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My kitchen is a tiny ship, and I am the captain. (Note: It’s probably about a tenth of the size of the one pictured above!) But what it lacks in square footage, it wins in utility and small bursts of joy. A “table for two” is really just two stools tucked underneath the counter. Vintage swing-top jars and a french press on the counter mingle with cabinets sneakily stocked with cookbooks and a cobbled-together collection of impulse-purchase spirits and bar accessories. Oh, yeah, there’s also a hand-painted mural of a comic-book laser cat shooting sriracha from its piercing stare. If there is such a thing as a bachelorette pad, I suppose my kitchen would be it. (That includes a fridge that has its fair share of pickles, mustard, and cheese.)
Is your home kitchen styled a certain way? Do you have a classic, or futuristic, approach to cooking? Is it cloaked in bright green walls and potted herbs? Are there butcher blocks everywhere? Do you crave color on the walls or in your cookware? Vintage — or IKEA — furniture?
We asked around America’s Test Kitchen for things that define their kitchen. Here are a sampling:
Our kitchen is sleek and stainless. It features an extractor hood (critical, since i am the #1 source of fire-alarm noise in our building). The hood has a sloped glass cover that our cat enjoys as her kitchen perch.
Efficient! I have a pot rack riveted to the ceiling that holds all our skillets, pans, etc. This rack is more than a space saver. It spares me from having to rattle and dig around in a cupboard for whatever stock pot, skillet, saucepan, or lid that I want (and is typically wedged at the bottom). It has literally eased the way into cooking more meals at home vs. ordering out or dining out than anything else we own, since it takes one frustrating time-waster out of the equation.
Juicy. Seriously. We have a manual, swing-arm juicer. It truly kicks butt on citrus.
And now for the Silly Question of the Day…
What style is your kitchen?
Leave your silly answer in the comments!
(Photo: Chalon Handmade)
About the Author: Christine Liu
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The style of our kitchen bright! We have a nice window that lets lots of sun in, white appliances, and brightly colored walls.
Ramshackle, with a slum accent.
Lots of blue and sea green with blonde wood cabinets. Very serene until the dishes pile up.
My kitchen style would be vintage seeing as how most of my cooking supplies are hand-me-downs
Modern casual – opens into dining room; dark.
My kitchen has classic wood cabinets with granite counter tops. It’s a mix for modern and classic.
i would describe our kitchen as mismatched. it’s a mix of mine and my MILs equipment. but who cares what it looks like. all the main appliances work and that’s good enough for me!
My kitchen is tiny and jumbled. None of the cabinets match, there’s very little storage space, and decorative grape wallpaper is peeling everywhere. It’s a rental, so there’s not much I can do about it except cook to my heart’s content.
The style of my kitchen is simple and practical! No frills here!!
My kitchen is a warm sunny yellow. It makea me happy to cook there
My kitchen is family-friendly and well-loved, and on a good day the counters are cleared off. We’ll leave it at that.
My kitchen is also pretty mismatched, but in general I go for black or red appliances, the countertops were inherited with the house as laminate, but we put in a butcher block bar. The only stainless around is our pots and pans which are hanging in plain view.
Very 90′s at the moment (hunter green counters, maroon walls, floral wallpaper border). I inherited the decor, and I’m hoping to at least repaint in the next few months!
I’m in a temporary apartment, so right now it’s just functional. Hopefully the future will hold a more exciting kitchen!
My kitchen style is DIY. That is, we have a lot of DIY tools, whatever gets us by.
The style of my kitchen is cheap… we’re in an OLD apartment, so it’s not much to look at, but I make up for that by stocking it with all my favorite cooking tools. Someday I’ll have a great kitchen!
My kitchen is now farmhouse/country. It’s painted a very soft buttery yellow above the chair rail with white breadboard below. White cabinets with breadboard doors. Trim around 6 doorways, chair rail & around fireplace is called beach house (dark sand) same color as walls in adjoining dining room. Fireplace has crane & a couple hanging pots. The backsplash is “tin” ceiling squares. The counters, table & large island are butcher block. I lived with an awful 70′s version of a colonial kitchen with avacado appliances ( until they died one by one, just the rangehood was left). I planned this kitchen in my head over the years, then went out & searched for what I wanted. I love it!
By the way meant to say I lived with that awful kitchen (did I mention most of lights didn’t work- just one over table & one I put under cabinets needed new wiring) but it was 17 years of planning-I could see this kitchen by then. Sorry it’s so long.
