While most of us live and die (not literally, of course) by our daily dose of caffeine, and while much of that consumption takes place via brewed coffee and designer espresso beverages, there exists a kinder, gentler way to wake up, or in some cases, simply wind down at the end of the day.

Although it, too, involves the ritual of slowly sipping warmth from a cup, it’s less about beans and more about leaves. Tea is an industry — and some might argue lifestyle choice — all its own, with its stimulating and calming properties dictated by type and an ever-increasing legion of enthusiasts singing its praises and lauding its healthful properties.

Since there’s something sort of artful about the mere act of drinking tea, it’s not surprising that the market boasts a plethora of tea accessories — pots, mugs, cups, saucers, strainers, storage, and more.

From the simply elegant to the tongue-in-cheek, we’ve rounded up a host of helpers — an infuser that doesn’t monkey around, a set of “tea talk” cups, and a self-stirring mug, to be exact — in an effort to make teatime just a spoonful sweeter.

Photo credits: Bright Bazaar, Funslurp, Mud Pie, and Daily Mail UK

French kitchen designers have a wonderful view of aesthetics and function when it comes to designing appliances, kitchen furniture and designing kitchens in general. While many designers may look at a bare area in a kitchen as a fault, the French purposefully plan areas in the kitchen for the eye to the rest.

The French designer La Cornue believes in creating a culinary experience in the kitchen. From their iconic ranges to rotisseries and unique kitchen furniture, take a look at how La Cornue remains the luxury brand standard in French artisan kitchenware.

Starting in Paris in 1908, Albert Dupuy , “…was to take advantage of the distribution of illuminating gas throughout Paris to perfect the La Cornue gas circulation Roast & Pastry cook.”… La Cornue. Today, the brand is known for its undying attention to detail and lives by its historic tradition of bringing customers quality through a family business that has spanned more than one hundred years.

All La Cornue products are synonymous with craftsmanship and using the finest of materials, such as cast iron, steel, solid brass, nickel and enamel. Whether your kitchen is modern and sleek or traditional and ornate, there is a La Cornue product to fit your style of cooking.

La Cornue only builds a few hundred ovens per year, as each appliance is built by only one person by hand and is seen through every quality assurance step with one craftsman.

“Even if you happen to be the Queen of England, you will have to wait at least two months for your Château La Cornue. We wouldn’t know how to make it any quicker.”…. La Cornue

In this modern day of quick assembly lines and millions of appliances pumped out by manufacturing powerhouses, the La Cornue French tradition of producing quality and beautiful handcrafted appliances can’t be matched.

Similar to a fine wine, the art of slow processing to ensure quality can be witnessed in every fine detail of the La Cornue kitchen appliance line. Why would you want anything else to grace your kitchen?

All Photo credits: La Cornue USA

Life’s too short not to be delicious. So today, we’ve scoured the web for kitchen inspirations and rounded up a baker’s dozen… well, about half of one, anyway.

First up, the fine folks of HGTV share a plethora of dream kitchens with us; from traditionally-appointed chefs’ kitchens (above) to sleek, minimalist urban spaces, there’s something for everyone.

Next, Apartment Therapy gives us a salad course and shares tips for those of us attempting to grow our own herbs and veggies, adding a little extra organic deliciousness to the dishes we prepare:

Architectural Digest artfully lets us into the kitchens of a dozen celebrities, including Ellen DeGeneres and Portia DeRossi, whose artisanal kitchen features teak, glass and stainless steel accents:

Elsewhere, Remodelista features a stunning series of  photographs of an arboreal kitchen made of no fewer than eight locally-milled oak trees in Munich…

…for those in need of a little homemade after-dinner pick-me-up, Furniture Fashion offers a roundup of 10 sleek cappuccino makers…

…and for dessert, Country Living reaches back to the 1950s and shares some of the sweetest little retro-modern dessert bowls we’ve ever seen.

Photo credits: HGTV, Apartment Therapy and Architectural Digest

Who doesn’t want a luxury gourmet kitchen that they can feel like a celebrity chef in while preparing meals everyday? Well, what’s stopping you from making your dream kitchen become a reality?

