Ethnic kitchen interior options always attract with their originality, richness of details and incredible practicality. Ukrainian style kitchen is no exception. The arrangement of furniture, stove and dining table may seem similar to the style of other nations. In Ukrainian cuisine, as in Baltic or Belarusian cuisine, the smallest interior details, accessories and kitchen household items are interesting, giving the entire kitchen space a rich ethno-color and color.
Features of Ukrainian style
The decor of classical Ukrainian cuisine, like most folk interiors, depends on the climate and the accepted way of life. Ukrainian kitchen premises were rarely built in large sizes, with high ceilings and huge windows. Most often, the Ukrainian version of the kitchen was something between a light room and a pantry with supplies and necessary household belongings. The kitchen was moved into an extension to the house, and the clay-smeared and bleached stove was simultaneously used for heating the living quarters and for cooking.
To accurately guess the Ukrainian style in kitchen design, designers recommend adhering to the following rules:
- Walls in the Ukrainian style were always plastered and whitewashed with lime or chalk. In houses located in more northern and humid areas, the lower part of the kitchen walls was lined with a wide wooden threshold, which also served as a bench or shelf;
- Windows in the Ukrainian style were installed without window sills, but higher and more massive than is customary in modern kitchen design;
- The ceiling space was covered with pine slats and plastered; the Ukrainian-style kitchen, with rare exceptions, was built with uncovered ceiling beams, which were used as a place to store belongings, from dried herbs and seeds to stocks of raw smoked sausage and harnesses;
- The floor in the Ukrainian kitchen, unlike living quarters, was never made of clay. Most often, the floor was covered with edged boards on a stone-lined scaffold or covered with crushed ash and baked dry clay and lined with sandstone.
The central place in the Ukrainian kitchen has always been occupied by the stove and work table, the rest of the space was allocated for kitchen utensils and supplies. Opposite the main entrance to the kitchen, a hole was built into the glacier, so the Ukrainian-style kitchen was most often built in a walk-through version with a second door.
Ukrainian wedding traditions
A loaf is considered a mandatory wedding attribute in Ukraine. It is baked by both the bride and the groom. The groom goes with a loaf of bread to “buy” the bride, and in her house they are also greeted with a loaf of salt on a towel. While relatives and guests are bargaining for the girl, she and her friends are preening and quietly looking out of the window from behind the curtains, while the groom’s friends are trying to get into the house through deception. The bride's father can test his future son-in-law's strength - beat him with a willow twig to make him stronger, and treat him to a cut glass of strong moonshine without a snack.
After the ransom, the newlyweds go on foot to church. When leaving the house, the bride's mother must sprinkle wheat grains, sweets and coins on her getting married children. For a Ukrainian wedding, a wedding is a special sacrament, which is much more important than the official decoration in an ordinary wedding palace. After the wedding, the children must pour water under their feet so that they can be happy in their marriage.
Traditionally, the newlyweds and their guests return from church on foot, and music comes with them - musicians with national musical instruments (drums, bells, violin, cymbals), who play cheerful music and all the guests are already having fun and dancing.
The entrance to the restaurant for young people and guests is blocked by parents with a loaf of bread, who wish their children happiness, health and prosperity. After these words, the loaf rises upward, and the newlyweds and guests pass under it and the towel into the celebration room.
A Ukrainian-style wedding scenario must necessarily include Ukrainian traditions. A mandatory tradition for an established family is the division of a loaf, which the bride and groom simply break into two parts - whoever ends up with the largest part will be the head of the family. At the end of the wedding, the loaf is divided among all the guests and distributed to the last piece, so that the young family is rich and generous.
At the end of the wedding, accompanied by special songs, the mother-in-law must remove the bride’s veil and put a scarf on her head, which the daughter-in-law must throw off her head three times, and the mother-in-law must then persuade her to wear it and become a member of their family. After the scarf is tied on the head, the mother-in-law kisses the daughter-in-law and hands it to her son.
Before the wedding, the groom always buys new boots or shoes for his mother-in-law, because one of the obligatory traditions at a Ukrainian wedding is washing the mother-in-law’s feet with vodka and giving her new shoes. After this, the son-in-law and mother-in-law dance the polka to cheerful music. To wash the feet, the mother-in-law's feet are decorated with different colors, covered with mud, and the son-in-law must remove all this and wash it off.
Color spectrum
The main colors of a Ukrainian-style kitchen have always been white, red, black, ocher, gum, green vitriol and the dark honey color of old polished wood.
The main color of Ukrainian style was and remains white. Most of the finishing work is done using red clay and black resin. The green color was highly valued and was added to the color scheme and style of Ukrainian cuisine, mainly in the tiled decor of the stove and wall embroidered shirts - towels.