My kitchen is functional! I took a cue from the professional KT’s where I’ve worked: lots of low storage, vast countertops, space-efficient layout, open storage at eye level and higher. White cabinets, the walls, a deep steel blue. Classic checkerboard floor. The best part: it was affordable, as we renovated it ourselves and used IKEA cabinets. I love using my kitchen, and guests seem to find it irresistible, too!
My kitchen has a traditional style .. but also modern enough!
Just a kitchen that needs a ton of work. Not the kitchen of my dreams. But it gets the job done!
Builder stock kitchen – functional, but lacking style. It’s not the way I want it, but tolerable until I can save up to do it the way I want.
Is “impractical” a style?! We can’t fully open the freezer door because it’s in the corner and will hit the adjacent counter. We can’t fully open the drawer on that counter because it will hit the freezer door.
I don’t think my kitchen has a style. It is all the builder stock cabinets and formica countertops, blah. It works though, so I can’t complain too much. Just not stylish…I leave that to the food that comes out of it!
Can I just say that I <3 Rebecca J's comment. So true.
Nostalgic — we’re renting a home built in 1961. Original painted cabinets, no dishwasher, but it has charm and cherry curtains and enough space to cook some love and bake some fun for my family (and friends).
cramped and cluttered.
Busy, messy, functional.
Standard and dull with no counter space. I do my best to keep it working efficiently though.
Dream: Efficient, friendly, practical, and whimsical with a double oven and a hot gas stove. Reality: Efficient (thank goodness, with a 2 mo it’s hard to get a nice meal on the table!), vintage (thank you, hand-me-downs!), and wonderful.
I have what my family refers to as “a one butt kitchen”
small, crappy and unorganized!
“Soulless sleek”
It’s actually pretty nice for a rental – the appliances and materials are new and modern, e.g. teflon sink, bamboo floors, but it does look and feel like corporate housing.
Cookie cutter house standard basic. Two wishes: Gas cook top with an electric oven and broiler and a quieter dishwasher. Current gas oven has a broiler underneath (at floor level).
Open, stylish, and busy. Rebecca J. defines it pretty well!
My kitchen is that of a magical place. Where thoughts and ideas are created. Laughter and good times are had. The bonding between family and friends. A place with the memories of those that we have lost over the years that have inspired us all to create works of art to be shared and eaten in that magical place that I call my kitchen.
Impecunious Epicurean! I love to cook, but everything I own is passed down or picked up at second-hand shops. From my mom’s ivy-covered Corelle flatware to the vintage floral-checked crock pot, it’s all goofy and mismatched, but it serves me well!
It’s the green machine- crankin’ out dinner (almost) every night of the week!
My kitchen doesn’t have a lot of style, but it has a lot of class, especially when I am in it preparing my pan seared sea scallops with brown butter sauce, or something equally as appetizing. It is also small, a galley kitchen, which I cannot appreciate as much as an open kitchen. You kind of have to walk straight in, and then back out……..if i want to change my mind, I have to do it in another room….well, not quite that small, but it is small. I guess that’s why I like to do a lot of my cooking outside.*wink, wink…..
A retro mashup, with accents of perpetual construction.
Friendly & functional
Colorful yet practical! My large pegboard on the wall is painted to match my Blue Willow KitchenAid stand mixer, blender, and food processor, but it holds everything from my skillets to my pizza peel to my springform pan, freeing up cabinets for my large assortment of cake, pie, and tart pans. My Dijon yellow Le Creuset French oven shares the stovetop with a Kiwi kettle and my sparkling Rösle whisk and ladle hang on hooks above the sink. And it’s a tiny apartment kitchen!
I decorated my kitchen in a French country style. For accents, I have used cooking tools as decorations (a fish-shaped gurgle pitcher, a hen baking dish, beautiful wooden spoons displayed on the wall, lots of things like that). And the color of the walls is “butter cookie” – as silly as it sounds, I wanted to pick a paint color that is named after a food for the kitchen!
I live in studio apartment,so it’s tiny. It has a sort of modern feel except for the 1970′s looking apartment size stove (seriously did the designers ever cook on these?).
90′s with 80′s highlights and a dash of wtf were you thinking.
my urban kitchen has an industrial yet contemporary sleek and modern look with warm earthy color walls, minimal lines, non-raised insert cabinets with glass/stainless steel frame doors, stainless steel appliances, puck lights, under and inside cabinet lighting and a nice multiple tier waterfall style chandelier that is the focal point in the center of my 8′x13′ galley kitchen.