If you say a luxury budget, join the masses of homeowners who would love to own the amenities of a dream kitchen without the price tag. There are ways to save money on your kitchen makeover and still get the look and feel of a dream kitchen oasis. Whether you hire a kitchen designer or you opt to do it yourself, here are tips to get that gorgeous kitchen!

Photo credit: J W Homes

Save money where it won’t be noticed:  Whether we believe it or not, money can be saved in finishes and materials that probably won’t be noticed by the average eye. Some helpful substitutions are listed here:

• Change the finish on your cabinets. Instead of choosing an exotic hardwood variety, consider a lower grade to save extra dollars.
• Reduce the quantity of cabinets you use in your kitchen. Remove one or two at the end of a wall and leave the area open for hanging artwork or extending your tile backsplash up the wall.
• Substitute an island full of cabinets with a table or a repurposed piece of furniture that can substitute as an island. The omission of cabinets will increase your savings on your entire kitchen makeover.
• Consider open shelving as opposed to closed cabinetry and doors.
• Instead of tiling a tall backsplash, consider only tiling a shorter backsplash off of the counter and paint the remaining wall.

Assess your budget: Before you start your kitchen makeover, set a budget for each phase of the project. If you are hiring a kitchen design professional, you may be able to save money on repetitive and costly contractor mistakes. While if you are doing it yourself, ensure you factor money and time in for mishaps, materials and labor costs for contractors. There will always be pros and cons of each side; determine what your comfortability level is and budget accordingly.

Photo credit: Seeking Alpha

While your budget can help you decide what to put in your kitchen, it shouldn’t be a hindrance on your design ideas. Use these tips to help you scale back on your kitchen design budget, but still achieve a gorgeous dream kitchen in the end to enjoy for years into the future.

Photo credit top: Pinterest

Let’s just be real for a moment: vent hoods are anything but sexy. They’ve long been an object of function rather obviously devoid of fashion, but of late, several culinary design houses are seeking to change that. In particular, a specialty company named Elica has led the charge of bringing sexy back to the kitchen, so to speak, through its sleek, aesthetically inoffensive offerings.

Elica’s “Om” hood, shown above, introduces a pop of color with a lacquer-look finish, while its stainless steel and glass-encased hoods look more like oversized pendant lights than something that exists to eliminate kitchen exhaust.

To integrate vent hoods into the walls behind them, as traditionally featured above classic stoves both residential and commercial, Ictinia and Brittania both swerve into the future with their swooping batwing designs.

Whichever way it’s presented and regardless of how banal its job might be, this kitchen feature is finally all grown up and looking better than ever.

Photo credits: Elica, The 3D Studio (Ictinia) and Brittania.

Creating an inviting kitchen for the cook and their guests is one of the primary goals for every homeowner. While the cook spends countless hours in the kitchen, they also would like their family and guests to feel at home and welcomed every day.

While it seems creating an inviting kitchen could be a challenge, designer Marc Thee, in conjunction with Altogether Home, gives some great ideas that are simple to execute and even easier to enjoy!

• Illuminate with natural light: Nobody enjoys feeling like they are in an institutional setting in their kitchen. Marc Thee suggests, “Replace all fluorescent lighting with incandescent or halogen fixtures. Ideally, all kitchens should have three levels of lighting: Overhead task lighting (recessed cans), under-counter task lighting, and decorative lighting such as pendants or island lighting.” Assess your current kitchen lighting. If you have a large fluorescent fixture, consider replacing with Thee’s suggestions and bring in natural light during the day when possible.

• Decorate your cold countertops with warmth: While you don’t want an overcrowded countertop with lots of small appliances and gadgets, it is a welcoming idea to house decorative kitchen spices, foods and other multifunction objects on your counter. Thee recommends, “…add useful accessories that feel a little time-worn or antique. Display in the kitchen an assortment of olive oil, vinegars, and salt and pepper grinders on a big tray. The tall bottles serve to disguise the electrical outlets, so buy some larger bottles to anchor the back of the grouping.”  Take into consideration how much space you have and ensure there is plenty of room for food preparation and task oriented activities on your counters while still keeping a beautiful backdrop at the backsplash of your countertop.

