Interiors: The room planner
Filed Under Kitchen Curtain | Posted on January 17, 2008
If you are bored rigid with the endless television adverts on bargain kitchens for sale, try one of my favourite antidotes: a weekend wandering through Paris’s famous Marché aux Puces in Clignancourt. It’s a treasure trove of fascinating and unusual antiques, art populaire, objets d’art, and architectural salvage pieces and, if you’re planning on redesigning your kitchen, les Puces is packed with inspiration for a cuisine that’s anything but standard, predictable and linear.
There are so many reasons to design a kitchen from salvage pieces rather than buying a mass-produced kitchen. A salvage creation is environmentally friendly; has far more character than anything fresh off a production line; and any little glitches and imperfections become part of the charm of the overall design rather than glaringly obvious errors.
Taking inspiration from France has just as much to do with economy as style and flair. The French have always had a knack of making basic practicalities look effortlessly creative. One of my favourite of their “cheap and cheerful†tricks is mounting slim café curtain rods (in brushed steel, wrought iron, or brass) to the edge or underside of worktops, then hanging unlined curtains in a decorative, washable fabric to conceal storage (and white goods) beneath. This design statement is far more cost effective than a row of base units with doors, but just as practical if you plan your under-counter storage carefully. Depending on your choice of fabric, this also adds colour and pattern, and makes a clear style statement.
For great choices at reasonable prices, explore the Marché Saint-Pierre, Paris’s fabric market, at the foot of Montmartre. One of my favourite suppliers there is Decostyle which is full of bright colours, unusual patterns and great bargains. Or browse the several floors of fabrics at Tissus Reine in Place St Pierre.
Tags: becom, curta, curtain, doorsRelated posts
Leave a Reply