You would love the kitchen in the log cabin we're staying in in Finland. And you would hate the kitchen we just remodeled back home. But we haven't done the backsplash yet. I'll post pictures when it's done.
It's those Finnish cabins/houses that are my inspiration. I grew up among them in the Keweenaw Peninsula, where entire towns are populated with Finns who would have those kitchens. They were cozy and warm and there was always a pot of coffee brewing and sweet rolls for company. Soda crackers, too. I don't know why but every table set for coffee had a plate of soda crackers.
As we've nomaded around the world, my favorite kitchens have been in Eastern Europe and Italy where not much has been modernized and they are old and funky and full of charm.
My least favorite? The "modern" look of concrete, granite, and polished steel that leave you feeling like you're living in a museum exhibit.
I would LOVE spending a month living in that first kitchen!
Oh, this is fantastic! I have the same exact thoughts whenever I'm sucked into another House Hunters or Love it or List It marathon. That's a great kitchen from the 50s or 60s or 70s ... WHY DO YOU WANT TO CHANGE IT?!?
Oh, and I hate the obsession with "open concept." The hell? Hasn't anyone heard of ROOMS before?
Exactly! If you have a family, it’s not that great to listen to everyone else’s music and conversations and chores and TV shows at the same time. Thank goodness human shelters developed with rooms first so our species learned to read books for pleasure, quietly. Maybe we’ll get back to that. :-)
Sep 5, 2023·edited Sep 5, 2023Liked by Ramona Grigg
I read the NYT real estate section weekly to look at photos of condos, co-ops and houses and they invariably have white white white kitchens and bathrooms that look miserably clinical--and there's usually not much color anywhere else. And no matter how gorgeous a kitchen is, if it's just a few years old, it's "dated."
As for HGTV remodeling show, I read a sort of exposé that claimed many of the jobs have to be re-done weeks after the show aired because of serious problems of all kinds. I'm not surprised if it's true. What can you expect when the crew sweeps in and does a job in a few weeks?
Much of what they do is phony and half-assed. We stopped to look at a house in Georgetown, SC, a flip that was featured on HGTV, and it was a mess. They painted over old exterior paint without scraping and didn't replace rotted boards. Everything was done for show and it looked good if you didn't look closely.
It was for sale for at least a couple of years. The people on that street were furious.
I've also read that the furnishings and decorations don't belong to the homeowners. They're packed up for use somewhere else.
And they do many takes so that the couple or family seeing the re-done house is sufficiently wowed.
We've had lots of work done on our mid-century ranch over thirty+ years and it's always taken a lot of time. The full kitchen remodel was three months and it looks almost brand new two decades later. And it has color. :-) But then the whole house does. My favorite room is my back studio where I do Zoom calls: the walls are apricot and the small couch is sky-blue and both colors are in the drapes along with burgundy and dark blue and the window shades are dark blue.
My daughter had a midcentury ranch and decorated it with some wonderful midcentury pieces. Now she lives in a bungalow and her midcentury pieces fit there, too. I can fully appreciate that era, since I began my adulthood then.
I had apricot walls in the house before this one and I loved them. A constant glow!
Spines out? That is absolute SACRILEGE! I'm not sure I'd go for lining books up by color or rainbow-y, either. But NO SPINES? Oh, my God, my heart rate is up. I've stopped watching, although hubby and I used to watch in all the time. I loved David Bromstead until I didn't anymore - way too fancy and snobby for me. And This Old House? What happened to the idea of old houses and all their charm? Man caves? Where on earth is the money coming from????? And who needs more than one house unless it's a cozy lakeside place somewhere on a big lake and away from everyone? That's what I'M talking about! (Don't get me started on Love It or Leave It....)
I feel the same about David B. I used to love how unique his work was. Now it's all cookie cutter. His spaces all look the same when they're finished, and so do Hilary's on Love It or List It. They've become predictable.
