Old kitchen gets bright new design

When Karen Skelton and Richard Siegel's pottery company, Potluck Studios, outgrew their Amagansett, N.Y., home, the couple knew a move was in their future. A drive to New York's Hudson River Valley and lunch at a vineyard in the region clinched the location of their new digs.

"It was just like being in Provence," Karen says. "Take away the apple trees, insert olive trees, and it looks the same!"

There, in the foothills of the Catskills, they found new studio space for Potluck and a charming 19th-century farmhouse to call home.

"The house has a sense of history to it," Richard says. "There was something very human about it that we responded to —the eyebrow windows, the strange little rooms."

The house's quirks did call for some changes: In order to create the roomy, flowing kitchen they had always wanted, the couple not only found it necessary to enlarge the space but also to relocate a barn on the property that stood too close to the house.

Then they chose to merge old and new furnishings and collections into their decoration. Punches of color and texture came via sunny French-inspired pottery and Potluck linens, antique pieces tucked into a bright cinnamon-hued cabinet from the 1800s and the wood tiles on the island.

Adding a new kitchen onto their 1840s farmhouse gave Karen and Richard more space to cook, to entertain and to display their colorful pottery. Using their ideas as a guide, here are some ways to turn conventional interior design into functional yet fabulous decor.

Inspiration

Think of the type of design you enjoy most and try to re-create it in your own room. For example, Karen's inspiration comes from the French countryside, which is evident in her assortment of hand-thrown and glazed dinnerware in bright, primary colors — adding a warm glow to the tabletop. Also, napkins from her line of table linens were designed to complement the colors of the pottery's low-fire glazes.

Color

Using color to link rooms together as Karen and Richard did is easy. They placed colorful wooden tiles on their kitchen island as a palette for other areas throughout the house, which is peppered with russet walls, painted finishes and textiles. These colors are also reflected in their sunny-hued earthenware.

Elements