Creating an inviting kitchen is made simpler with these helpful tips from Marc Thee.  Consider using these tips in your kitchen as well as decorating with the wide range of home decor products from Altogether Home.

Regardless of the size of your kitchen, the ability to make it feel warm and welcoming can be achieved easily and beautifully.

All photo credits: Marc-Michaels in collaboration with Altogether Home

In the average kitchen, the thought of appliances may come down to the finish/material, how great they look and also what unique features set them apart from the competition. When your wall ovens look like they are seamlessly part of the design of your kitchen and they resemble art rather than functional appliances, you know they are something special.

Paolo and Valentina Bertazzoni, decedents of the Bertazzoni family brand, discuss their innovative wall ovens that transform any kitchen into an art gallery as opposed to only a functional kitchen. Take a look at these gorgeous ovens and cooktop stoves that you’ll yearn to own in your gourmet kitchen.

What sets the Bertazzoni brand apart from others is the choice to adapt 100% of Italian-made process to American styling or to keep the traditional European styling and detailing truly their own. They decided to stay true to their heritage and design past, and stayed with truly Italian innovation and design aesthetics. Although they kept their roots, they still made American adaptations for the U.S. market.

Features such as the size of the appliances were a huge factor in the end design in the United States. “We knew we had to do modifications so we went into U.S. showrooms and even into their employees’ homes to see what was different. In Europe, we live one on top of another so we have smaller houses and smaller appliances. In the U.S., everything is larger” …Paolo Bertazzoni via Dwell.

The other impressive feature of the Bertazzoni appliances are the innovative interface. They wanted the interface to be extremely user friendly and compared the experience to using an iPod. “…had to be user-friendly (we didn’t want the customer to have to read some big manual to use it) and… had to have a modern look. Everyone knows what an iPod is and how to use it, and we wanted this to be very simple and very 2011 in a similar way; it’s very intuitive.” … Valentina Bertazzoni via Dwell.

The Bertazzoni wall ovens and cooktop are revolutionary for their gorgeous and streamlined designed that is unmistakably Italian but adapted for the U.S. market to blend the best of both worlds. Innovation, beauty, and function – it looks like it’s time to add them to your kitchen.

All photo credits: Bertazzoni US

Whether you have a love for vintage collectibles or you have inherited vintage finds from family members or antique store hopping, they are nostalgic and unique and take us back in time. Kitchen decor can easily become a showcase for some of your favorite vintage collectibles.

From small appliances to bottle caps and dainty plates, vintage finds deserve to be displayed proudly and can become conversation pieces in your everyday home. Here are creative ways to bring classic decor from the past into your cozy kitchen today.

• Find collectibles that speak to you: Vintage finds have a sentimental quality that is unique to every person. Whether you enjoy your grandmother’s Coca-Cola collection of vintage bottles because they remind you of summer vacations with your grandparents or you just love the design aesthetic of how the bottles have changed throughout history, they speak to you differently. Displaying collectibles is about showing off what you hold dear. In your kitchen, display collections on open shelving, hang them on the wall in a decorative configuration, or display them in plain reach for guests to enjoy and start conversations by! Many collectibles that are valuable can be housed on higher shelves or placed in shadow boxes for rare finds.

Photo credit: Vintage Rose Brocante

• Anything goes with vintage collectibles: The beauty of displaying vintage collectibles is there is no specific rhyme or reason for the colors, patterns, or design style because they are heirlooms that people enjoy seeing. Decorative plates can be displayed in an open plate rack to take advantage of the gorgeous qualities and differences between them. Stack vintage cookbooks by their color or size and enjoy the whimsical and casual nature that vintage collectibles will bring to your kitchen. Choose a few vintage small appliances to display on your counter and ensure they don’t use valuable space that could be used for preparing food. If you have little counter space, consider hanging custom shelving on the walls for your unique housewares.

