Best Seat[s] in the House

An anecdote: In virtually every photo shoot of kitchens I've done, we remove two or three bar stools from the seating area. While they might be there for the comfort of the home's occupants, the leggy furnishings rarely fail to complicate a visual composition. The design of the Tryst addresses both issues with creativity and craftsmanship. peterpless.com

Tray Bien

I have never been able to get behind the idea of cupboards for trays; they strike me as being more space-wasting than not, and the opening action of the typical tiny door is so abrupt as to be unnatural. This design, where the tray itself is exposed and integrated into the base cabinets, fixes those problems in a straightforward and graceful way. woodenkitchen.co.uk

Frozen in Time

Say what? This appliance oddity really piqued my cryogenic curiosity. Thanks to the Magic of the Interwebs, I am able to report that this freezer was available in 1948, and that it only required defrosting twice a year—a process that I imagine was more than a little messy. For such a hulking machine, it offered a mere nine cubic feet of capacity. Within the chilling cylinders, no foodstuff was ever more than nine inches away from 'the all-surrounding source of cold.' Such a fixation with the number nine apparently was meant to give empirical credence to the wonders promised by the Deepfreeze.

Designed to Incline

Subtly sculptural, the Cuarcita tiles break the wall plane at just the right angle—enough to avert visual boredom and while avoiding excessive textural effects. The dimensions are well-balanced, too. ceracasa.com

Cream of the Crop

The results are in! You can see the winners of the 2010 KBCULTURE Awards right here, and read about the judging process.

Open to Possibilities

By reaffirming that the idiosyncratic and the practical can coexist, Alfredo Haeberli's Mesa kitchen has lifted my spirits today. The divot-marked cabinets are as much about pattern as they are about texture; it's like a code. A slab of stone bridges the island's steel and wood ends—maybe a little strong on the materials usage, but I appreciate how they define the cooking and prep areas. The chopping block/workbench element, with its prominent vice handle, teases me [in a good way] with its references to disassembling/assembling. schiffini.it

Chic Sighting

Slithering down its color-coordinated cable to beam into the kitchen or bath, the Alien pendant fixture is proof of intelligent life in the design world...but I can't say about what lies beyond. next.de