We have fabulous readers who are, it turns out, all over the globe! Jeanne made contact with us when we started to go on about loving Skandi style and TV (The Killing, The Bridge, COS…) leaving comments under our posts saying how much she enjoyed our daily posts. She told us we’d love The Bridge and we did. So we asked her if she’s like to show us her kitchen and now we want to move to Norway…….
Where Rural Norway 10 mins south of Lillehammer, host to 1994 Winter Olympics.
What do you do in your kitchen and with who. Very much the engine room and warm heart of the house. I listen to Radio 4 and Womans Hour and make A LOT of English marmalade (difficult to buy here), coffee and the quick Telegraph crossword with my’ Kentish Man’ when he is around, drink tea laugh and gossip anytime with anyone as well as loads of cooking, baking and the sowing of seeds on the windowsill in Spring. It’s roughly 30 m2
What’s that lovely view? A spectacular view overlooking Lake Mjøsa – Norway’s largest lake – 110 km long.
Describe your style. Mostly English with a definate Scandanavian influence. Without a doubt my favourite object is my dresser – it has been with me my entire married life (31yrs)! A comforting bridge between my old life in Kent and my new life here in Norway. Designing it was quite a challenge, with hardly any wall space and the plumbing for the kitchen sink in the middle of the room. However The Kentish Man is very practical and I’m pleased with it and it works well. It is filled with light which is really important especially in the Winter.
Are those home made biscuits above the oven? Ok – the ‘biscuits’ – actually a type of Swedish crispbread – first seen in the kitchen of an old farmhouse many years ago. Traditionally when they baked they would make a hole in the middle of the bread and hang it up on the pole to crisp up. I thought it was decorative as well as practical and having a passionate interest in all things bread related was thrilled when we moved to this house eight years ago and had the possibility to reproduce the idea. I have tried making them but it is quite an art – the ones you see in the photograph are handmade and bought in Sweden on my last visit. Ikea do sell packets of mass produced ones which still have charm. We don’t eat them and once in a while I take them down and vaccuum them – they are quite a conversation piece.
What’s your most useful item – Perfectly ordinary Fiskars kitchen scissors – I use them for snipping bacon,chopping herbs opening bags of frozen peas,cutting flowers and so much more
I’ll certainly let you know if we get any new great Scandi thrillers here this Autumn – at the moment we are all into Downton and loving it. Frosty greetings!
We absolutely love hearing from our readers, and would love to feature more of your kitchens, please do email us here at TWR if you’d like to be featured, what we’d really like is someone who has done something interesting with a VERY SMALL space, anyone?
Fabulous. Does Jeanne have a blog?
love these pictures, are you only doing kitchens? will you tell me when you move onto bookrooms?
That’s a fabulous kitchen.It has the same effect on me as the Toast catalogue. But how on earth did you realise Jeanne had a fantastic kitchen? Sue
Just luck Sue and the fact that she’s one of our readers, I reckon lots of our readers have interesting kitchens, they don’t have to be fancy, huge or expensively decorated, we need a few small but lovely spaces too, anyone out there want to send us some snaps?
Justine, book rooms? What’s a book room? Lucky you if you have one….A
Wow what a gorgeous kitchen – I am most jealous – my kitchen is hideous and given that it’s a rented house we can do nothing about it sadly – I dream of the day I have my own kitchen and I can go wild with it – I now want to move to Norway too – all that cold weather – bliss.
You can buy Swedish Crispbreads from Peter’s Yard in Edinburgh – they also supply them online and have a list of stockists on their website. Always on my places to visit whenever I’m staying in Edinburgh – and the crispbreads are really good!
Ok bags packed we’re off to Norway. Oh to have breakfast with that view every day. Looking forward to your small spaces post – I have a v small house and have not managed anything interesting with it. Ideas welcome. x
I have a book room! I work at a uni and I think it’s an academic euphemism for a box room – its where I keep my sewing machine, Christmas presents and everything else that doesn’t have a proper home, plus books of course. Not a pretty sight, alas… xx
No a book room is a room full of books! I turned a room into a book lined one
That kitchen is totally gorgeous, as is its stunning setting overlooking the water. I love the idea of sending in kitchen photos, especially those that reflect the personalities of the owners.
Is no-one watching’ Lilyhammer’ on BBC 3 Tuesday evenings? Not another Killing – but a US/Norwegian joint venture dark comedy, set on location in (where else?) Lillehammer, which could have been written by the Coen brothers. I love it – you might get it on iPlayer…T