Making kitchens fun

Today is a store day, Maud's off to school (not being a fan of store days) and I'm off for a day of unpacking, styling and juggling stuff around - so I apologise now for anyone coming into the store today it will be a little chaotic. I move one simple cushion or vase with then throws everything out and before you know it I'm flinging stuff off shelves and starting from scratch. So today I thought we might concentrate on kitchens for a mo, I happen to think they are one of the hardest areas to get right particularly if your kitchen like mine is part of bigger open plan space. For some reason I can't stand a kitchen that hasn't been softened with stuff particularly if your dining area and living area look onto it. I see so many kitchens that feel somehow alien to the rest of the house. I get we all need big spaces to prep without having to move heaps of recipe books or bowls of fruit out of the way but to soften it with nothing somehow bothers me as Graham and Maud will confirm (I am forever banging on about it). You don't need to do much, art on the walls, big oversize lamps on work surfaces a bunch of upturned apple crates turned into a mini larder in a nook that was otherwise empty as I have just done and wham bam things start to get interesting.Take this kitchen below for example its been totally softened by the art, the chandelier, colourful accessories and so on and it no doubt totally intergrates with the rest of the space. [caption id="attachment_2550" align="aligncenter" width="345" caption="TPhotography James Merrell"][/caption] Gotta fly still in gym kit, haven't showered, fed birds, had breakfast or gotten Maud out of bed - yikes