Oh my goodness I LOVE your kitchen. Those old red canisters, the seafoam green cabinets, everything. I watch those house hunter shows too and always wonder where the hell they get the money! Who has that kind of money! Who wants "open concept" - another buzzword - which is just one huge blended, cold, gray, echoey place with no walls. I WANT to be separated from people! What's next.....open concept bathrooms? Like a kitchen/family room/ media room/mudroom/lounge, entryway that you can poop in?
Sep 5, 2023·edited Sep 5, 2023Liked by Ramona Grigg
I've been a renter all my adult life, and short a catastrophe that would wipe out all my remaining relatives at one swell foop (I was supposed to inherit my parents' house but they cheated me out of it, so such a disaster is only for them, not me - but that's another story), so it's been year after year of nothing but "Landlord White". I've been in my current place for 21 years, and when I expressed a desire for something other than white in my walls, my current landlord told me he would trust me not to get too exotic with the colors (I was talking about nice earthtones) but he has to think about what happens when it's time for the next tenant.
He had no problem with me buying my own appliances, and I'm heading out today to shop for a new stove and refigerator. My current ones (which I also own) are getting long in the tooth, and I've saved up enough to afford one of those restaurant-style ranges. If I could, I would hire a professional restaurant designer to come on and redo my kitchen.
It must be hard when you're renting, but I don't get why earthtones would be a problem. Your landlord is going to paint everything again when you move out, anyway! Just do it!
Those restaurant-style stoves are magnificent! If you're a constant cook. I'm not that but I'll accept an invitation to anyone's house where a range like that abides.
Landlords like “Landlord White” because it’s cheap, it’s bland and the color doesn't bleed through when it gets overpainted with another coat of Landlord White (which is the most common justification). I have a good relationship with this landlord (you don't stay in one place for 21 years if you don't get along) but if I went ahead and painted to suit my tastes it would damage that relationship. My rent is low, the lowest of the four apartments in the house, and part of that is because he doesn't have to come in every couple years to clean up the place for a new tenant.
I love to cook, and I like having good tools to do it. My late wife hated to cook, so I was a great find for her. I'd had a reputation as a picky eater when I was a kid, and when she met my extended family, the first thing they asked her was “How do you deal with him being a such a picky eater?” she said, “He does the cooking. I just wash the dishes.”
Loved seeing your kitchen article because I also say a big yes to small cozy kitchens of the past (and present). We're planning our kitchen reno, looking at the Frankfurt Kitchen for the basics of it. What once was the height of modernity becomes quaint and cute - like McLuhan said, "Past times become pastimes". Coincindentally, my last week's post is about kitchens - https://carol.substack.com/p/quietly-celebrating
I love your kitchen! It feels very much like Ramona, musing writer and thinker, lives there. 🫶
My first job out of college was writing books about interior design and architecture. And I never forgot, after a year of interviewing some of the best designers, and also some of the more pitiful ones, that the homes that looked the best were the ones that grew over time. One designer said that it’s better to have an empty house with just a few things that hold a lot of meaning to you than a house that was decorated by Hobby lobby in one weekend.
I like homes that look like the people who live in them. 🤗
P.S. I think you could do a sidebar on how Home Depot feeds the sins of HGTV. 😂 As we were looking for a house in Texas last month, there were so many “flipped“ homes, and I started to be able to pick out the materials that had been on sale at Home Depot. Because every single home that had been “renovated“ in the last 2 to 3 months all had the same tile, same flooring, same backsplash... 🫤
How funny! And how astute to even notice that about the flips. I like homes that look like they have some history to them and if the only history is Home Depot or Ikea it looks like anyone could live there, not just the unique person who does.
But everyone has their own tastes, and that's a good thing or there wouldn't be anything left for the rest of us!
Sep 5, 2023·edited Sep 5, 2023Liked by Ramona Grigg
I LOVE this.
I think your own kitchen inspires memories and joy and more importantly, it's YOUR choice!
