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Kitchenlightenment

Kitchen Inspiration

By September 15, 2011October 2nd, 201387 Comments

I stumbled upon an inspiring photo in Elle Decor a few years ago when we were in the process of renovating our kitchen. It was just the corner of a room, but unlike a lot of the spaces featured in shelter magazines, it looked like someone lived there. There was childrensโ€™ artwork on the refrigerator (tastefully arranged), some raffia wallpaper covering a small desk area, and a round table surrounded by red Eames chairs. The Eames part of those red chairs was not in the budget, but I stuck that photo to my bulletin board and it got the ball rolling on the designing. Nevermind that I didnโ€™t pay an ounce of attention to the dishwasher door blocking the cabinets (forcing us to put away our glasses in two steps) or the fact that it will be the year 2029 before my children will be able to reach to the ice tray in the freezer or be able to open the 200-pound pull-out pantry door by themselves. I got my red chairs and I love my kitchen to this day.

But I love the kitchens featured in Design*Spongeโ€™s at Home โ€” the book based on the blog thatย everyone except maybe two people in the world are obsessed with โ€” even more. Grace Bonney, the founder and author, takes the concept of inspiration to a whole new level here with page after page of gorgeous personal spaces along with personal stories that explain how the lucky owners managed to execute their visions. The kitchens, of course, were my favorite. For instance, if I had stumbled upon the photo above a few years ago, there is a 100% chance that Iโ€™d be sitting in a yellow kitchen with a painted checkerboard floor right now.

Artisan was nice enough to send along a sneak peak of some of the kitchens featured inย Design*Sponge At Home and toย celebrate its publication, DALS is giving away a free copy of the book to one lucky commenter below*. Winner will be chosen at random next week, but special consideration goes to anyone who shares a cool family kitchen design idea. Even special-er consideration goes to any commenter who followsย DALS on facebook.

I love the red on red here. Itโ€™s the 2011 answer toย Julia Childโ€™s museum-worthy pegboard.

I have white cabinets, subway tiles, marble countertops, and yetโ€ฆmy kitchen does not remotely resemble this one. It must be the floor โ€” would you look at how cool those tiles are? Well, the floor and the wine. Mine is always much more accessible.

Can you see the chalkboard panel attached to the side of the refrigerator? How fun would that be for a kid?

My favorite detail in this one: The little reading nook. Phoebe would lose her mind.

*Thanks for playing everyone. Lori wins the book.

87 Comments

  • Avatar Loring says:

    Yay, DS! I would love to win this book!

  • Avatar Martha says:

    I am so inspired by the Design Sponge blog. I would love to win a copy of the book. Thanks!

  • Molly says:

    Growing up, my weekends were spent watching my mother whip together some magnificent meal in my familyโ€™s big, breezy southern California kichenโ€“the kind of home where fresh herbs are only a step away, 365 days a year, blood oranges are commonplace in every dessert, and where so many avocados hang low on a tree, you donโ€™t mind giving a few away to the squirrels. What was passed on to me was my motherโ€™s love for cooking fresh, vibrant meals, but unfortunately, NOT the kitchen. I currently like in the (mostly) wintery ski town of Jackson, WY, in a tiny cabin with an even tinier kitchen and a burly mountain man of a boyfriend. For 2 months of the year, I am able to tend to a garden, throw the windows open and keep herbs in the windowsill, but for much of the year, we insulate the windows with a platic wrap like material and lower the blinds. We have tried designing in ways to lighen up the space for the dreary winter months and mostly this has come down to organizational techniques to keep the space feeling clean and open. We built (read: boyfriend built) a butcher block table that quadruples as a cutting board, counter space, paper towel rack and a cookbook shelf. More importantly, this new addendum to our kitchen allowed me to get some splashes of color into the otherwise brown log space. I dream of clean, white walls that would allow me to pick any design direction and run with it. Honestly thoughโ€ฆiโ€™ll even take drywall in any colorโ€ฆreally. But what I really need is some inspiration to help me get through this coming winter or at the very least, allow me to sit on my couch, curled up in a blanket, open the design sponge book and travel, if even just for a blinking moment to a kitchen like yours! Oh and I am a liker of DALS on Facebookโ€ฆthank you for your wonderful tales, recipies and the opportunity for for this giveaway!

