All posts tagged: kitchen

Black and white

Published by

#NZbloggers are hosting a weekly blog post challenge. This week’s theme is Contrast and you can check out other posts on this theme here. I have to admit, I’m a sucker for a striking black and white kitchen. I love the contrast, especially how it pops with accents of gold or greenery. Living in a rental, I’m blessed with a brown, beige and taupe kitchen with a utilitarian  steel bench (oh how dreamy!). I dream of the day when I can have black and white kitchen with gold or brass tapware and bright green plants. Until then, here’s a round up of some rather lovely monochromatic things for the kitchen from New Zealand retailers and manufacturers. Click on the descriptions for direct links to purchase. Fog Linen tray striped $23 Genevieve Packer statehouse tea towel $25 Scrabble letter mugs $24.90 JENZ Studio cloud plates Onyx chalkboard canisters $17-$30 Le Sac en Papier $18 Norm bottle grinder $139 Wooden chopping board $30 Reneé Boyd white vase with black and gold $75 Zigzag cotton floor rug $229.99 Honeycomb kitchen towel …

19. DeBretts Kitchen

Published by

In celebration of Auckland Restaurant Month, I will be posting 31 quick-fire reviews on 31 restaurants and cafes in the Auckland CBD and city fringe. The atmosphere is… An expansive atrium that is brightly lit and surprisingly warm. A bit posh with bright coloured furniture and arty decor. What you might expect for an upmarket hotel restaurant. Come here for… Date night, special occasions, fine food and drink. The most interesting thing on the menu… Welsh rarebit souffle with quail egg, caramelised onion, rye Roasted hapuka, spiced pumpkin, wild rice, yoghurt Roasted quail with butter milk, baby beetroot, puff grain, sour cherry Unexpectedly wonderful… The artistic, thoughtful desserts Both pink breast and tender confit in their duck dish I would come back to try… The pre-show dinner ($45 for 2 courses and a glass of wine). The $35 lunch special which includes an entree, main and dessert served in one course and a glass of wine. Catering to… Limited menu catering to most appetites. No allergy info marked on menu.  Only one vegetarian starter and one …

Monday Bunday: Kitchen Timers

Published by

Since we got a new (secondhand) oven, I’ve spent a little bit of time getting to know it. It doesn’t have a built in timer and I also suspect that the thermostat is either out or the oven behaves differently to our previous oven. 1. Apple kitchen timer £3.99 from FenTrader. 2. Bengt Ek Design Rabbit Kitchen Timer £11.99 from Legend Cookshops. 3. Carrot kitchen timer $8 from Seattle Seed Co. 4. Pink dotty egg timer £5.75 from Omlet. 5. Bunny timer for custom print from $4.83 each from Identity Links. 6. Digital rabbit timer $20 for a 12 pack (wholesale) at Daiso Japan. I ended up getting an apple shaped kitchen timer. I couldn’t resist how it would look in our fruit bowl, although the pink polk dot egg would look very sweet nestled in a basket of real eggs.

The smallest piece

Published by

“The whole universe depends on everything fitting together just right. If one piece busts, even the smallest piece… the whole universe will get busted.” – Beasts of the Southern Wild Our oven got busted. The smallest piece, the pin for the oven timer snapped off rendering the whole oven useless. Our landlord has been and gone, taking the timer with him so we have a hole where it used to be. Hopefully it is an easy and quick fix. Our stove works fine so I’m not relying on raw or microwave meals. Just no roasting or baking for a while. At least this isn’t a baking blog! Stovetop pavlova and cheesecake anyone?