When we purchased our little coastal cottage back in the 1980's, it was the idiosyncratic atmosphere that we loved - that and it's half-an-acre of garden space. When in 2013, our son, by then a good carpenter, agreed to renovate for us, my one brief was pull it apart, sure, but put it back together again just as it was, only with new plaster, a more functional kitchen (that looks like the old one) and a new bathroom - you guessed it, that looked like the old one only with the loo out of sight.
Bless my darling boy, he did exactly what we asked and if the original owners (now passed away) walked in, they would think they had come back home.
Yes, its painted a creamy shade of white throughout but that's to reflect the glorious light and make it feel spacious because this is a v.small house.
People ask why we didn't extend especially as we had the garden space and I would just answer why?
All those TV Home shows produce homogenised properties with no heart, no soul and so many hard edges. Perhaps its reflective of the times? Who knows?
In our last house we had a kitchen just like that. Double hung windows, wallpapered, same floor, exact same counter top. Small but super charming. Once upon a time I renovated old victorian homes. I miss it sometimes.
As much as I like the homey kitchen I can’t get past the stove placed so close to the wallpapered wall. I would have bacon grease splatter on it in no time.
Yikes! That's all I'm going to be able to see now. You're right! Above the stove and beside it--how would I clean it? I'd put up plexiglass backsplashes. They would still let the wallpaper peek through.
I’m with you on this. I’m not getting rid of my red wall in the kitchen and the tiles with grout. Someone after me will rip it out. That’s ok. I won’t be around to see it.
"Ugly" is in the eye of the beholder. I'll bet it's not!
Like you, I would love to have that kitchen - so homey, so cheerful, and so friendly.
You would love the kitchen in the log cabin we're staying in in Finland. And you would hate the kitchen we just remodeled back home. But we haven't done the backsplash yet. I'll post pictures when it's done.
It's those Finnish cabins/houses that are my inspiration. I grew up among them in the Keweenaw Peninsula, where entire towns are populated with Finns who would have those kitchens. They were cozy and warm and there was always a pot of coffee brewing and sweet rolls for company. Soda crackers, too. I don't know why but every table set for coffee had a plate of soda crackers.
Have you read that the Finnish college in the UP is shutting its doors?
Yes, it's a done deal. People up there blame it on a new and clueless administration. It was a fixture and good college. Inexpensive, too. Sad.
Too bad.
It really is. Finlandia University in Hancock.
Formerly Suomi (sp?) College. My dad & brother went to MI Tech, so knew of it from way back.
I was so sorry to hear that. We were up there last summer. Saw the name change earlier, then it’s totally gone.
As we've nomaded around the world, my favorite kitchens have been in Eastern Europe and Italy where not much has been modernized and they are old and funky and full of charm.
My least favorite? The "modern" look of concrete, granite, and polished steel that leave you feeling like you're living in a museum exhibit.
I would LOVE spending a month living in that first kitchen!
I can just imagine how charming some of those European kitchens are. There are still pockets like that here in the states, too. I'm happy to say.
Oh, this is fantastic! I have the same exact thoughts whenever I'm sucked into another House Hunters or Love it or List It marathon. That's a great kitchen from the 50s or 60s or 70s ... WHY DO YOU WANT TO CHANGE IT?!?
Oh, and I hate the obsession with "open concept." The hell? Hasn't anyone heard of ROOMS before?
Exactly! If you have a family, it’s not that great to listen to everyone else’s music and conversations and chores and TV shows at the same time. Thank goodness human shelters developed with rooms first so our species learned to read books for pleasure, quietly. Maybe we’ll get back to that. :-)
I read the NYT real estate section weekly to look at photos of condos, co-ops and houses and they invariably have white white white kitchens and bathrooms that look miserably clinical--and there's usually not much color anywhere else. And no matter how gorgeous a kitchen is, if it's just a few years old, it's "dated."
