French Country Kitchen Designs by Perene
17 February 2010
“Forever Young”
What I am most looking for in kitchen design as I make my way through cyberspace is something that is both different and workable because who really wants the same kitchen everyone else in the neighborhood has? Of course, those of us who live in tract housing DO have the same kitchen everyone else in the immediate neighborhood has. Typically, they come in three or four plans, all of them variations on a theme that is almost certainly white bread, because the primary objective of those who design tract homes is to make no waves.
But when it comes time to remodel one’s kitchen, wouldn’t it be just neater than neat to have a kitchen that is both a statement of one’s own and a kitchen that works considerably better than the one it replaces? Well, then, let me introduce you to Perene, a French kitchen designer and manufacturer that is doing some interesting things with country kitchen designs-make that French Country Kitchen Designs.
I am forever ragging about the lack of innovation that we see in so many of our kitchen designs these days, but let us suppose a kitchen design that begins, as all of them must, with a blank page of paper. But let the sheet be this time, entirely blank, ready to accept any design motif we may wish to introduce. Were that the way of it when people sat down to design a kitchen, what things might they come up with, I wonder.
I bring that up because I was particularly taken with Perene’s use of wall cabinets in these kitchen designs. One of the things I find myself so disliking about the traditional monolithic row of wall cabinets is its sheer inflexibility. In this country kitchens run from itty-bitty to holy-smokes-what-a-layout but what one tends to see, on whatever scale, is a simple row of base cabinets all around the kitchen, then 18″ above them a row of wall cabinets, also marching around the kitchen in a sort of lockstep. Well, that’s because a kitchen needs storage space, lots and lots of storage space, and we’re just not going to get around that.
But what I most found myself liking about the kitchen designs from Perene I’ve shown here is that they’ve done something else with them, but done it in such a way that the design is not jarring at all. The picture at the top of this blog is a case in point. At the left of the picture, look at how they removed the normal gap between the uppers and lowers and, in effect, compressed it together. That means that what would have been upper cabinets is now much easier to access, and because it butts to the lower cabinets can be a full 24″ deep, thereby yielding more storage space. And what would have been air between two rows of cabinets is now at the top and forms a wonderful display area. Then look at what they did on the other side of the kitchen with the glass uppers.
All in all, this kitchen design has just as much practical, easily accessible storage space as the cabinetry we would traditionally install in a kitchen, but they’ve done it this time with a kitchen design that is altogether different-and familiar. Because, really now, a country kitchen depends on the familiar.
The other design feature I especially wanted to point out is that instead of mindlessly stacking the dual ovens, they have separated them out, thereby ensuring that both ovens are at an optimal height for removing hot pans filled with the usual quota of scald-inducing fluids. Actually, that sort of thing is the kind of detail that is lost on the young. Not until your aching joints and brittle bones have gotten you to a point where you honestly wait until you’ve dropped several items on the floor before you bend over to pick anything up, do you find yourself appreciating that kind of foresight. But with the right kitchen layout, one could feel young forever.
Joseph
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One Response to “French Country Kitchen Designs by Perene”
February 17th, 2010 at 9:16 PM
Joseph: Love this…especially the red. I will look it up. Also checked out coyote glass…will have my shop give them a call for more info….most was a bit over the top for my clientele but some of their work was stunning! Thanks for giving me the link!!