Ah, the kitchen, the heart of the home or as in Frejus, one side of the living area! It was a key attraction to buying the one-bedroom shoebox in France. It was a simple strip of cupboards and according to the Feng Shui map it was in the Family, Health area and also in the corner for the Wealth sector which needed balancing.
It was Small
We have had big kitchens and small ones, classic enclosed and open planned kitchens. This was a strip. Some key rules for small kitchens from my experience:
Keep it simple – stick with the 60%, 30%, 10% colour rule, we chose white, green and a touch of wood. Keep the colour of upper cupboards light and you can add colour in the lower cupboards. In this case, it was white and white.
Storage, storage – put in shelves, be creative and use IKEA or other inserts for tools. I found bathroom inserts in IKEA that worked better than the kitchen selection.
Lights – we had under-cabinet lighting to create warmth and found this added softness to the white.
Counters – keep them tidy and clutter free – my husband loves his kitchen gadgets so group them and make sure the colours blend.
We had a convection/microwave oven. There is a lot of information out there on why we shouldn’t be using microwave ovens. If we could have chosen, we would have bought a classic small portable oven.
Challenges
My husband wanted four burners and there was only room for two. We bought a double portable induction burner and it lived inside the cupboard underneath. A portable trolley to add some bench space, is still being considered.
Where to put the fridge? There was space in a cupboard for a tiny, European fridge but we wanted a normal-sized one to really cook. One was placed in the area near the front door which was an empty space next to the cupboards.
The water heater is in the Wealth sector! We decided to use it as a food and wine pantry. Feng Shui says to put expensive items in this area and preferably in the colours of green and purple. Not easy as at this stage as nothing says ‘wealthy’, so we placed an expensive, green piece of glass inside and will work on buying expensive wine and dried foods.
Colours
The colour palette of white, apple green, lemon were chosen for the kitchen and living area and our Japanese green bowls were the inspiration. The light of the apartment lends itself to the fun, fresh brightness of this combination and brought out the lovely renovated original stonework. We noticed that we had bought a Provence utensil holder in New York several years ago and it is now back where it belongs.