As for HGTV remodeling show, I read a sort of exposé that claimed many of the jobs have to be re-done weeks after the show aired because of serious problems of all kinds. I'm not surprised if it's true. What can you expect when the crew sweeps in and does a job in a few weeks?
Much of what they do is phony and half-assed. We stopped to look at a house in Georgetown, SC, a flip that was featured on HGTV, and it was a mess. They painted over old exterior paint without scraping and didn't replace rotted boards. Everything was done for show and it looked good if you didn't look closely.
It was for sale for at least a couple of years. The people on that street were furious.
I've also read that the furnishings and decorations don't belong to the homeowners. They're packed up for use somewhere else.
And they do many takes so that the couple or family seeing the re-done house is sufficiently wowed.
We've had lots of work done on our mid-century ranch over thirty+ years and it's always taken a lot of time. The full kitchen remodel was three months and it looks almost brand new two decades later. And it has color. :-) But then the whole house does. My favorite room is my back studio where I do Zoom calls: the walls are apricot and the small couch is sky-blue and both colors are in the drapes along with burgundy and dark blue and the window shades are dark blue.
My daughter had a midcentury ranch and decorated it with some wonderful midcentury pieces. Now she lives in a bungalow and her midcentury pieces fit there, too. I can fully appreciate that era, since I began my adulthood then.
I had apricot walls in the house before this one and I loved them. A constant glow!
Sad!
Spines out? That is absolute SACRILEGE! I'm not sure I'd go for lining books up by color or rainbow-y, either. But NO SPINES? Oh, my God, my heart rate is up. I've stopped watching, although hubby and I used to watch in all the time. I loved David Bromstead until I didn't anymore - way too fancy and snobby for me. And This Old House? What happened to the idea of old houses and all their charm? Man caves? Where on earth is the money coming from????? And who needs more than one house unless it's a cozy lakeside place somewhere on a big lake and away from everyone? That's what I'M talking about! (Don't get me started on Love It or Leave It....)
I feel the same about David B. I used to love how unique his work was. Now it's all cookie cutter. His spaces all look the same when they're finished, and so do Hilary's on Love It or List It. They've become predictable.
Oh my goodness I LOVE your kitchen. Those old red canisters, the seafoam green cabinets, everything. I watch those house hunter shows too and always wonder where the hell they get the money! Who has that kind of money! Who wants "open concept" - another buzzword - which is just one huge blended, cold, gray, echoey place with no walls. I WANT to be separated from people! What's next.....open concept bathrooms? Like a kitchen/family room/ media room/mudroom/lounge, entryway that you can poop in?
LOL. Don't give those HGTV zanies any ideas!
😆😭
I've been a renter all my adult life, and short a catastrophe that would wipe out all my remaining relatives at one swell foop (I was supposed to inherit my parents' house but they cheated me out of it, so such a disaster is only for them, not me - but that's another story), so it's been year after year of nothing but "Landlord White". I've been in my current place for 21 years, and when I expressed a desire for something other than white in my walls, my current landlord told me he would trust me not to get too exotic with the colors (I was talking about nice earthtones) but he has to think about what happens when it's time for the next tenant.
He had no problem with me buying my own appliances, and I'm heading out today to shop for a new stove and refigerator. My current ones (which I also own) are getting long in the tooth, and I've saved up enough to afford one of those restaurant-style ranges. If I could, I would hire a professional restaurant designer to come on and redo my kitchen.
It must be hard when you're renting, but I don't get why earthtones would be a problem. Your landlord is going to paint everything again when you move out, anyway! Just do it!
Those restaurant-style stoves are magnificent! If you're a constant cook. I'm not that but I'll accept an invitation to anyone's house where a range like that abides.
Landlords like “Landlord White” because it’s cheap, it’s bland and the color doesn't bleed through when it gets overpainted with another coat of Landlord White (which is the most common justification). I have a good relationship with this landlord (you don't stay in one place for 21 years if you don't get along) but if I went ahead and painted to suit my tastes it would damage that relationship. My rent is low, the lowest of the four apartments in the house, and part of that is because he doesn't have to come in every couple years to clean up the place for a new tenant.
