Saturday, September 20, 2008

Dream kitchen

As of now, we're definitely making the most of the city life. We live small, we live simply, and we live well below our means. It's really quite nice. It also means we must be very particular about the things we decide to fill our small space with and I am always thinking ahead.

Slowly we've been working on updating our apartment to make it more of our own place. I absolutely love looking at inspirational images and wondering where life will take us. In the meantime I often gather things that are meaningful to me. Some we are able to incorporate now - like our new fridge that arrived this morning!, and other things we'll have to hold off on... like a subway tile back splash in the kitchen.

I also love the fact that Stefan continually is commenting how much he loves our refrigerator.

Not only do I want my dream kitchen to have a subway tile back splash, but I want the entire kitchen to have a very slight subway undertone. I have a cookie jar, à la my Grandma, that my sister gave me a few years ago. It is a London underground sign. She also recently showed me the beautiful Parisian subway dish cloth, which I have added to my wish list.

Isn't it lovely to surround yourself with things you enjoy and to look forward to?

Here are bits of the master plan...

The subway tile kitchen belongs to Genifer Goodman Sohr, who is a well known stylist. I saw these images on her equally talented friend, Sara Hicks Malone's blog Party Perfect, and I can't quit thinking about them. They also match our table and chairs that we recently purchased.


I promise I'm not on a French kick, but I also love the work of antoin + manuel, a French design duo. And continuing on the subway theme, they have a lot of beautiful pieces including one aptly titled RATP (Parisian Metro), Carte Intégrale, 2005. Their website is a real treasure trove for design lovers.

In other things French... I was overjoyed yesterday when I was in town shopping for a few things and found two things I have been dreaming about. Originally I had see them on uncommongoods and the Moma Store, but today I found them here in Munich.

I really love Revol French porcelaine - it's minimal, very resistant, and simply elegant. Some of their pieces are quite classic, while others - like the the things I bought today, are slightly comical. They keep things interesting.

They have an entire line called the Recycled collection. I love the curving ruffle lines of the 'pommes frites' dish - and the crumpled tumbler is just cute and fits so nicely in my hand.

The best design advice is to surround yourself with things that you love and I can really attest it adds to my happiness.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the subway tiles! We stayed at a hotel in Berlin (Ku' Damm 101) that had them in the bathroom and Matt has been talking about them ever since!

I also love the idea of living simply and small.

Emily said...

abby...
maybe you can incorporate them into your place in the US next year and make me envious! Even living small it will be so nice when you are able to have a bit more space, especially coming from the UK!