Stone Wall Kitchens

Old-house stone walls add patina and character to modern kitchens.

When we lived in Italy I fell in love with the old stone walls in the ancient houses and marveled at how modern fixtures and features mixed in. Stone always adds a certain degree of rusticity yet at the same time it dominates. So in a way stonewall kitchens are work for contemporary spaces because the organic color tends to soften flat modern lines.

What I mean by stone dominating is clear in the minimalistic kitchen [top] that barely intrudes on the room. With the small window smack in the center of the main wall and a sizeable radiator near the door, options are fairly limited. So concrete counters blend with the stone look and below them is open storage – not traditional cabinets. The tiny antique storage cupboard (top left) suffices for small items and a large farm sink (far right) is an updated version of what might have been there originally. Punching up the look are the designer-conscious pendants that resemble Philippe Starck’s stunnning Flos Ktribe S2 lights and fashionable Lucite dining chairs. Yum.

A modern kitchen in Spain features an indoor wood-burning grill on one end of the chunky island (forgive me, I’m drooling). The monster chimney hood mounted on the original wall rises high up into the rustic rafters and without much else these few spectacular elements would suffice. But the island also contains a prep sink.  Across the room, the main sink is a chunky stone farmer with a high-arc faucet. There’s more. Just wait.

A second view of the same kitchen shows  the black-paneled dishwasher and a wall oven mounted below an induction cooktop. Stools with black seats tie into the cabinet panel accent color.

Dry-set stone surrounds the stove niche in this kitchen which features a thoroughly modern island packed with storage and seating. I hate to admit it but the antique wide-plank floor upstages the stone a little and the vintage oak base cabinets – with ogee drawers — along the window wall really steal the show.

Vintage stone meets an Ikea utensil rail in a rental property designed by Spanish architect Anna Noquera. As in many small European kitchens, there is no work triangle – everything is adjacent on one wall. Below the induction cooktop is a small-scale oven and above a tubular vent hood that still looks rad to American eyes. A large pantry, behind floor to ceiling doors, conceals all the kitchen necessities.

(Source: housetohome, delightbydesign, alemanys5)

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