The kitchen is the heart of Keith Johnson’s Tuscan farmhouse, and every single object in it has a story he can tell you at length.
Keith spent 25 years as buyer at large for Anthropologie, hunting objects across the world. His husband Glen, former CEO of the company’s parent group, cooks nonstop, and people come over nonstop, which is exactly what a kitchen in Italy is for.
The stove is a genuinely ancient wood-burning one, bought at Parma — which Keith calls the best antiques fair in Italy, football fields of dealers, essential if you love the hunt. The wall behind it is lined with Sicilian tiles a couple of hundred years old, no two quite alike. He loves the wear on them as much as the patterns.
Then there’s the refrigerator, which nearly gave him a heart attack. It’s an old butcher shop unit that traveled from Argentina to England, where the Vintage Fridge Company rebuilt the interior, then on to Tuscany, where it would not fit through the door. It sat outside for three months and got snowed on. Eventually a man arrived with what amounts to a small tank on treads, laid it on its side and slid it down the three steps with a sixteenth of an inch to spare on every side. Keith couldn’t compromise — ordinary refrigerators are simply too ugly to look at every day.
The tall cabinet came from two older dealers at Parma and had sat in the same Bologna kitchen for over two hundred years. Every door opens for airing pies and hanging meat safely away from mice. Keith has run into those dealers three times since, and every time they ask after it. That, to him, is what Italian dealers are like — it was never about the money.
The refectory table is at least two hundred years old, possibly three. Keith is a compulsive furniture rearranger. This one arrived, and it has not moved and will not move, because it takes four people.
The dining room next door is really a breakfast nook, but they’ve squeezed eight people around the table, warmed by the fire and fed on what he swears is the best pizza in the world.
For more extraordinary home tours, visit our website: homeworthy.com
Shop picks inspired by our tours: https://shopmy.us/shop/homeworthy
Keep up with our latest tours: https://homeworthy.myflodesk.com/homeworthynewsletter
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/homeworthy
Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@homeworthy
3 Comments
❤beautiful kitchen. Love the wall color. I would have liked to know what make and name of color.
He has the most incredible eye for furniture and art.. his fridge is pure gold.. I enjoyed the tour of his English home and the amazing art work
What a wonderful cozy kitchen. I can smell the food cooking now!!🦋