21 Easy kitchen updates

This is long overdue post but on my way to Paris, I bought Elle Decoration and only managed to go through it recently. One of their articles was on 21 Easy Kitchen updates and I was really thrilled to see they had used my kitchen cupboard from our house in France (where I'm right now to celebrate my Dad's 65th B'day) as example no 9!

If you haven't got a copy, I've just listed these easy updates for you because I think a lot of do are easy and also inexpensive.
1 Show your cupboards some love by adding new fronts or wallpaper them with the scrapwood wallpaper by Piet Hein Eek
2 Cheer your ears with a whistling kettle
3 Treat yourself to proper tools
4 If you can, position your sink station by a sunny window (or add one of our cool roller blinds!)
5 Add some character to your kitchen with quirky tea towels
6 Look for imaginative ways to organize your space
7 Decant cutlery into large glass tumblers for instant deli-style chic (I have been doing this at home since I saw it done at Story Deli in Bricklane)
8 Take the plunge with a colourful tap and inject a jolt of fun

9 Give the inside of cupboards a lick of paint (which is honestly the easiest thing to do! I bought a second-hand cupboard for 15 Euros in France, painted the inside in blue grey and the outside in white and then add white crockery). I really like this B&W version too.

Norrgavel via Emma's Design blog

10 Swap standard cupboard handles for something more unusual
11 Raise the heat with a sexy new oven
12 Add some pizzazz to your walls with patterned tiles
13 Make an impact with colourful storage
14 Commission glassworker to make you a decorative splash-back
15 Store spices in magnetic mini containers on the side of your fridge
16 Create a dynamic display with pots and pans
17 Transform shelves by covering with patterned oilcloth (you can use these large blind fabric samples too to achieve the same result)
18 Grow a herb garden and keep it near the hob so you can add straight to the cooking pot
19 Make recycling your New Year's resolution!
20 Enjoy eye-catching crockery every day
21 Collect colourful cookbooks

En allant a Paris, j'ai achete Elle Decoration et il n'y a seulement quelques jours que j'ai pu enfin lire. Un de leurs articles etait sur 21 facons faciles de renover une cuisine et j'etais super contente de voir qu'ils avaient utilise le placard de ma cuisine de notre maison en France (ou je suis actuellement pour feter les 65 ans de mon pere) en exemple no 9!
Si vous n'avez pas une copie du Elle Deco, je les ai liste ci-dessous parce que je pense que la plupart sont faciles et faire et pas trop cher.
1 Montrez un peu d'amour a vos placards de cuisine en remplacant les portes ou en les couvrant de papier peint comme le papier peint Bois de Recup de Piet Hein Eek
2 Ajoutez une jolie bouilloire qui siffle ou en couleur
3 Equipez-vous avec de vrais outils
4 Si vous pouvez, positionez votre evier pres d'une fenetre ensoleillee (ou ajoutez un de super cool stores!)
5 Ajoutez du charactere a votre cuisine avec quelques torchons un peu funky
6 Essayez de trouver des facons imaginatives d'organiser l'espace
7 Mettez vos couteaux et fourchettes dans des gros pots en verre comme dans les cafes our Delicatessen (je fais ca a la maison depuis que je l'ai vu a Story Deli a Bricklane)
8 Ajoutez un peu de fun avec un robinet en couleur
9 Peignez l'interieur de votre placard de cuisine (ce qui est honnetement super facile a faire! J'ai achete un placard d'occasion pour 15 Euros in France et peint l'interieur en bleu-gris et l'exterieur en blanc en une weekend et ensuite je les remplie avec de la vaisselle blanche). J'aime bien aussi cette version N&B.

10 Changez les poignets de vos placards pour quelque de different
11 Ajoutez un nouveau four aux lignes sexy
12 Ajoutez un peu de vavavroum a vos murs avec des carreaux a motifs
13 Creez un impact avec des meubles de rangement haut en couleur
14 Commissionnez un artisan pour creer une plaque
15 Rangez vos epices dans des petits containers magnetiques sur le cote de votre frigo
16 Creez un mur dynamique en exposant votre batterie de cuisine
17 Transformez vos etageres en les recouvrant de tissu impermeable (vous pouvez egalement utiliser ces larges echantillons de tissu pour arriver au meme resultat)
18 Faire pousser des herbes et gardez les pres de la gasiniere pour les ajouter a votre casserole lorsque vous cuisinez
19 Faites du recyclage votre nouvelle resolution pour l'annee!
20 Faites vous plaisir avec de la jolie vaisselle

21 Collectionnez des livres de cuisine qui vous font faire envie

Now that the B'day Boy party is over, we're off to Andorra for a few days of skiiing with Lily and Mila. Have a great week!