  • Avatar Kim says:

    Boy, do I wish I had something to share!
    What is interesting is that the tile countertops I was just thrilled to get a decade ago, now drive me absolutely crazy.
    I would love to have some fun ideas for starting a very slow kitchen update.

  • Avatar Dana says:

    My husband recently built sliding shelving units that he installed in our lower cabinets. They help us take a lot better advantage of the space in these deep cabinets and make retrieving pots, pans, and dishes way in the back a lot easier.

  • Avatar sara cee says:

    everytime I look at design ideas like that, I want to just start all over and re-do EVERYTHING.

    right now, my designing energy is going toward keeping the toddler/dog/cats out from under my feet in the kitchen. its mayhem

    (and yes, Im a FB fan too)

  • Avatar oilandgarlic says:

    I love the pegboard but alas that is definitely not kid-friendly, nor dog-friendly. We do have a kitchen with yellow walls but now I wished we had checkered floors and red chairs (like yours from DWR)!

    For me, keeping everything out of the way (knives, etc..) is the most important consideration w/ kids.

  • Avatar Lorena says:

    Light! Light is definitely what makes a kitchen. The more natural light, the better, of course, but add some bulbs too! I love how every countertops is illuminated in the fourth photo, but normally you wouldnโ€™t want to have them all on at once, just the one under which you are working. We used several of those little light fixtures meant for the inside of wardrobes. They are super easy to install and the switch is integrated.

    Thank you for the giveaway! (Iโ€™m a Facebook fan too).

  • Avatar michelle in Montana says:

    Ah kitchen LOVE!
    I am working hard on getting my belived to remove the dishwasher from our kitchen and make that space into MORE storage for importand kitcheny things! I have this great old cookbook, cannot recallthe name right now, but inside it has a sketch of my dream kitchen and it hosts a rocking chair and lots of basketsโ€ฆ.a wood cookstoveโ€ฆ.ah, yes! We are in Montana afterall! My other kitchen dream it to have the flour bins like the old hoosiers haveโ€ฆ..perhaps where my dishwasher (that serves as ugly storage) is nowโ€ฆ.more dreams of kicking that beast out of my kitchenโ€ฆ.I know, I am one of the few, or perhaps the ONLY person who actually likes handwashing dishes.

  • Avatar Helene Mahnken says:

    I just found DALS a short time ago and am really enjoying it. Thanks ๐Ÿ™‚

    Sooo, I just โ€œlikedโ€ you lovely people on facebook, and here are some of my kitchen inspirations from pinterestโ€ฆ Can you see a theme?

    http://pinterest.com/pin/50692825/
    http://pinterest.com/pin/45348239/
    http://pinterest.com/pin/40864393/
    http://pinterest.com/pin/32346087/
    http://pinterest.com/pin/32333620/
    http://pinterest.com/pin/187367940/
    http://pinterest.com/pin/159478472/
    http://pinterest.com/pin/91669811/

    I (obviously) love light, bright kitchens with pops of color. ๐Ÿ™‚ Sorry about all the links! I love kitchens.

  • Avatar Erin @ vie balance says:

    Beautiful kitchens! I feel like a need at least ten houses to accommodate all the designs I love. Maybe this book can help me blend some designs together tastefully in order to get the best of all worlds!

  • Avatar Gillian Hurst says:

    My kitchen design is a love story to the women in my family. My three grandmothers are represented. One grandmother I never met left behind a beautiful red and white kitchen table from the โ€™50;s. My grandma who has passed left me a box of china and other goodies- including some tea towels from her home in England which Iโ€™ve put above the sink. My Mimi (grandma 3) gave me kitchen curtains. My mother gave me all things practical, like pots and pans. My mother in-law decked us out with bakelite flat ware and juice glasses from her collections. And the grandmothers-in-law are strewn about the dishware too. Soโ€ฆ we got some vintage eclectic goinโ€™ on in there!

  • Avatar Chris says:

    I could happily spend an entire day looking a photos of other peoples kitchens. What a gorgeous book!

