My favourite room in the house is the kitchen. I love kitchens. I love food. I love cooking. I love preparing food for friends and family. I love spending time in the kitchen. I love eating the food that comes out of the kitchen. I enjoy cooking competition shows. I adore eating the local cuisine on my travels. Basically I love food and the kitchen makes me happy. So, designing our Italian kitchen was particularly exciting for me.
Ideally I wanted lots of counter space and room for our Tuscan trestle table. Although the kitchen is a decent size it is sadly not large enough to accommodate the dining table, but a girl can dream. Originally it wasn’t even going to have enough room for an island so I worked hard to reframe my vision for the kitchen. But, then, our geometra finally agreed that a wall could be moved without damaging the fresco — and voila! — I had an island. I could now envision my Italian kitchen, complete with friends sitting around the island, drinking wine, while I prepare some food. Ah, sigh…
I was very determined to have natural stone in our current kitchen. I didn’t want anything shiny so I landed on soap stone. It does require a bit of maintenance but it’s beautiful, both to the touch and to look at. Strangely for the Italian kitchen I chose to go the other direction and succumbed to the suggestion of so many episodes of Property Brothers and chose low maintenance Dekton by Cosentino. I narrowed it down to three choices and ordered little samples from Cosentino and went for matt white with a large grey vein called Aura. It is on the counter and backsplash, as well as on the island, complete with a waterfall edge. So pretty!
My last few kitchens had maple cabinets — either flat slab or shaker, with very modern stainless steel hardware, accompanied by a large sink with a chunky, industrial faucet. In our current house, which is an Eichler style mid-century modern bungalow, I chose white cabinets with 6” antique bronze pulls from Pottery Barn, black Italian soap stone counters, and a white Rohl Fireclay apron-front sink adorned with a nifty Brizo articulating faucet that won some kind of design award.
I daydream of the happy yellow Smeg oven waiting for me in Orvieto.
For the Orvietan kitchen I decided I wanted some colour. While the white kitchen is perfect for our little Californian bungalow — preparing meals in Italy beneath a 300 year old restored fresco requires a more vibrant palette than white or natural maple. I was told by the architect I could have basically any RAL colour I wanted. I knew I wanted something navy or navy-adjacent so I looked online at the RAL spectrum. I knew colours can be quite different on the screen so I found a place that sells little colour chips of RAL colours. Based on the little metal samples I received I chose the same colour I would have chosen had I only looked at them online. Even though I was confident in my choice, the architect insisted on sending me a sample. I knew I didn’t want flat slab, or anything glossy so he prepared one style of cabinet door in one of my blue choices, and another style in the other blue. He also sent a small slab of the countertop I had chosen, and an envelope of all the different possible finishes for the inside of the cabinets (so many choices…fun!). Based on the samples, I ended up again choosing the same option that I would have chosen if I’d only seen them online — but it was nonetheless nice to have the tactile experience of holding the cabinet door.
The hardware posed a bit of a challenge, especially with pandemic issues. Originally I envisioned buying them in the US and mailing them to Italy — but packages to Italy are a bit dodgy at the best of times and these were definitely not the best of times. So, I had to find some cool handles that are available online in Italy. I chose some really cool Swedish hardware, and they were even having a sale, however their site would not permit an American or Canadian credit card as method of payment so I was out of luck. Fortunately, I found an Italian site that was selling this brand — however not on sale — and the kitchen designer was able to order them for me and I got my nice chunky brass hardware. On the other hand, I didn’t end up with a faucet that I loved — it’s ok — but it does accommodate the under sink water filter without the need for a separate tap so it will do.
For the last 10 or 15 years Friday night has always been pizza and wine night for my husband and I. We make a whole ritual of it, and still after all these years I always look forward to it. My husband sits at the counter with a glass of wine while I make the dough and prepare the toppings. I also always make a ginormous salad with pecans and blue cheese and an assortment of greens. All paired with some yummy bottle of wine. Since we first put in the offer on our apartment in Orvieto we have been buying lots of Umbrian wines — our effort to support the “local” economy — so now Friday night pizza is usually paired with an Umbria Rosso or a Sagrantino di Montefalco (both delicious, by the way).
Recently, while waiting for my Emile Henry red pizza stone to heat up, I found myself daydreaming about making pizza in my happy, bright yellow Smeg oven that is waiting for me in Orvieto. The kitchen turned out brilliantly. It looks a little naked to me until I get some stools around the island, but I can’t wait to cook, eat, and enjoy in this beautiful space.