Here! Have some more kitchen inspiration: repurposed/antique kitchen cabinets.
I spent the weekend failing to get a handle on life… instead, I took a trip to Fabric Row; beginning the rapid decent into rhinestones, parking tickets, and indecision-induced-paralysis: where I got a glimpse of my project as madness, but plowed forward anyway because the other option was sanity… which goes directly against my principles.
Then I had to scour the internet for the imaginary pattern that lives in my head… then I got distracted by this faucet which is small but fascinatingly practical but maybe too industrial? Then I started looking at faucets. Then I found this kitchen.
It is my second favorite kitchen ever… Pilar Guzman’s is still my first, but only by a small margin.
Clearly, here is a person who understands the true meaning of life AND has adorable-mini-tartlets always displayed and available! Look at them!
WHAT have I been doing with myself that I have not advanced to this level of existence?
I am not even sure any cooking occurs here… not that it matters! If this is your kitchen, you probably just exist on beautiful thoughts and refined dishware.
Why did I not think of that? So much simpler!
Go ahead and click through so that you may accurately judge how horribly lacking your own home/life/existence on earth is.
Be sure you take the whole house tour, otherwise you will not be appropriately saddened by your personal deficiency in the curated whimsy and antlers department.
The bathroom has an antique pommel horse!!! I spent all day Sunday trying to find one for myself… How else can I go on living if I cannot display my guest towels in such a stunning exhibit of fanciful-design-one-upmanship?
On the bright side, I figured out why these kitchens make me so itchy: it’s because they show me I am doing human wrong!
It’s very scientific… These people look different under a microscope than I do!
I am doing life in the animal-muck-living-floundering-organism sense.
Vs.
Life of controlled-refinement-and-not-flailing-around.
Whoops!
These are people who spend their Sunday reading Donne, and eating scones.
(but not ALL of the scones!)
And just one cup of coffee, instead of drinking the whole pot and then being jittery and irritable but still mysteriously unenergetic.
And who never wonder if they should just go watch an entire season of The Sopranos, because the father of metaphysical poetry is simply too stimulating.
These are people who never procrastinate small tasks like moving the laundry from the washer to the dryer. And then again from the dryer to a folded state.
These are people who do not have a 5 gallon spackle bucket for compost in the kitchen… Which they are occasionally, frequently, always slow about taking outside to the actual compost pile.
Ok. That’s it. Abrupt end.
I have to go now because I have to continue my search for an antique pommel horse and go back to the fabric district a lot of work to catch up on because I squandered yesterday splicing myself into Dirty Dancing.
Please enjoy a few more photos of kitchens that illustrate my gauche Americanness: that I would look at this and even CONSIDER cabinets that came from the cabinet store.
I realize this may be disappointingly un-holiday-ish for some of you, so HERE! Enjoy some Christmas-themed West Coast Swing.
December 9, 2015 @ 10:20 am
Aaagh! I’m supposed to be working for a deadline today!
December 9, 2015 @ 10:24 am
Thank you for this! Hope you find that fabric:)
December 9, 2015 @ 10:26 am
My love, you DO spend a bit too much time on sites you shouldn’t…. Having said that, more than one sigh escaped my parched lips and certainly more than 6 times, a ‘Oooohhhh my Gosh’ found its way into the room I should be writing Christmas cards instead of visiting you!
ALL of this is absolutely ÜBER-beautiful and totally ”must have” and the main reason why I no longer even consider sneaking a look at other people’s interior decos, is that I then find my own kitchen (to be renovated once I should have the pots of money for it) SO lacking in everything I really (also) SHOULD have. And just so that you know: I DO live in a French home from 1920, in a French kitchen with many stunning features and (even more) horrible ‘upgradings’ such as the aforement. kitchen – aaah go back to your cards, Kiki.
Thank you so much for this moment of respite 🙂
December 10, 2015 @ 4:23 am
When I wanted to put a big THUMB UP for the super cute video yesterday, the (oldish) computer stuck out its tongue (figuratively spoken) and got stuck. And then I didn’t have time to restart the beast. So here, with great delay: Thank you for Dirty Dancing Two (3, 4?)…. it’s fabulous and I love it. Love the film too, so much as that although I saw it several times in the cinema, still had to buy it as a DVD. You’re such a well-matched couple; both excellent dancers, both willing to have loads of fun (it takes 2… – to dance and for all the rest of it too), you hand out the jobs and your Hero can do them! I am truly in awe. Much love
December 9, 2015 @ 10:29 am
Zzzzz too many words, too many pictures of crap no one cares about…
December 9, 2015 @ 10:34 am
If you’re not here for the words, you are missing the point.
December 9, 2015 @ 10:48 am
Right Sandra?! It’s how Victoria caused all of us to fall in love with her!
Although… not going to lie… I enjoyed every picture too.
December 9, 2015 @ 10:57 am
Agree with Sandra – seriously? how did you get to this blog? VEB is hysterical – her words are just as if she were talking out loud – and she is ever so much more personable than your average jo (or us mere mortals ;-), that is the beauty of it.
These kitchens are absolutely insane, so I see why they’re drool worthy. You’re pulling from magazines that I don’t even know exist! wow. I have no clue where they actually store the food – other than the displayed mini-tarts (another Americanism). Perhaps the remaining non-visual sustenance is delivered by friendly (but debonair) staff. Or they just order Chinese.