  • Avatar Jane says:

    I would love to check out this book! Nothing too special is happening design-wise in our rental apartment kitchen, but my dream kitchen would have a walk-in pantry, a separate canning area, a walk-out to a brick pizza oven/churrasco set up in a backyard, and an in-kitchen office a la Diane Keaton in The Family Stone. Iโ€™m not asking for too much, right? ๐Ÿ™‚

  • melyssa says:

    Iโ€™m with Kortney up above. Iโ€™ve moved too much and havenโ€™t called a place โ€œhomeโ€ in far too long. In two weeks we will be moving into a cute rental, with a tiny kitchen. Iโ€™d love to know how to spruce up rentals for those of us who donโ€™t own, and who certainly canโ€™t afford or arenโ€™t allowed to โ€œre-doโ€ a room! I already like and follow you via FB, and if it makes me even more pathetic and more likely to win, I confess I have never even heard of Design Sponge.

  • Avatar diana says:

    Thanks to this post, Iโ€™m a mass of inchoate kitchen-lust now.

  • Avatar Erica says:

    I heart Design Sponge and would love a copy of this book. I just added chalkboard contact paper to the inside of my pantry cupboard and my 16 month old adores having her own art studio in the kitchen.

  • Avatar Amanda says:

    Iโ€™m dreaming of the day Iโ€™ll have my own kitchen to decorate. Until then, I love to gaze upon pictures of other peopleโ€™s kitchens.

  • Avatar Jessie says:

    I love looking at photos of kitchens! When I get my monthly House Beautiful I immediately flip to the back to see their โ€œkitchen-of-the-month.โ€ My favorite kitchen is my momโ€™s, who was able to realize her kitchen dream. It is based on an old book my grandmother rescued (she was a librarian in Upstate New York) of botanical prints. My mom framed the prints of the beautiful apples and pears and built the kitchen around that theme. I love visiting and sitting at the round table, surrounded by big windows and beautiful drawings of fresh fruit.

  • Avatar heather says:

    we had one of those narrow ironing board closets in our war-time era kitchen. since we donโ€™t use an iron much (ahem), we removed the ironing board, installed simple shelving for spices and other pantry supplies, and painted the door in colored chalkboard paint so that we could write down recipe ideas, groceries, and to-doโ€™s.

    as always, thanks for the inspiration

  • Avatar amy says:

    Our best move was installing a high-quality Tarkett linoleum floor in our kitchenโ€“itโ€™s light blue with tiny multicolored dots. It hides dirt and crumbs so well that I can get away with sweeping very infrequently! More time for fun!

  • Avatar Katie V says:

    My kitchen needs rehab itโ€™s dark small but tall and lacks storage. I would love to peruse this book!

  • Avatar jen says:

    we just moved in a year ago and attacked the house โ€“ walls mainly, the paint here is soooo dark!! painted the kitchen buttercream yellow and it feels so much bigger now than being sage green walls, green wood cabinets and sage green trim, oh and green counter tops! โ€“ and now we are taking a step back and going to do room by room to โ€œfinishโ€ it up. we are starting with the mainfloor and since itโ€™s open concept (yuck!) we can do it all at once. of course my eye goes directly to the kitchen. since our budget is small, make that tiny, we are forced to keep the cabinets but are going to do a back splash (since i cook and bake everyday) and also we are going to change out the counter top on the island to a butcher block (to break up the green) and add an element for โ€œisland diningโ€. http://gronicktales.blogspot.com/2011/02/hunting-for-perfect-eyeshadow-and.html . there is a bathroom there which my husband has been eyeing to rip out part of it and make it only a powder room (it houses the laundry right now as well) so we can expand our space that way as well. since my husband is no mike holmes or even tim โ€œthe toolmanโ€ taylor i am a little hesitant at this project but i am excited about the island transformation as i will be able to get my red stools! so then i can make my red damask curtains for the dining room. then it might feel like a completed space. would love to have a moment to sit back, ice tea in hand and flip through the pages of that book to fill myself with inspiration to the brim. thanks for the chance!!
    psโ€ฆi like you on facebook too!

  • Avatar j.j. says:

    Crossing my fingers that I win the reading nook! Er, I mean, book!

  • Avatar pamela says:

    i am in a junky rental now dreaming of when the lease is over and we can move to a home with character. so i donโ€™t have anything to show you. but looking at some of these images reminded me of a historic home i lived in years ago. the kitchen was covered in subway tile, but even better: it had a restaurant-nook-type booth to sit in, and there was a drawer in the table portion to hold silverware. we *loved* it. ๐Ÿ™‚

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