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Country kitchens come in as many flavors as the country cooks who live in them. But no matter whether a personal decorating “recipe” turns out a kitchen that looks, say, French provincial or American farmhouse or English cottage, the ingredients are much the same. Start with plenty of warm woods, natural or painted. Add rich or clean or tender colors (red is the only primary allowed). And mix in plenty of the individual accessories and eccentricities that will underscore your choice of décor.
The final step is the one everyone enjoys: Live, laugh, lounge and linger until your kitchen shapes to the contours of your family life and becomes, truly, your home country.
REVISITING THE VICTORIAN ERA
This Victorian vintage kitchen is easy to recreate. Lucky you, if you live in an authentic 19th-century home, but fret not otherwise: The Victorian attitude is becoming ever easier to create, using new products and appliances that reproduce the old. In this soft, blue-and-white kitchen, an authentically aged range has been rehabbed, the original glass-fronted cabinets painted, and the wood floor refinished. New “old” additions include the ceiling fan with its globe light, and the ladder back chairs, bought raw and antiqued.
Key Ingredients:
• Glass-front cabinets
• Molding painted at ceiling height
• Practical approach: hanging potrack
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EARLY-AMERICAN ELEGANCE
Colonial kitchens were the heart of every home—both
practical work spaces and inviting retreats. Luckily, the look and feel of those kitchens have never gone out of style. The
easiest way to incorporate that old-timey essence into your 21st-century kitchen is with collectibles like baskets and early-American kitchen implements, framed samplers and primitive accessories. Wood, too, is a staple in this style of kitchen. Be sure to brighten it up, though, with charming floral prints and painted furniture—in Colonial
colors, of course.
Key Ingredients:
• Folk art collectibles
• Pewter pieces
• Lots of wood
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A TOUCH OF FRANCE
Check out this charming corner reminiscent of a French farmhouse. It can be anywhere else in the world you want to evoke the pleasures of the provinces. It helps that the architecture hints of authenticity, but the mood comes from three main ingredients: (1) a signature pattern spread with a generous hand (here, it is the buoyant blue-and-white print from Raintree, edged in red for emphasis); (2) rustic, rush-seated chairs and simple wood furniture; (3) ceramic tiles, both underfoot in simple terra cotta pavers and decorated in classic blue-and-white on the antique stove in the fireplace.
Key Ingredients:
•Traditional provincial
fabric patterns
• Ceramic tiles
• Rush seats
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IN AN ENGLISH COTTAGE
The English cottage look is all about coziness. Centered around the essential Welch cupboard—with its open shelves showing off the good china—this kitchen easily conjures all the countryside charms of the English Cotswolds. But you can import it to Cleveland or California by playing off the right ingredients, which include a generous helping of natural materials and tactile textures. Blackened beams above seem to have seen centuries of kitchen smoke. Terra tiles below may have known years of wear. The coziness in between comes from the cheerful checks, well-worn chairs, and the funny, old-fashioned floorlamp that spreads its circle of warmth over many a family gathering.
Key Ingredients:
• Typical open cupboard
• Beams are a bonus
• Lamp stands in for
a chandelier
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