Redesigning the kitchen is one of the most important projects you will undertake, yet creating the desired look for a period or rural property while making it practical is a delicate balance.
Future kitchens are about dispelling any notions of a show home, and introducing some modern rustic features into a kitchen has the immediate effect of creating a warm, lived-in home environment.
Farmhouse kitchen furniture and joinery in the form of unpainted kitchen cabinets or reclaimed timber kitchen shelving is the obvious choice for a traditional look. Timeless, built to last and often inexpensive to find at vintage fairs and salvage yards, antique pieces will introduce character to a new space.
A key tenant of rustic kitchen ideas, according to Adrian Bergman, design manager at British Standard by Plain English, is to ‘embrace the natural warmth and charm of architectural details in the kitchen such as beams or stone walls, which have aged and weathered over the years’.
This design in actor Aaron Paul's Idaho hideaway, designed by celebrated designer Jake Arnold is a 21st-century take on a modern farmhouse kitchen. Curated to resemble a frontier cabin, Arnold crafted this space to look like a cozy kitchen, perfectly in keeping with the house's architectural style.
The use of natural materials has increased considerably during the pandemic and will strengthen in appeal as marble, granite and unpainted wood become a firm fixture. Not only do they have a rich aesthetic quality, but they are increasingly being recognized for their health benefits (reducing the amount of chemically treated items in the home).
With this beautiful design, Jake Arnold demonstrates how the materials add warmth and depth to a kitchen. Arnold is a master at creating dimly lit, charming spaces. In a conversation with Architectural Digest, Arnold talks about curating soothing refuges that are 'womblike, never tomblike.' As the materiality of the space is so tonal, the addition of the floating wood shelves enabled moments of curation.
