Rebekka’s Golden Nashville Kitchen

Rebekka Seale’s home smells like lavender, lemons, and melted butter. It’s small and cozy, the type of place in which you want to snuggle up and read a book on a rainy afternoon. Everything in Rebekka’s kitchen and dining room is meticulously matched, from the white subway tiles to the fresh flowers that grace her windowsill. She even bought a minty, mossy green-yellow nail polish to match her favorite ice cream flavor (Jeni’s honey pistachio). Join us as we tour her lovely space!

In Rebekka’s kitchen, light bounces off of the milky white walls and every nook and cranny has a glimmer of gold or yellow: buttery yellow paint inside a crowded pantry, gold-rimmed vintage dinnerware on the table, a sunflower-yellow cameo of her and her husband Manley hanging on the wall. Best of all, Rebekka has stamped big, gold bumblebees on three walls of her dining room. 

Her kitchen cabinets are densely populated with every size mason jar one could imagine, each one full of whole foods like grains, nuts, and vibrantly colored spices. And her fridge… would that all of our fridges could look like it! Clean and minimal, Rebekka’s fridge usually contains a plethora of vegetables, local meat and really, really nice cheese. 

Rebekka is a true renaissance woman, who’s mastered the arts of effortless style, illustration and rustic cooking. She is always looking upward, hopeful about things to come, taking in the movements of the birds and the bees and the whispers of the wind in the trees, all of which she depicts dreamily in her illustrations. 

→ To see more pictures of Rebekka’s home and illustrations, visit her website: Rebekka Mann Seale

1. What inspires your kitchen and your cooking?
More than anything: travel. My favorite food cities in the US are New Orleans and Santa Monica, California, with Brooklyn following closely behind. Whenever I come home from a trip, the first thing I want to do is recreate a food or drink experience I had while I was away! 

2. What is your favorite kitchen tool or element?
All of my wooden spoons and utensils. I love the way they feel in a pan, sturdy but gentle. I keep them conditioned with different sorts of food-grade wood wax…my favorite being a meyer lemon-infused one that I picked up on a recent trip to NYC. 

3. What’s the most memorable meal you’ve ever cooked in this kitchen?
Well, we haven’t even lived here a year yet, so I don’t have that many to choose from! But I did cook a really fun brunch for a friend’s 30th birthday…buttermilk biscuits and tomato gravy, maple-pecan bacon, strawberry-jalapeno baked brie, and pears in a vanilla bean-infused champagne syrup.

4. The biggest challenge in your kitchen:
I would prefer to have a gas stove. Our range is brand new, so it still cooks fairly quickly, but cooking with gas would be ideal! 

5. Is there anything you wish you had done differently?
The first thing we did when we moved in was replace the terra-cotta backsplash tiles with miniature white subway tiles. It brightened the whole space up. If I could have kept going, I would have replaced the floor tiles too! 

6. Biggest indulgence or splurge in the kitchen:
Fresh truffles whenever we can get our hands on them. 

7. Is there anything you hope to add or improve in your kitchen?
I’m slowly building a copper pot collection (hammered Ruffoni) and I’m equally excited about displaying it as I am cooking with it.

8. How would you describe your cooking style?
Classic Southern meets classic French. Lots of New Orleans influence. I grew up on the Alabama Gulf coast, and if I had access to better seafood here in Nashville I would cook seafood ALL the time! 

9. Best cooking advice or tip you ever received:
I think this came from one of Julia Child’s books, but apparently the secret to a perfect roast chicken is to let the skin brown in a very hot oven (475) for 15 minutes before letting it cook more slowly (350) for the duration of the cooking. This results in a crispy-skinned chicken that is perfectly tender on the inside. Once I read this, it really changed my world because I roast a LOT of chickens! 

10. What are you cooking this week?
Last night I cooked little individual sweet potato soufflées with coconut milk, fresh ginger, and toasted macadamia nuts. They were delicious! 

• Murchison-Hume cleaning products
  
• High Garden Tea
  
• Weck Jars
  
• Paint: “Glass of Milk” by Martha Stewart
  
• Bee stamp: The English Stamp Company

Thank you so much for letting us peek into your kitchen!
Share your own kitchen renovation or improvement!
We’re always looking for real kitchens from real cooks.
Show us your kitchen here! 

(Images: Hannah Messinger)