the scarlet kitchen

My mention of red kitchen cabinets has emails flying; faxes, tweets, telegrams, and letters with stamps on them too. Design gurus quoted and astrologers consulted. My sanity questioned. So let me give you context.

The little black dress of Catskill real estate is a farmhouse with 20 acres. We looked at many of them in our search for a country weekend house. So charming, just what a reader of this blog or visitor to my store, might picture me in. 

Then we saw this.

and this.

Heavily wooded, roaring waterfall, bluestone slabs, ferns and moss galore--

 it felt primeval, we fell in love.

We hated the boxy cedar 1980's house with the world's ugliest kitchen.

But houses can be changed, and we've been chipping away at it for a decade.

Last year we replaced the odds and ends of furniture in the great room. (Yes, I have to call it that. 80's, remember?)

The dining area opens onto the great room. The kitchen is behind the wall with the picture on it, and that wall is coming down. My theory is that barn-red cabinets would harmonize with the rustic old dining table, red chairs and rug, and provide a nod to the area's dairy farms.  Red cabinets mixed with cream, and dark soapstone counters. But who knows? Maybe natural cherry. Or concrete and stainless steel. Anything except the current shiny laminate the color of Silly Putty. I don't plan to post much about this process, would rather explore other regions, but I promise I'll show you when it's finished.