so much work. I was constantly cleaning coffee and juice stains, scrubbing off dirty paw (kid and adult ones) prints, and touching up the paint from all the wear and tear. When I did the faux bois wood paint treatment on my cabinets, it was wonderful not to have all every little thing show up and look grimy on them.

Somtimes I think about painting them white again. But not today.

{Owner: Christine Ryan. Kitchen Designer: Eline Nealer. from Beautiful Kitchens 2003}

See Y'All Soon~

14 comments:

  1. This kitchen is truly a dream. I love white kitchen, but I have never had one, didn't use to like them. I think I would paint my cabinets black if I could. I agree about the window and the wall color, they are dramatic and really add to the classic old world look of the kitchen. It really is gorgeous. Hugs, Marty

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  2. I love the crispness of the white kitchen & the plants add a lovely touch as well. Happy Weekend!

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  3. Love the kitchen and the window, Donna! I agree about the open shelves though; I hate to clean as it is and that is my first thought. I would love to do glass cabinet doors in a couple of my cabinets, though.

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  4. I am with you Donna not a fan of the open concept...I have glass doors and love them..I'll send you a pic

    I am not a fan either of white cabinets, mine are cream, white is just too stark for me...

    I would never guess that kitchen was done 7 years ago

    Have a nice week-end,
    Kathy :)

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  5. Donna, I just love the look of the light white or cream kitchens that you see everywhere these days. I am trying to decide on the 'look' for a kitchen remodel and I am very tempted to go light. BUT, I have three children and a big fluffy dog and I worry about the reality of white. Would you go white if you had it to do again or wood. If wood, light or dark?

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  6. I love this! It is amazing.
    debby

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  7. Oh, it looks like the kitchen of my dreams, I have white cabinets and I love the look of open shelves, haven't tried it yet, still trying to get cement counters
    thanks for sharing the lovely dreamy pictures
    your fairy friend
    Karey

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  8. really pretty, i love white it's so clean looking. when i did ours a few years ago i went with the cream with the antiquing glaze. have a nice weekend!! susan

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  9. I wish I had a kitchen window. I live in a garden home with not many windows. Actually I have a window over my sink. But it looks into where I'm sitting now, which is a room. Guess it's just a different kind of scenery!
    Brenda

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  10. Hi Donna!

    It's a lovely kitchen but I really love yours way more!

    I don't understand how people do open shelving. I have some soup tureens on top of my cabinets that I have to pull down and wash constantly so I don't get open shelving. Maybe if you have a really good extractor vent and it sucks everything up andout?

    Manuela

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  11. Beautiful Kitchen...what is the name of the granite that was used?

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  12. I don't know the name of the granite. We chose a similar one for my daughter's kitchen and I love it!
    Good thing she does too since it is her kitchen. :)
    Donna

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Donna