A Simple and Interesting Kitchen Table
It has been a long time since I wrote a blog. I have been overwhelmed with my work as a teacher, and this week, I have been on an at-home writing retreat trying to finish my second poetry book. Still, today, while I was working at my kitchen table, I thought I should share the view I was enjoying.
First, though, I should say that last summer I bought Steven Gambrel's book and while he mostly caters to dot com zillionaires, I find his own homes especially inspiring.
In particular, the simple kitchen table in his summer house I took the liberty of using as a template for my kitchen table arrangement.
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| Steven Gambrel's kitchen table. |
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| My kitchen table. |
I took the simple formula of small potted tree on woven mat with extra small containers and simplified it a bit so there would still be room on the table for eating, homework, and poetry writing in the late afternoon sun. The small containers on my mat are salt and pepper shakers. I enjoyed looking at these simple and natural elements as I worked on some poems this afternoon. As my friend Heather Jessup, author of The Lightening Field, says, tulips make marking more bearable. I would add a little tree makes any kind of work more inspired, though my husband doesn't like how it blocks other diners' faces when we eat here. I guess that's why Steven Gambrel's tree is so tall.
On the right of my kitchen is a metal door with a window in it. Some day I would love to get a wooden dutch door here like in Steven Gambrel's kitchen.
There is another inspiring picture from this summer house I would like to emulate.
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| Steven Gambrel stairs. |
I love how there are blue walls above and below the stairs. Why was I so scared to paint the big wall above the stairs in our house blue? I will fix that this summer, though i just repainted the bannister white and don't want to paint it black.
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| Stairs in my house with mis-matched wall colours. |
Stay tuned this summer, when I post an after photo for this wall.
