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by C. Jeanette Tyson
Veronica
Koltuniak and I are talking about kitchens and stuff. Tangerine-colored
mixers and mom’s favorite recipes scrawled on index cards. Kid art and
birthday party invitations, stacks of mail and the car keys. Friends and
family propped and leaning, sprawled and draped. Food, here and there.
Roni knows her stuff. So well, in fact, that when
Courtney Cox and David Arquette moved in together, they asked her to help
sort theirs out. That was several years ago. Roni, since then, has had two
children and relocated her interior design business to Austin. Courtney and
David, since then, have taken that experience and, of course, created a
television show. Interior designers are called in to make sense of two
sensibilities. Brilliant. And cheaper than counseling.
Although Roni’s designed two living rooms for the
show, so far she hasn’t tackled a kitchen. But she’d love to, because
she’s got a theory or two.
Let’s
start with the kitchen-as-train-depot theory.
"It’s an interesting hub. I love how
everybody ends up in the kitchen. Even though you have an extravagant house—with
dining rooms, living rooms, screening rooms--- still everyone ends up
in the kitchen.
One of the things I see happening as a trend and
that I really like is that kitchens are becoming more a part of the main
center of the house, as opposed to something off to the side or something
you’re covering with a butler’s door."
All that coming and going, of course, leads to
chaos. "I like controlled chaos," Roni hastens to say. You mean
you have ways of avoiding a train wreck? Please, share, please.
Kid Art: Around her own breakfast nook, Roni has
thin 4’ x 8’ sheets of sheet metal, acid-treated and buffed to a nice
patina. "Pictures, birthday party invitations, artwork and everything
else goes up on that wall and it’s constantly changing. It’s an organic
response to the situation in my home."
Tiny, loose scraps of paper with pertinent phone
numbers often discovered in a pool of maple syrup: Get rid of them. Instead
get chalkboard paint. It’s again the train station idea. Where they are,
where they’re going, a wall you can point to with dramatic flourish when
someone’s in big trouble for being late.
Cookbooks and magazines: Put a bookshelf in the
kitchen. If cookbooks are actively being used, they should be where you can
get to them. And if they’re not being used, then maybe they will be.
Mail: Roni sees many kitchens functioning as
quasi-office spaces these days and considers a small desk an appropriate
landing pad for stuff coming to the kitchen from the outside. Or perhaps the
wax paper could find somewhere else to live and that drawer could become a
legal-sized filing system.
Appliances and other clutter: "Do we really
need the electric can opener? I think not. I think less is more." If
you’re a fan of the shopping channel, this could apply to you.
Pantries: Roni loves the ones that pull out so you
can see your inventory. Loves not looking for the brown sugar five years
later. Or finding it.
But if the kitchen, or even the trendy
kitchen-cum-laundry, is the functional heart that keeps the whole house
running, what about the spiritual heart? The heart and soul? Must a kitchen
rely only on a collection of Fiestaware for personality?
"I have a strong aversion to the status kitchen.
Having it looking just like the neighbor’s," Roni says.
To keep that from happening, she has to be as much
of a detective as a designer.
"I talk to people, pick up clues about what
they’re like. What people wear, the books and magazines they read, all
that stuff is telling. Then as a designer, I go in and paint a picture. I
try to show the best presentation of who I think they are, showing them in
their best light. They may not know what I’m going after, but I take those
intrinsic clues and make a very personalized space."
Roni tells me about the bowling lane top she used
as a kitchen counter in Courtney and David’s house. Wacky, you might
think, but right up their alley.
She’s also a master-sleuth on eBay and in local
antique shops and re-works found objects to add interest and texture to a
dish. I mean, a room.
One of my favorite pictures of my grandmother is
actually one of me. It was taken when I was still in diapers, standing on a
stool in her kitchen, making biscuits. I had a little pageboy haircut and a
very serious expression. That’s probably the last time I made biscuits,
but damn was I cute. I can’t see my grandmother but I can feel her hands
in the bowl guiding mine. In keeping with the times, there weren’t many
things in the kitchen that weren’t essential, in other words it wasn’t
decorated in any way, but when I think of her, I think of her there. And
though I more often imagine my grandfather out in the world, he is there,
too, in the windowsill full of cuttings and seedlings and things he was
trying to grow.
Kitchens change and they don’t change. You’re
in the kitchen and you’re in the kitchen.
Cross-stitch that.
__________
C. Jeanette Tyson has bee pollen, tuna fish and peanut butter cereal
in her pantry. Roni has mandarin oranges, pine nuts, roasted peppers and
marshmallows. For dinner, or for design, you'd probably be better-served
calling Roni at 512.347.8568. Roni's next appearance on "Mix It
Up" will be December 24th at 7 p.m. on WE! Got a tip, suggestion, idea or feedback for A Little More on Your Plate?
Send it to Jeanette at: foodie@austinmama.com