Declutter the kitchen

Published by

When you live in a rental property, there’s not a whole lot you can do with a poorly laid out kitchen. There is one drawer in our kitchen. One. So we’ve learned to live with that precious drawer. We’ve introduced freestanding drawers into our kitchen and I keep boxes inside my cupboards for various knickknacks that other people might put in drawers. I mean, aren’t drawers just a stack of boxes with handles? I’ve had this set of white corner drawers since I was in high school. It was great in a corner of a teenager’s bedroom, but looked out of place in the middle of our kitchen. It stuck out too much and it didn’t hide enough.We had cookbooks, bags of potatoes and onions, stacks of shopping bags and tablecloths that needed homes. This spring, we added a whole lot of useable space to our kitchen by adding a long buffet/sideboard. I grabbed this from an online auction site and my initial intention was to paint it with blackboard paint. But when we got …

Swoon-worthy Dinnerware

Published by

I swear drinking water or orange juice from a goblet tastes different than drinking out of tumbler. I’ve always noticed that the right bowl or plate makes a meal taste better. Even if it’s all in your mind, it’s there. When you’re eating a rustic meal in the country side of an exotic location, a banana leaf plate makes the experience authentic and delicious. When you’re eating at home, the right plate or bowl for the job makes all the difference. Since as long as I started dreaming about my own kitchen and dinner parties, I’ve wanted a slightly off centre dinner set. Something that is not too ornate or stuffy and has an earthy character. My ideal dinner set would frame a rustic and hearty feast. It would not suggest fine dining and it’s also not so busy that it competes with the food. Flatmates always leave kitchen items behind when they move out so whenever we cleaned out of a flat, we also moved the flat kitchen stuff that had been left behind …

Monday Bunday: Alessi bunnies

Published by

I started Monday Bunday over a year ago to collect and curate a selection of contemporary rabbit designs from around the world. Over the year there’s been Monday Bunday posts on graphic design, illustration and typography, fashion, art, decor and homeware, furniture, office and more. Who knew there was so much bunny stuff out there? Bunny themed designer kitchen pieces always make me squeal with glee. This week’s Monday Bunday post is a kitchen one. I present to you: Magic Bunny Toothpick Holder and Bunny & Carrot Kitchen Roll Holder designed by Stefano Giovannoni for Alessi.

Chalkboard Kitchens

Published by

The idea of running my bare hands over a dusty chalkboard gives me an uneasy feeling. Almost as bad as fingernails dragged across its surface. Even so, the idea of chalkboard as decoration, art or furniture and it’s ever changing surface is really appealing. We had a chalkboard as a prop at our wedding reception with guests writing messages that got continuously more risqué as the night progressed. A chalkboard kitchen I’m not entirely sure how you would get past all the chalkdust this would inevitably invite into your kitchen, but it does look pretty cool. I’ve always had a thing for black kitchens. Even if you didn’t mind eating a little chalk dust for these designs, it just seeing chalkdust around the kitchen would probably annoy the crap out of you. Here are some of my favourite chalkboard kitchens from around the web.  11 Magnolia Lane’s chalkboard pantry doors. I love how she used chalkboard contact paper instead of paint so that it could be removed fairly easily. I’ve never thought about using contact …

The Secret World of Private Kitchens in Hong Kong

Published by

Before our super epic trip, I’d mentioned to my cousin Charing that I wanted to dine at a private kitchen. From Wiki: Speakeasy, also termed private kitchen in Hong Kong (Chinese: 私房菜), is a term in modern Hong Kong referring to an unlicensed, restaurant-like establishment for eating. Some of the perceived problems with running a restaurant in Hong Kong—high rents and the common practice of landlords extracting profits from restaurants through clauses in tenancy agreements—have led to the establishment of this type of eatery. Owners also have the additional benefit that many government regulations concerning restaurants can be avoided. A typical speakeasy will be based in an ordinary apartment in a block of flats. Customers gain access by ringing the bell before the door is opened from the inside. Inside, the flat will be set out as a simple restaurant. Usually, it provides not only quality home-made food and drink, but a sense of being at home. Advertising is usually by word of mouth—it’s often not possible to have prominent signs outside to advertise the business’ presence, as with a normal commercial establishment. She knew …