If you're looking for pie-in-the-sky kitchen design ideas, you can read scores of shelter magazines, watch endless HGTV programs, and tour pristine kitchen showrooms. But the best way to accumulate ideas for redoing your own kitchen is snooping around other people's houses to see where they've hidden the recycling bins and where they've put the sinks (yes, no self-respecting kitchen has just one sink anymore.) Whether you are thinking about resale value or just your own needs for cooking and entertaining with ease, the 8th annual Kitchen Tour of Northwest Connecticut offers 9 private kitchens to visit on Saturday, November 6. The tour raises funds for the Housatonic Musical Theatre Society, which provides the funding so that students at Housatonic Valley Regional High School can produce a full-fledged musical (Guys & Dolls, March 17 -19, 2011) because unlike the fictional high school on the TV show Glee, there is not enough money in the public school budget to support musical theater as an extra-curricular activity.
All of the kitchens on the tour—which covers Cornwall, Falls Village, Lakeville, Salisbury and Sharon—are described as chef's kitchens. Many of these modern kitchen have been intergrated into antiques houses such as Little River Farm on Amenia Union Road that dates back to 1739 and the 1793 Colonial in Cornwall Village that was once home to the legendary Doctor Bradford Walker. The tour organizers work with the homeowners to provide fact sheets about products and sources that were used in each kitchen (along with a recipe from each) so you'll have all the details about materials, fixtures and appliances that you covet. Housatonic Musical Theatre Society Kitchen TourSaturday, November 6; 10 a.m. 4 - p.m. Advance Tickets $30 (available at Salisbury Pharmacy, Sharon Pharmacy, Kent House of Books, Deano's Pizza, Four Seasons Foods and Harney Tea in Millerton) Day-of Tickets $35 (available at each house)
