While digging in some photo files today I ran across this magnificent, breathtaking, gorgeous, fabulous kitchen that has me seriously thinking it is time to build a new home. And that it was time to take a short break from my Summer Camp Gift Wrap challenge. My husband and I talk about houses while we do our little power walk at night (yes, cycle in morning, walk at night........I will tell you why I am getting so oddly determined in a week's time) as we take peeks at the neighborhood homes. We still wonder if we should have built our downsized version of the Charlotte Moss home seen in her book Winter House, indulged in that one-room living we find so cosy. But we didn't, our Jack Arnold home was only 5 years old and when it comes right down to it, we love our home. We recently had this discussion again while looking at the Ralph Lauren home display on the 3rd floor of the Chicago store a month ago. This cosy idea keeps rearing it's head. One spectacular room for living, dining, cooking and a bedroom off to the rear or side. But when I see this kitchen............. seriously, wouldn't this Susan Arnold (designer wife of Jack Arnold) kitchen make you want to build a whole new house?
Photo from Jack Arnold
Drop-dead gorgeous.
ReplyDeleteTeresa (Splendid Sass)
Oh, Sande, it is magnificent! I adore the scale and the layout. It feels almost like a cooking altar! Wonderful. I also laughed because I am doing a much more modest version of the hutch with white ironstone in my own kitchen here in the new place. This kitchen is covered floor to ceiling in vintage white tiles, and so I'm keeping everything looking vintage, clean, and simple. As far as one-room living goes, I just moved out of a 2-floor loft in an old cotton mill, and I loved so much about it--the huge old beams, the airy feeling, and the challenge of making all the spaces work together, but I did, in all honesty, sometimes crave having rooms with doors to close! I think my ideal life would be to own a loft in the city and a cottage with rooms over on the island. A girl can dream!
ReplyDeleteSending you hugs,
Gigi
This is a real beauty, I can totally see why you love it! I enjoyed hearing how you and your husband talk about possibly changing course...we do it here all the time! It's so exciting when something really sparks the creative juices!!!
ReplyDeleteI am constantly getting kitchen lust...I have a very small, galley style kitchen and wish I had more open space to move around in while creating my "masterpieces" :)
ReplyDeleteSo happy I found your blog! Your work is fabulous!
ReplyDeleteEneida
@Fari Blog
This is one of my all-time favorite kitchens! It may even be the ultimate kitchen. I love Jack Arnold house plans!
ReplyDeleteUh yes, yes it would! Gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteSande,
ReplyDeleteIf I had a kitchen like this, I would have to improve on my cooking skills because as they are now they wouldn't measure up to the grandiosity here!
Enjoy your walk with your husband this evening!
Mandy
A kitchen to die for !?!
ReplyDeleteLove the combination of black, gold & cream.
Elegant, but at the same time rough.
Love your blog.
// Christopher
THAT is an amazing kitchen, but I'm VERY familiar with Jack Arnold architecture, as I'm a Tulsa native, so I know you must have a gorgeous kitchen too! My sister was college roomates with Jacks' daughter....small world, huh!?!
ReplyDeleteIt's almost enough to make me want to cook! Seriously, there is some gorgeously good taste here. Thanks for sharing...xx
ReplyDeleteThat is gorgeous!! Wow!!!
ReplyDeleteI love your blog, glad to have found it!!
Jessa
Ooh lovley Sande I'm building my house finally, hope I can get my kitchen to look as gorgeous as that! :))
ReplyDeleteDear Sande,
ReplyDeleteWhat a dream of a kitchen......I don't think that I could fit it into our Victorian house unless we knocked the kitchen into the breakfast room....it could be done !!
Many thanks for your lovely holiday wishes. I will tell all when we return !! XXXX
Hi Sande.. What a great kitchen.. yes, I too dream all the time. It's a worry at times and I wonder if the indecisive gene in me will ever be satisfied. Am constantly letting my imagination go wild and feel the urge to change, evolve and try new things.. :)
ReplyDeleteMorning rides and evening walks sounds like a great way to start and end the day. Wonderful habits.
Have a lovely weekend.
x Charlotta
It's pretty darn fabulous, I can certainly see why you are so enamored with it. It's pretty big. I can see lots of parties and kids and activity going on. There's nothing sadder than an amazing kitchen that's just for show and hardly ever gets used. I know lots of people who have these "show kitchens" that eat out all the time or whip up macaroni and cheese for their kids. The only time they really use it is for entertaining and holidays. I adore a kitchen that really gets used.
ReplyDeleteDear Sande,
ReplyDeleteThis is SO worth taking a nice long tea break for! I think I would sign up for chef classes and try to entertain everyday if this were mine~~ Beautiful! Thanks for sharing:)
XOXO
can you imagine actually owning that kitchen...wow. someone like myself who doesn't normally cook would be spending a lot more time over the stove in that space!!