Photo credit: Apartment Therapy

Create a kitchen that is a treat to enter every time you walk in it! Vintage collectibles can instantly catapult you back into an era where craftsmanship and originality were cherished and not frowned upon.

Display your vintage finds proudly and scour rummage sales, antique stores and garage sales for treasures that others may classify as trash. Your kitchen can come alive with your unique collectibles as they once did years ago.

Photo credit top: Green Wellies

What’s cookin’, good lookin’?  If you’ve got kitchen updates on the brain these days, perhaps one of today’s links will give you just what you’ve been craving. First up, CasaSugar shares this “transformative wall system” (sample shown above) from Ixxi — an uber-personal way to decorate your space — and we’re kind of loving the plate wall they’ve put together as an illustration of what it can do.

Thinking of re-doing your kitchen in a slightly more old-fashioned way but still want to be conscious of your impact? The sweet people of Remodelista have put together a list of ten eco-friendly paints to consider:

The fine folks of HGTV have been listening to their viewers’ and readers’ real-world suggestions and solutions for kitchen makeovers and top-to-bottom overhauls, and they’re sharing their top 15 with us:

For the entertainer who has everything except a walk-in beer cooler and “kegerator,” allow the manly men of Uncrate to present this feature on… well, the Brew Cave Walk-In Beer Cooler and Kegerator. Bottoms up…

…and in case your needs are simpler and you’re just looking for a few little somethings to complete your cucina — say, a sweet set of soup bowls or a shiny new knife collection — rush over to the Crate & Barrel Outlet sale and enjoy up to 60 percent off. Bon appetit!

Photo credits: CasaSugar, Remodelista and HGTV.

Something interesting happens to us each June: the abundance of fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables just compels us to spend a bit more time in the kitchen, tossing summer salads, mixing up sangria and readying cookout fixings for the barbecue.

A few small changes can help a kitchen catch up to what’s happening inside it; the addition of bold bursts of color, the allowance of more natural light, and even just a pop of nature via a vase of fresh-cut flowers can usher a space into the summer months with verve.

One of the freshest and most obvious color palettes that instantly shout “summer vacation” is a lemon-lime combination with pops of blue or turquoise. The blend of beach and citrus references transport us to the waterside, be it a beach or a neighborhood pool, and evokes thoughts of lemonade, crystal blue seas and lush tropical flora in bloom — all summer indeed.

The simple incorporation of a table cloth, seat cushion, flutter curtain or candles can accomplish just such a task:

Of course, with such a broad rainbow of fun colors from which to choose, a choice isn’t always necessary. This bright, playful kitchen takes on a whole new personality with a rug, a few potted plants and a modesty curtain strung in front of the sink. It’s quite literally like a box of magic markers had its way with the space, to sweet and summery effect.

Photo credits: Thomas J. Story/Sunset, Better Homes & Gardens, Decorazione and Delikatessen.

While home interior magazines and online home decor blogs are full of gigantic luxury gourmet kitchens, there are homeowners who prefer to not get lost in their kitchen! As more homeowners are finding comfort in buying smaller homes, their kitchens as well have become a room that has benefits that outweigh their gargantuan counterparts.

If you have just moved into a home with a small kitchen, or you are trying to decide how to make your current cozy kitchen work, here are ideas that will help you love your unique-sized kitchen.

• Smaller kitchens demand more organization:  This concept stands true in any part of your life. The larger area you have, the more space you have to collect unnecessary stuff and actually make you less productive and more frustrated in the process. A smaller kitchen demands for you to keep your counter space only for essentials and to organize small appliances in cabinets or on shelving. Pantry space should be kept orderly with the help of simple shelving and closet organizers and utilizing vertical walls for hooks and hanging items. Organization is a blessing to the avid expert chef who wants to find items quickly, and is a double blessing to the novice cook who needs to stay focused when learning new recipes. Either way, your smaller, organized kitchen will prove to be an asset to your lifestyle.

