KITCHEN DESIGN
24 June 2008
"A Little Less"
I think what most intrigues me about European kitchen design is the fact that it is different from what we traditionally have in this country. Certainly, it is different than the pieces I design myself.
Actually, my idea of the sublime in design is Shaker furniture and cabinetry. At first, to be very honest about this, it had a lot to do with my skill level, but later it was just because I honestly preferred the clean lines of the furniture. I eventually studied cabriole legs and the like—and I have to this day an enormous respect for those who can cooper a door, which is a method of making a curved door from straight wood—but still, what I most like is the simple, the straight, the pure.
One of the things that I find so intriguing about the many European kitchen appliances we have featured on this site is their cleanness of line, but they have such a minimalist look for a reason. They are designed to be used in European kitchens, where the space is often limited, because many of those homes are quite a bit smaller than the caverns that have come to make up so much of America in recent years.
But every design begins with a blank page, and if you can somehow free your mind of everything that has gone before, you open yourself to so much that is not only innovative, but a much more efficient use of the space. The kitchen has become, far and away, the most expensive room in the house, and this is especially true for those who have remodeled, because for a kitchen remodeling, nothing less than the best and most dramatic is going to do. And rightly so. A dream kitchen comes to us, if it ever does, only once in a lifetime. But sometimes, as they say, less really is more.
We have featured GamaDecor to make our point, but there are as many innovative ideas for making the most of small spaces as there are European manufacturers. But you are not relegated only to cabinets that are obtained through the mails and installed—semi-custom cabinets, they call them. You can take pictures and rough sketches to any cabinetmaker with a sense of adventure and the skills to pursue such things.
Was it just a few years ago when three and four thousand square feet homes were rapidly becoming the norm? Then real estate prices went berserk, and now people have to make do with homes that are 1200 or 1500 square feet. So, what do you do that is luxurious and nice and convenient and all the things you had in mind when you dreamt of a mansion? The answer, of course, is imagination.
For those with a limited amount of space and the courage to do something different, European design may be just the thing. GamaDecor is a wonderful illustration for the point we want to make. With this company, as with others we have featured on this site, one is able to have a kitchen that butts onto a family room or living room and do so without one having the feeling of being in the kitchen all the time. What they have done is design cabinetry that simply disappears into itself when it is not needed for cooking, which if your house is anything like ours, will be most of the time.
Instead of a monolith kitchen design that requires hundreds of square feet of dedicated space, you can simply situate the kitchen at one end of a great room that is also a dining room and living room. And still, somehow, make of this space something that is both unconventional and beautiful. Not size, but innovation—this should be our goal. I’ve said it so many times in these blogs I’m starting to believe it. Less is more.
Joseph
One Response to “KITCHEN DESIGN”
September 13th, 2008 at 2:26 am
Hi Joseph, or can I call you Joe?
I’ve just found your great site … I’m a refugee from the UK where there are very few blogs about kitchens and kitchen design … so I was really pleased to find you.
I’m surprised, though, that all your kitchen design blogs seem to be about high tech, modern European kitchens. Not that they aren’t stunning.
I’m surprised because:
a) these kitchens are very expensive and only bought by a minority of Europeans themselves
and b) this is a web site written by two cabinetmakers … where are the beautiful, hand crafted wooden kitchens that I was expecting?
I’m also surprised, as a fellow blogger, that you have time to write so much!
Best Wishes
Majjie