Flowers, Mother’s Day, and the Annual Kitchen Tour!

Forget the multiple nor’easters, forget the snow in April, forget the power outages. Look ahead, my winter-weary friends. Look toward the blessed month of May. The flowers, Mother’s Day, and the most popular rite of spring this side of the Piscataqua: the annual Kitchen Tour to benefit The Music Hall!

You need to do this. You need to purge those vile visions of sloppy, wet snow from your mind and envision instead 11 terrific kitchens in Portsmouth. I’ve seen them. You’re going to want to see them.

So, before you read on, take out your electronic devices and mark Saturday, May 12, from 10am to 4pm. Put the proper reminders in because you don’t want to miss this year’s tour. There’s something for everyone.

Consider this: For folks who believe classy kitchens and children playing can’t coexist, I say au contraire. There’s a stop on the tour with a coffered ceiling above and a children’s table below. The homeowners are in the design and construction business, so they know a thing or two.

This year’s Kitchen Tour is again very walkable and again centered in the delightful Little Harbour neighborhood. Many of the homes were built in the 1800s or early 1900s, so the renovations truly are revelatory, such as the one done on a house built in 1902, a house with the grand name Stella Maris, “The Star of the Sea.”

This homeowner took the importance of her kitchen so seriously, she up and moved it from the back of the home to a more central spot. She wanted it to be the heart of the home. And what a beautiful heart it is.

There are small kitchens with big design ideas, coolly modern kitchens in wonderfully old houses, and kitchens into which homeowners invested great time and thought.

A couple in one home drew inspiration from the time they lived in Europe. The result is a unique cooking/eating/gathering space with details that delight and impress. They have a window as a backsplash, a waterfall edge on their island, and you won’t believe the material used for the terrific pendants hanging over the kitchen table. This is one amazing kitchen.

They’re all pretty swell, actually. And I could go on and on. Instead, I’ll just urge you to go on . . . the Kitchen Tour, that is.

Advance tickets are $25 for Music Hall members and $27 for non-members. They can be purchased at the Historic Theater’s B2W Box Office at 28 Chestnut Street in downtown Portsmouth, online at TheMusicHall.org, or by calling 603-436-2400. Tickets are available at the box office on the day of the Kitchen Tour for $30.

You’re going to find a lot of inspiration in the kitchens we are showcasing in the 27th Annual Kitchen Tour. And to help you remember all the cool things you saw, or the helpful advice you got from the professional builders and designers who will be in the kitchens, this year there will be a space in your Guide Book for taking notes.

Organize your group, get your tickets, and plan to join the hundreds of others who have made this event an annual tradition. The Kitchen Tour is Mother’s Day weekend. We will be doing our best to present it in warmth and sunshine.