The rapid pace of city life, large volumes of information make a person want to hide in a place where time flows slowly, where you can sit in an armchair by the hearth and, watching the flame, think about the eternal. And such an oasis is most often created in their own housing, whether it is an apartment or a house.
The interiors of the so-called rustic styles especially “breathe” with comfort: country, provence, Russian hut ... They seem to have absorbed the wisdom and thoughts of the people in which they were created. Therefore, more and more often, “relaxation” rooms appear in urban skyscrapers, where a person enters and plunges into the forgotten smells of field herbs, wood and log smoke. chalet style kitchen.
Let's plunge into the rustic surroundings, observing what attracts a modern person to a chalet-style kitchen interior and how it can be recreated in a private house or apartment.
Historical digression
The chalet style was “lured” to our lands by tourists who had the pleasure of relaxing in France, on the slopes of the Alps. It was in the mountains that the first chalet houses once appeared, built by poor shepherds who drove their flocks to the mountains for the summer season. The mountains are stingy with natural material, so everything from which a shepherd could build a dwelling was limited to stones and wood (fortunately, there were enough forests in the Alps). And these materials became the basis of both the external appearance of the house and the interior decoration.
A chalet-style kitchen is the realm of stone and wood.
General impression of a chalet-style kitchen
Already from the door you feel how simple and ascetic everything is here. The shepherds needed only basic pieces of furniture: a table and a chair for eating, a drawer for dishes.
And this principle has been preserved by modern cuisine. It has no clutter. From furniture - nothing superfluous, but what is - in very simple forms and design. It seems that the owner himself made a table, hung shelves and put together lockers, and a very long time ago. The room had time to be covered with a touch of antiquity.
Heat emanates from the chalet-style kitchen, which is given by the natural materials reigning around. Wooden floors and stone walls are supported by leather, fur, linen, wool, clay in all sorts of accessories.
The color scheme also gives warmth. It repeats the shades of natural wood. In France, wooden parts were not treated with anything, and from time to time the boards acquired a characteristic dark tone. Designers in modern interiors take it as a basis. The second option is gray shades of natural stone and bleached wood.
Pastel dominates on the walls: yellow, cream, terracotta shades. This is a tribute to the sun, which once woke the shepherds, flooding the rooms with the bright light of the rising rays. Bright earthenware, most often painted in red or orange, also reminds of the sun.
Ceiling structures
The ceiling in the interior of the chalet is only wooden. Majesty and volume are given to it by large beams from the array. They are darker than the rest of the surface, so they stand out from the general background.
If the kitchen is in a private house, where the ceilings are high, then this option is the most authentic, close to the shepherd's style. But in apartments where the ceiling height is already low, massive dark beams will “steal” the height even more. The second color option is suitable for them - a gray shade of bleached wood.Only some species of trees acquire such a natural tone over time, but today they do not expect this, but artificially age the wood and select impregnations of the desired color. Light gray shades in the interior of a chalet-style kitchen expand the space, adding volume to the room.
Wall decoration
The French house was divided into two floors - the first and the attic. On the first one, all the walls were made of natural stone, on the second - of wood. In a modern chalet-style kitchen, both options are possible, and more often they are combined, decorating one wall with stone (artificial or natural), and the rest are sheathed with wood panels. Instead of stone, you can use textured plaster with an imitation of a stone surface or whitewash without leveling the surface to perfect condition.
Floor options
Initially, in the chalet style, the floors were laid only from massive boards and, of course, were not processed in any way. Today, in order to "add years to the coating", the board is treated with oils or varnishes, in which there is a patinated effect. Matte shades look more harmonious.
But since the kitchen is a rather humid room, tiles or natural stone can become an alternative to the board. If you cover with tiles, then you should look for a model that imitates small cracks and chips. They automatically age the interior.
Kitchen furniture
There is no unity in the furniture of the chalet. The interior of the kitchen is filled with items from different collections: cabinets of one style, a table of another. The only thing they have in common is natural wood (solid), minor abrasions, scratches. The furniture is uncomplicated in design, but massive and even a little rough. In the corner, a wicker rocking chair is waiting for its owner. Nearby there can be a leather sofa, but not a chic look, but more reminiscent of sofas from hunting lodges, upholstered in coarse leather.
One gets the impression that this interior was filled gradually, as the owners got free cash.
Filling the interior of the kitchen in the style of a chalet
Each style is reflected in the details. For an Alpine chalet, an indispensable attribute of the kitchen is the hearth.. In the original version, it was a large wood-burning fireplace. In the conditions of a country house, it can be recreated, but in the apartment there will be difficulties with the chimney, especially if this is not the last floor of a high-rise building. It can be replaced with an electric fireplace, but this makes the interior lose its naturalness. The best option is a biofireplace. It burns on bioethanol, showing a natural flame. And at the same time, it does not need an exhaust hood and arrangement of a chimney.
The decoration adheres to traditional elements: they are faced with raw brick, rough stone, and the portal is made of oak.
In addition to the fireplace, the interior of the chalet has many details that indicate the occupation of the owners: hunting rifles, animal skins on the floor, horns on the walls. The nature of the mountains has made its way into the kitchen in the form of wreaths of dried alpine herbs, floral and animal motifs on handmade carpets.
Vintage light fixtures complete the sun-drenched chalet-style kitchen. They are dim, giving a yellow diffused light, reminiscent of the glare of the sun.
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