🙂
December 9, 2015 @ 1:50 pm
words r hard! can u plz use only emojis??
December 9, 2015 @ 10:58 am
Sorry……..A very Merry Christmas to you and yours and a less Grinchy New Year but I Loved all of this-the dancing-both…I love the – all I want for Christmas song- because I love the corny film Love Actually and I love to see a married couple with different temperaments who obviously love one another and still enjoy each other. ” Magic” in this world of divorce and unhappy couples married in expensive splendor and miserable in the eventual reality of couplehood .
Most of all as biting as Victoria’s wit her basic core is Positive and realistic. We all know we can’t have all the goodies out there but we can admire them without envy and in a happy spirit of good will that some family is enjoying them and that’s a good thing. I’ve got a smile on my 75 year old face and I just might dance the old Man out to our modest but pretty Kitchen and make him a nice ham sandwich. Love to you all ………….
December 9, 2015 @ 11:38 pm
Welcome to our world! You must have missed the introductory instructions on civility, but don’t be discouraged from growing in the polite direction ?
December 9, 2015 @ 10:29 am
Did you notice that the antique pommel is for sale, as is everything thing else in the house?
December 9, 2015 @ 10:31 am
I think this is the funniest, and truest, post you have ever written. So, so painfully true. We have a ‘vintage’ kitchen, but not entirely by choice. Maybe it’s finally ‘in’!
December 9, 2015 @ 10:38 am
I have a cabinet just like that one in the first picture. Now. I need it moved to my kitchen/dining area.
And a wall removed.
And some beams put up.
And a column added under the beam.
And I want the counter/island cabinet in the picture to go with my cabinet.
December 9, 2015 @ 10:46 am
You are truly a crazed woman…a kitchen is the one room in a home that has to have function above all else. Look at all of the stunning photos again – not one looks like a real, functioning kitchen. You need a staff in the hidden confines bringing you those scones and tartlets while you sip your coffee and gaze at the beauty all around you. No pots or pans. No dirty glasses or appliances. Only display space. For all of the stunning china and accessory pieces, you also require sinks and stoves, refrigerators and dishwashers, and somewhere to stash that compost bucket. You must join the real world….at least in the kitchen…or hire staff, hidden in the basement, to do the real kitchen work. I have to side with Paul in this room. So sorry to switch sides on you.
December 9, 2015 @ 10:49 am
They really need to throw in free shipping with that faucet. Thank you for verbalizing exactly what is wrong with my life. That in itself is a delightful Christmas gift!
December 9, 2015 @ 10:57 am
Victoria, you speak to my soul. I, like you, am not satisfied with the lack of SOUL that
permeates American kitchens. I search the refined, am not articulate in what I seek…
You are the sister in my head, and wish you were the neighbor down the street.
Thank you.
December 9, 2015 @ 11:04 am
And just one cup of coffee, instead of drinking the whole pot and then being jittery and irritable but still mysteriously unenergetic.
Best line ever. To bad it’s so long. It needs to be a sign.
December 9, 2015 @ 11:08 am
p.s. I watched Fixer Uppers last night and wanted to light a match to my house. Logic prevailed, as I realized I needed to make sure my fire insurance is great and also move all the stuff I love out first. Today, I too am mysteriously unenergetic, so will have to be postponed.
December 14, 2015 @ 9:51 am
I think the same thoughts after I watch Fixer Upper! I suppose a rash of fires after a Fixer Upper marathon would be suspicious.
December 9, 2015 @ 11:41 am
Victoria — I think what I like the most about your design approach is your free spirit. You think outside the box which is refreshing and inspirational. I actually think your kitchen will be better than any of those you posed when it’s all said and done! (PS — ignore that “B” above — must live a very sorry life.)
December 9, 2015 @ 11:49 am
Agree with Diane, except not the crazed woman part. Those kitchens cry out to the world, “I have staff!” Probably cooking in functional basement kitchens, because cooking smells would disturb the refinement of that rarified world. I have a beautiful renovated kitchen, but it looks like someone cooks in it, which I do. The task in a real kitchen to be used by an ordinary person is to figure out how to accommodate the homely necessities in an attractive way. Not necessarily an easy task, but very satisfying to achieve.
December 9, 2015 @ 12:02 pm
Then I had to scour the internet for the imaginary pattern that lives in my head
Spoonflower where the imaginary patterns come true. http://www.spoonflower.com
December 9, 2015 @ 12:26 pm
Never change! I love your blog. I love your words – the more the better. I love your pictures. But I really, really love your cat. Keep being you!
December 9, 2015 @ 12:28 pm
Victoria, in looking through all of the wonderful photographs, I have come to the conclusion what you really want is a fabulous butler’s pantry, not a kitchen. It’s all about display and storage, not cooking. I am in total agreement!
December 9, 2015 @ 12:37 pm
You are hilarious. I sometimes find myself cackling. (NOT an attractive trait in an older woman.) But still, what a gift you have. I enjoy it very much.
December 9, 2015 @ 1:16 pm
Victoria, please NEVER stop blogging! Life would never be the same again without your hilarious posts! You are truly a great talent when it comes to writing. You have completely changed how I look at everything in life. You should publish a book!
December 9, 2015 @ 1:29 pm
Oh, Victoria, fear not. Your kitchen will be drool-worthy when it’s done. It couldn’t possibly NOT be! And best of all, it will be full of stories!!