I would say my kitchen is modern, casual, but with a slight country flair. I have cherry cabinets, silestone counters (which I LOVE), but something was missing. There was one empty wall and not near enough counter space. So we started shopping around at flea markets and antique shops. We found the perfect country kitchen cabinet/hutch with glass doors and an open shelf. It reminds me of what people used to have in their kitchens before built-in cabinetry became popular.
My kitchen is “styled” for a houseful of boys – loaded with food and snacks.
shabby chic with an emphasis on shabby, spriggy wallpaper that makes in comfy but over flowered for today’s styles.
Utilitarian, with a splash of 1960′s shabby and need a reno look.
Regardless, I can whip up great meals!
Vintage fifties look with modern appliances… the best of both.
Second-Hand Heaven – From mom’s old Toastmaster Powermatic to grandma’s Tin recipe box, my kitchen is a collection of well loved hand-me-downs. Mom also contributed her oak kitchen table while my former bedroom bookshelf has been repurposed as a pantry. It may not be new but it’s my little heaven.
My kitchen is small but tidy and functional. A kitchen makeover is definitely on my wish list!
It’s thrift-store fabulous.
It encapsulates the ugliest trends of the 60′s. It manages to be both huge, yet inefficient with next to no counter space. It defies all kitchen logic!
My kitchen’s style is cheap with a side of old.
In process. Half the upper cabinets have been refinished, the other are off. The lower cabinets are still late ’70s Gothic and hidious
My kitchen is all in black and chrome, I go for classy style. That said, it’s tiny and a pain to cook in
My kitchen is a little country modern with medium-blush colored wood and beige walls.
My kitchen is a long, narrow U. I would like to knock out one side of the U and put in an island between the kitchen and the dining room. It would open things up a lot!
My kitchen is country/old I have an old electric GE stove that I got in 1985 and still works. I have beige electronics; dark, dark wood cabinets; wood countertops; black handles and my kitchen’s dinner room facing the window so no light gets in the kitchen but an old light with block/wood trim. I keep hoping I win the lottery and some undiscovered money is found with my name so I could update this kitchen. I worry though when my stove goes out, I’m hearing the new stoves don’t last as long. As for the country part, I have a green/rose border, green plaid tablecloth with a water can with flowers centerpiece. Also, “Been Gardening”, “Count your Blessings” signs.
The kitchen was last updated in 1979! except for wallpaper, etc. Good work triangle (because it’s a small kitchen), but floor needs replacing and cabinet doors need refreshing.
Lots of storage items (pot rack, cart), etc., but never enough storage space! and old portable dishwasher with butcher-block surface, which doesn’t work any more (keep it for the work space)!
Early Goodwill with a splash of Craig’s List and definately an emphasis on Rummage Sale. I pride myself on never buying retail (except the Kitchen Aid mixer). When we bought our house, 3 1/2 years ago, I had to have a kitchen that was open to the living room with plenty of light and places for all my treasures.
My kitchen was a small narrow ‘L’; dark salmon painted walls and one window. The house was built in the early 60s. Electric stovetop and separate built-in oven were a chore to cook with. My mother hated the layout – and now that I own the house – so did I.
Now I have a large open ‘U’ with many new cabinets and we took the wall down to open it all into the living room area. I just wish my cats wouldn’t walk from one long granite counter – then over the gas stove – the the counter along the window. None of them have caught fire, yet.
My kitchen is pretty small so it’s mainly functional with wooden cabinets. I would love to have a huge futuristic kitchen with all the lastest appliances though. And an island! Definitely want an island.
I would definitely describe my kitchen style as happy! I have some of my favorite things on the counter – my bread machine and my stand mixer. Not to mention some mementos of my travels – fridge magnets and cookie tins are placed in various places around my kitchen. No matter where I look, I see things that make me happy!!
Very lived in. Very much a family affair. Most of our day can be spent there cooking, eating, visiting, and doing the bills! It has to be the most comfortable spot to be. At the cluttered table or counter, or by the stove. Nothing fancy, but i love it!
Thanks for the whirlwind tour through your cooking spaces. You can always consider creative constraints as a competitive advantage
Congrats to this week’s random winner, Rebecca J, who sounds like a super mom with a kitchen to match. Everyone, be sure to check out our newest giveaways at http://americastestkitchenfeed.com/topics/giveaway/