SI MPLY FRENC H LIVING
French Kitchen Envy Donna Jones Holland shares hopes, dreams and the reality of renovating her future kitchen at “The French Wreck” in the Mayenne.
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he kitchen is the beating heart of any home, we gather, we graze, and we offload almost every emotion within its warmth, comfort and safety. It’s where we congregate whenever we are hungry, thirsty or just to stare endlessly into the abyss of the fridge in hope of sustenance and inspiration. We put a lot of heart and soul into our kitchens and rightly so, as often we spend most of our lives in there and the bedroom of course (wink wink nudge nudge). Of course, kitchens have evolved over the decades and are now generally open spaces connected to a lounge and diner. Many families aren’t that bothered about having a formal dining room these days and see a separate dining room as wasted space, but many older French houses are set out traditionally for their build era with 2 or 3 formal reception rooms. This layout does not offer the open concept living we often crave, which of course presents many challenges when renovating an older house, but it’s not impossible to achieve with some imagination and brute force. When I’ve been house shopping here in France, the French kitchens I’ve seen to date have really entertained me, often leaving me in hysterics. Kitchens in France can be a bit of an afterthought and definitely not that modern or welcoming. There are exceptions of course, but I really haven’t seen that many homes with kitchens I covet! Of course, if my budget was endless, I’m sure I would have seen my dream French cuisine by now, a girl can certainly dream.
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Over the years I have been lucky enough to live all over the world and sampled many poor, badly designed kitchen lay outs, some good enough of course, but not that many of the ‘I can live with’ sort! Canada was the best and France remains the worst so far. Our last French house hunting trip, just a few months ago delivered a hobbit like kitchen in a chateau no less! It was absolutely bizarre! The great room had been partitioned off and the kitchen shoved in a dark and seedy corner. It was very much a DIY affair and orange/brown to boot! I have a real loathing for brown kitchens especially the orange pine variety! Not only was this excuse for a chateau kitchen lacking in cupboard and counter space, but it was also rather too short for anyone over 5 ft!
Back at our very own long standing ‘French Wreck’ the kitchen or where the kitchen would eventually be, caused many arguments between my husband and I over the years. Eventually, we employed an architect who suggested an extension therefore giving me the possibility of a bespoke space to play with. There’s no doubt that his drawings solved many of my perceived problems. The house already has a large footprint but did not in my humble opinion lend itself to open plan living. The original kitchen space was right at the back of the house in the centre, more of a corridor really. It was circa 1980 blue and orange Formica, just hideous! The proposed extension, Atelier style would go off the side of a coach house.
