Simply Styled Shelves for Kitchen66 in Downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma

Our friends at The Idea Collective asked us to help with one of their Tulsa projects–Kitchen 66, an innovative kitchen space for food entrepreneurs, which includes a delicious restaurant, Cafe 66. This kitchen space and education for local food makers is a program developed by the Lobeck-Taylor Family Foundation. Read more about what this facility offers on their website.

Meanwhile, our part in the story of this kitchen kickstarter program was getting to stock and style the shelves on the cafe floor. We couldn't have been more excited. 

THE MISSION: Add and arrange vintage kitchen items to a lot of long, open shelves.

OUR PLAN: After seeing the color scheme, design approach, and layout of the space, we knew we needed simplicity. One of our main goals was to keep it from looking like certain chain restaurants that feature a hodge-podge of wacky vintage items piled and tacked on the walls. We collected wooden, glass (white and clear), and metal kitchen pieces, with plans to add dried beans and plants.

HOW IT WENT: Coffee at our sides, we unpacked all our items on the floor between the two large shelves and decided to each take a side and just go at it. Then we would edit one another's shelves together from all angles. It was so fun. Playing with pattern and texture is incredibly satisfying. We often glanced at the other's shelf to try to mirror or nod to an arrangement we admired. To be honest, it was our ideal morning. 

We felt strongly the shelf arrangements be lovely from all sides since there would be people viewing them from all directions. We hope someone sits by a shelf and, while biting into a sandwich, appreciates the tendril of philodendron angled perfectly for their viewing. 

Greenery: An incredibly inexpensive and easy way to add green to a space is placing a cutting of Philodendron into some water. You can add fertilizer drops/root starter to give them a good push. All you do from there is change the water; I do it every time I notice the waterline has lowered at or below the roots. The cuttings for this project came from the window boxes in the restaurant. These plants have likely been in the Sun Building in our beautiful downtown for thirty years or more. The great part is that taking cuttings helps your main plant stay vibrant. It's special that the green on the shelves is part of the living history of the space. 

Speaking of Special: We love that each vignette on the shelves look much like a chef is prepping for a meal. All the things on the shelves are vintage and have been used by cooks. There is just something intangibly beautiful about the energy and history of many Tulsa kitchens lingering on the shelves of a space meant to give budding culinary entrepreneurs a way to get started. 

This is a gorgeous space that Idea Collective put together, and we are so proud of the part we played. It felt opulent to add the finishing touches to an already so pretty space.

All our best wishes to the chefs to walk through this building. We look forward to trying out the Cafe 66, open Monday through Friday 7:30am-2:30pm in the Sun Building at 907 S. Detroit Avenue.