Loving this Royal bird...

and no... I'm not talking about Miss Kate Middleton who will marry Prince William of Wales next year but about this fabulous, eco-friendly Royal Bird rocking chair by Creme Anglaise who just landed in our little boutique.
Handmade out of wood from recycled pallets by French carpenter Jocelyn Costis in the UK, this gorgeous Bird-shaped rocking chair for children is simply eco-friendly design at its best and the perfect addition to a kids bedroom!
PS: Happy thoughts for the weekend will resume in Jan 2011. I'm still happy but now that the Xmas madness has started in our little boutique, I simply don't have time.

et la en francais il faut que j'explique ma blague a deux balles....En anglais, 'a bird', c'est un oiseau mais aussi une nana...Donc le 'Bird Royal' aurait pu etre Mademoiselle Kate Middleton qui va epouser le Prince William l'annee prochaine mais bon non, je parlais de ce fabuleux Rocking chair Royal Bird ecologique par Creme Anglaise et qui vient juste d'atterir dans notre petite boutique.
Fabrique a la main par Jocelyn Costis, un ebeniste francais vivant a Londres, ce magnifique fauteuil a bascule Royal Bird is tout simplement un example parfait de design ecologique et un must-have dans une chambre d'enfant.
PS: Happy thoughts for the weekend re-demarrera en Janvier 2011. Je suis tjs 'happy' mais maintenant que les commandes de Noel ont commence dans notre petite boutique, je n'ai simplement pas le temps.

Ming Oil & Vinegar set by Jansen + Co

You better watch this space....Our team is currently adding new designs to WhereDidYouBuyThat.com and some of them are just stunning (especially the ones from a famous French company that works with a lot of talented designers including Rob Ryan...yes the famous Rob Ryan who makes cut out prints to die for) but more of this later.
Today, I wanted to focus on this gorgeous Ming Oil and Vinegar set by Dutch design company Jansen + Co because I think it's a very clever, functional and beautiful piece of design.

So this uber cool Oil and Vinegar set can easily be mistaken for wine glasses but they are not! The whole thing is upside down, making this oil and vinegar set a fantastic salad dressing kit. Each vessel can hold a decent amount of oil or vinegar, but the long, tapered stem of the glass reduces the flow to a manageable amount.
I think like the rocking glasses by Normann Copenhagen, this oil and vinegar set will be a great talking point when you have friends around but also it's a great way of making sure that butter-fingered guests don't slosh olive oil all over your table!
What do you think? You like it?

Bugatti blender

Our wonderful sister site just received stock of the Bugatti Vela blender in black and red and they look fairly impressive!

Made from 18/10 stainless steel, the Casa Bugatti Vela blender stands apart from other blenders in its appearance, functionality and design. The unique conical shape of the mixing jar makes food move about easily for perfect blending while allowing you to introduce ingredients through the lid from the filter cup. The jar can be stored on the blender power base in many ways without the need to lock it on the base. Vela can also blend up to 1.5 litres at a time and with its solid blending blades designed from the highest quality steel, it will crush ice in no time.
Once used, the stainless-steel blades of the Vela blender, can be removed for easy cleaning.

And as Uncrate put it: "No kitchen is complete without a blender to crush ice, make smoothies, milkshakes, and prepare mixed drinks. While most blenders look like relics from a bygone era, the Bugatti Vela Blender is so stylish you'll want to show it off."
£160 incl free UK delivery
Available in 9 colours from www.wheredidyoubuythat.com

You may also be interested in the Bugatti Volo toasters, the Bugatti Vera kettles and the Bugatti Uma kitchen scales

The bowls that stopped me from going to jail

If you're thinking about getting a new set of bowls for the kitchen, the Jensen bowls by Normann Copenhagen are the ones to get. I took the blue ones at home a few weeks ago and I have been raving about it since then but let's focus on why they are so good...
Is it because each bowl has a wide slop suitable for pouring thin as well as thick consistency?
I don't know.

I'm not a great cook so it's not like I have massive amount of expertise when it comes to kitchenware but I do find this wide thing very practical.
What really did it for me is how light they are and I should know that this matters because a few years ago, I was preparing my famous chocolate cake to take to her friend's party when disaster striked.
As I was holding my nice ceramic salad bowl with one hand (from the Ikea 365+ range but they don't do the bowl anymore which is a shame), trying to pour the mixture in my oven dish with the other, I dropped the flippin' thing which broke into pieces in the oven dish.
Not only I didn't have enough butter and chocolate to start all over again but I was running late so in the end, I picked up the ceramic bits from the chocolate, put the whole thing in the oven and Bob's your uncle!
Except that when my friends started to eat my cake, they came across crunchy bits which I could hardly disguise as nuts. Fearing that of of them would start bleeding to death after eating my ceramic bits or decide to sue me, I came clean.

To this day, although they are still my friends, my 'crunchy cake' stands right up there at the same level than the tuna cake not cooked enough I served them when Elodie was pregnant.
So yes they are light and they are fantastic to use. Personnally, my favourite ones are the blue because I feel I'm cooking by the sea (blue/sea..see the link..) but they come in white or grey.
They also have a non-slip bottom and I love the different sizes. Mila uses the small one at breakfast and I love the other sizes to prepare things and the largest one as a salad bowl.
So I'm not going to make an habit of reviewing the kitchen stuff we have on BODIE and FOU, but these bowls are great.

Available in grey here, blue here and white here