I love to cook, and I like having good tools to do it. My late wife hated to cook, so I was a great find for her. I'd had a reputation as a picky eater when I was a kid, and when she met my extended family, the first thing they asked her was “How do you deal with him being a such a picky eater?” she said, “He does the cooking. I just wash the dishes.”
Loved seeing your kitchen article because I also say a big yes to small cozy kitchens of the past (and present). We're planning our kitchen reno, looking at the Frankfurt Kitchen for the basics of it. What once was the height of modernity becomes quaint and cute - like McLuhan said, "Past times become pastimes". Coincindentally, my last week's post is about kitchens - https://carol.substack.com/p/quietly-celebrating
I didn't know about the Frankfurt kitchen. It's smashing!
it was especially smashing, in some families, during WW II.
I love your kitchen! It feels very much like Ramona, musing writer and thinker, lives there. 🫶
My first job out of college was writing books about interior design and architecture. And I never forgot, after a year of interviewing some of the best designers, and also some of the more pitiful ones, that the homes that looked the best were the ones that grew over time. One designer said that it’s better to have an empty house with just a few things that hold a lot of meaning to you than a house that was decorated by Hobby lobby in one weekend.
I like homes that look like the people who live in them. 🤗
P.S. I think you could do a sidebar on how Home Depot feeds the sins of HGTV. 😂 As we were looking for a house in Texas last month, there were so many “flipped“ homes, and I started to be able to pick out the materials that had been on sale at Home Depot. Because every single home that had been “renovated“ in the last 2 to 3 months all had the same tile, same flooring, same backsplash... 🫤
How funny! And how astute to even notice that about the flips. I like homes that look like they have some history to them and if the only history is Home Depot or Ikea it looks like anyone could live there, not just the unique person who does.
But everyone has their own tastes, and that's a good thing or there wouldn't be anything left for the rest of us!
Spines in?! What kind of monster lives in a “spines in” world?
I want to know who thought of it first. And who was the idiot who went along?
I LOVE this.
I think your own kitchen inspires memories and joy and more importantly, it's YOUR choice!
When we purchased our little coastal cottage back in the 1980's, it was the idiosyncratic atmosphere that we loved - that and it's half-an-acre of garden space. When in 2013, our son, by then a good carpenter, agreed to renovate for us, my one brief was pull it apart, sure, but put it back together again just as it was, only with new plaster, a more functional kitchen (that looks like the old one) and a new bathroom - you guessed it, that looked like the old one only with the loo out of sight.
Bless my darling boy, he did exactly what we asked and if the original owners (now passed away) walked in, they would think they had come back home.
Yes, its painted a creamy shade of white throughout but that's to reflect the glorious light and make it feel spacious because this is a v.small house.
People ask why we didn't extend especially as we had the garden space and I would just answer why?
All those TV Home shows produce homogenised properties with no heart, no soul and so many hard edges. Perhaps its reflective of the times? Who knows?
PS - we have all white appliances as well! XXXX
Creamy white is, well, creamy. And nice. Homogenized is right. Where are their imaginations?
In our last house we had a kitchen just like that. Double hung windows, wallpapered, same floor, exact same counter top. Small but super charming. Once upon a time I renovated old victorian homes. I miss it sometimes.
I like the idea of renovating to put it back the way it was. HGTV seems to think that's a no-no.
As much as I like the homey kitchen I can’t get past the stove placed so close to the wallpapered wall. I would have bacon grease splatter on it in no time.
Yikes! That's all I'm going to be able to see now. You're right! Above the stove and beside it--how would I clean it? I'd put up plexiglass backsplashes. They would still let the wallpaper peek through.
Solved!
I’m with you on this. I’m not getting rid of my red wall in the kitchen and the tiles with grout. Someone after me will rip it out. That’s ok. I won’t be around to see it.
LOL! That's the spirit!