ReplyDeletexox alison
I always stop in my tracks when you say something is, "magnificent, breathtaking, gorgeous, fabulous"....because it always, always is!
ReplyDeleteOh yes we are starting the conversations too. Well, actually I am having most of them with myself...and my lovely blogger friends like you.
Thank you for that one...she is a beauty!
xo Lisa
Sandi -- this kitchen is positively divine! Just gorgeous... oh my... it has such a very warm feel to it, with such an inviting and open presence. So glad you shared it...
ReplyDeleteWishing you a fabulous weekend, my friend*
xoxo
I agree 150% Sande. That kitchen is just shy of going through the pain of rebuilding again. When my parents had their new home built 2 years ago, it was very much like you mentioned. One large room with floor to ceiling window the entire front side of the house with a large master suite off of one side & a den/bathroom off the other. Turned out to be such a lovely home & a great place for their family to gather. Turned out sadly, but yet positively, the perfect home for my mom to spend her last year of life; she had a stunning view of a gorgeous valley that made her world seem large even though it became so small. Now I hate to go back into my sad sack kitchen / :
ReplyDeleteLovely week to you Sande xx
I too have saved this picture in my inspiration file, it is gorgeous Sande. Your taste is exquisite. We live in a 200 year old stone and clapboard farmhouse in horse country NJ, very rural and gorgeous area, midway between bucks country PA and NYC. All of our friends built massive 10,000- 25,000sq. ft. homes, but my husband and I fell in love with and kept our old farmhouse that we bought in our 20's and still live there now in our mid 40's. It has massive interior stone walls in our kitchen and gorgeous beams throughout the home. Its 5,000 sq feet, which is great for entertaining but not too big, it is so warm and inviting. 6 months out of the year we entertain in our gardens. I just love unique, size doesn't really matter when it is great design. ( We have many of our walls painted very similar to those in Charlotte Mose's Winter House book, I mixed iced coffee samples up for weeks pouring in various amounts of milk to get the perfect shade and then had my paint store match it perfectly)
ReplyDeleteHave a nice day
Yes, I have seen this photograph previously and have it filed away. Even as a interior designer and all of the beautiful kitchens that I have seen........ when I look at this particular photograph, I have kitchen lust.
ReplyDeleteGosh, how did
ReplyDeleteI miss this???
Gorgeous inspiration
picture. Mr. Privet
and I talk about downsizing
someday to something
smaller but with amazing
finishing touches.
I remember seeing Jack
Arnold homes when we
lived near Chicago, though;
they ARE wonderful and I
bet you love yours! I
will need to find CM's
Winter House book ~ it
sounds lovely!
xx Suzanne
A beautiful kitchen! I once cut out a kitchen photo I loved from a magazine and ended up designing an entire house around it. My dream house. I don't live there yet but still dreaming. Hope we never stop dreaming!
ReplyDeleteHappy Week to you!
Kirsten
Bonjour Sande. What a great post and kitchen to come back to after my break from blog land. Wow, that kitchen is stunning and those copper pans are just waiting for me to cook in them ;-) Thanks for your lovely comment on my blog, the break was a good thing and gave me time and space to re-think life and my priorities... Love from London, Carole xo
ReplyDeleteNow THAT is what I call a kitchen.......
ReplyDeleteLeeann x
What a unique blog! I am happy I found you, it will be a pleasure to follow your blog.
ReplyDeleteYou have amazing taste, Sande. Thanks for your sweet message - hope your Dad is feeling better! XOXO
ReplyDeleteSuch divine style - with a kitchen like this one would never leave the kitchen which is good for me. The music here today really fits itchen, cooking mode. Ah, your blog is so exqusite;-)
ReplyDeleteGreat kitchen, I especially like the stone work...would I go through a remodeling??? i don't think so. i redid my kitchen 3 or 4 years ago and still relive the hassles of being without a kitchen for 4 months!!! Doing the dishes in the tub was getting a little stale after a while...
ReplyDeleteThis really is such a breathtaking kitchen. I like so many different styles it would be impossible for me to choose one, but I would probably lean towards rusticity. An old cottage farmhouse kitchen...preferably French, of course.
ReplyDeleteSeveral people said that they were looking at old photos of family and friends, too. Must be the season.
Catherine xx
your home is by Jack Arnold? oh i can only imagine how beautiful it is. He is an incredible architect/builder!!! But yes, this kitchen is gorgeous. can you imagine how even better it probably is in person? i just hope this homeowner cooks OR entertains a lot :)
ReplyDelete