Photo credit: Shelterness

• Cleaning is made a breeze: Your kitchen is probably the most frequently cleaned room in the house, repeatedly throughout every day. A smaller kitchen means a more manageable amount of time to allocate to cleaning, but also means more time to get on with your life. Larger kitchens require maintenance and diligence in cleaning, organizing and maintaining. Smaller kitchens are also more affordable to keep up with, and if you want to remodel with new finishes and appliances, a renovation project for a small kitchen will be much more affordable.

Photo credit: Pembe Yastik

Your small kitchen could be the hidden gem that you haven’t been utilizing to its fullest. The kitchen should be where the heart of your home is, but that doesn’t mean you have to spend a lot of time searching for kitchen gadgets or cleaning up after entertaining.

Embrace your small kitchen for all of its unique touches that makes it cozy and inviting. Always remember great things come in small packages, and your kitchen could be the greatest gift of your entire home.

Photo credit top: Sweet Detail

There’s something unifying about chalkboards with writing on them; they hearken back to elementary school lessons and remind us of sidewalk cafes with daily specials on display. When we see handwriting scrawled on a blackboard, it signifies that the masses are nearby, needing to have something communicated to them.

So it makes sense that, even though convention dictates that dark walls are foreboding and grim, the use of dark chalkboard paint can ironically warm up a kitchen and give it a sense of conviviality and adventure, begging the question, “What’s on the menu today?”

Since less is generally more — particularly when it comes to extremes — accents as bold as these are best used on just one accent wall rather than coating the entire room.

If even an accent wall is a bit too much to take on, a framed portion of a wall — or even an old-school blackboard like the ones found in traditional classrooms — can produce a similar effect, as can coating an old refrigerator, a pantry door, or the side of a set of cabinets.

In sum, whether it’s used for daily dinner menus, a long-standing household philosophy, shopping reminders or just random notes of love and inspiration throughout the week, the addition of a little schoolhouse whimsy is certainly something to consider.

Photo credits: The Selby, House and Home, Apartment 34, Klikk and The Handmade Home.

It’s always interesting to watch home decor trends come and go in history. Metal finishes are a great example. In the 60’s & 70’s there was a huge movement of shiny chrome and metallic in lighting fixtures, furniture and more and as the 80’s approached the look of yellowy gold and brass had a huge revival.

Once the 90’s and the turn of the century came, we backed down off the shiny metals and introduced a love for matte nickel and brushed satin finishes. Today, pops of all these era’s are coming back in a big way, and brass accents in the kitchen are on the decor radar!

• Pops of brass in small doses: Brass has taken a more modern approach in today’s kitchen in that it is paired with muted colors, or offset with neutrals to create an equal balance of glimmer and contemporary edge. Especially in cabinet door pulls and hardware brass, it is making a statement. Whether you choose the shiny high gloss appeal of brass or you prefer the oxidized and worn brass, either finish can add an unexpected pop of glimmer to your everyday kitchen without going over the top with glam. Small doses can also be enjoyed in sink fixtures and door handles and door kick plates in your kitchen.

Photo credit: My Favorite and My Best

• Eye-catching brass accents: Lighting fixtures in the kitchen have always been an excellent way to create a focal point in the room, instantly. What better way than to add brass to your lighting elements? Whether you choose a chandelier, large pendants or a mixture of both throughout your kitchen, you will love the sparkle they bring to a relatively subdued kitchen. Try pairing brass lighting fixtures with neutral colors to prevent overly ornate and busy decor in the kitchen. Brass should accent and compliment the rest of your beautiful kitchen, not control it.

Photo credit: Remodelista

Brass in the kitchen can be delivered in small doses or saturated in one concentrated space; the options are endless. Look to many restoration and repurposed resources for creative ideas for other uses of brass in your kitchen. From home furnishing catalogs and online resources, to perusing your favorite garage sales, you will be surprised how you can find new uses for old brass that can make your kitchen come alive.

Photo credit top: Cococozy