Selection of wedding dresses
Clothing for a wedding ceremony in Ukraine was not only elegant and beautiful, but also played a magical role. Its main purpose was to protect newlyweds from unkind glances and damage. Therefore, there were special requirements for the wedding dresses of the bride and groom.
- The bride's white festive shirt was embroidered with red threads; the plakhta was sewn from pieces of fabric of various colors, which created an ingenious ornament. The outfit was completed with red boots and a woven floral wreath.
- The dress included many ribbons, which served as decoration for the bride and created a festive, cheerful mood.
- The groom's shirt should also be embroidered and come with a wide belt.
- Bright bloomers were worn as trousers.
- The suit was complemented by boots that were polished to a shine.
Nowadays, when organizing such a themed wedding, brides mainly choose Ukrainian embroidered wedding dresses. Cross stitch, satin stitch or bead embroidery allows you to create truly magnificent outfits that you can’t take your eyes off. Most often, floral patterns are embroidered from poppies, daisies, cornflowers, sunflowers, and viburnum.
Red shoes are ideal for such a dress, and a beautiful Ukrainian wreath of flowers found in the embroidery on the dress can serve as a headdress.
Large beads, earrings, and bracelets can be used as accessories for the bride. You can leave your hair loose, or you can braid it, decorating it with ribbons and fresh flowers. The bride's makeup is allowed to be slightly brighter than usual. A wedding bouquet can be made from wildflowers and viburnum branches.
For the groom, you need to choose an embroidered shirt that matches the color and pattern of the bride’s dress, and red trousers. More reserved young people can replace the bloomers with classic black or light trousers.
Materials for finishing in Ukrainian style
To decorate the interior in Ukrainian style, any available materials, paints and plaster mixtures will be useful. Traditionally, Ukrainian cuisine was built using the most affordable materials:
- Wooden slats, timber and polished boards;
- Colored clay for painting, lime, clay and oil based paints;
- Natural sandstone;
- Ceramics made from fired white and brick clay.
Most of the wood products were boiled and bleached in the sun, after which they were treated with samovar oil drying oil or varnish ground with burnt clay. The resulting protective film painted the wood beams and structures a beautiful reddish-brown color, reminiscent of modern piano varnish.
Over time, the protective film dried to the state of glass and became covered with tiny cracks. This varnish gave wooden objects, tables and benches in the style of Ukrainian cuisine a characteristic crimson-red, almost black color.
Walls
The design of Ukrainian kitchens is always distinguished by functionality and simplicity; instead of heavy decor, the walls were painted with lime paints in light colors, so the style is very light, even airy.
The walls are plastered by hand, but the surface may not be perfect; even if the bleached surface of the plaster is imperfect, it still fits perfectly into the style of Ukrainian cuisine.
To achieve maximum authenticity, the walls need to be whitewashed or painted with white acrylic paint. Any tones and shades, for example, cream or blue, are used only if Ukrainian kitchen furniture is chosen in blue color or in the colors of polished and stained oak.
Kitchen apron in Ukrainian style
A thin strip of wall between the wall cabinet and the tabletop in Ukrainian style can be decorated with mosaics or white plastic.
In both cases, it is important to preserve the light monochrome colors of the apron; the appearance of colored stripes or entire sections of walls and ceilings painted with modern paints will only spoil the perception of the interior in the Ukrainian style.
An exceptionally successful way to add elements of Ukrainian style to an ordinary kitchen with modern furniture is to lay tiles on the apron with a typical pattern used in embroidery and national decor.
Floor
To get a monotonous floor covering without seams or joints, it is best to use a slab laminate with a polished stone texture or lay ceramic tiles for a Ukrainian-style room.
Traditional kitchen flooring is one that imitates a wooden floor in dark gray shades of aged oak, stained pine or aspen. You can use porcelain tiles in red and white colors with a non-slip surface.
To enhance the Ukrainian flavor of a folk-style floor, you can use national wicker rugs and rugs.
Ceiling
As a rule, too much attention is not paid to decorating the ceiling in Ukrainian cuisine. Most often, to maintain the Ukrainian orientation of the interior, the ceiling plinth is decorated with an ornament of flowers, most often sunflower poppies on a light blue or white background.
The ceiling can be supplemented with fake beams or papier-mâché logs, and a slatted suspension is installed directly above the stove for traditional curtains that cover the contents of the upper shelves of the kitchen cabinet.
Wedding decor in folk style
Plants, traditional amulets and household items served as symbols of wealth and well-being among Ukrainians, and it was customary to use them as decoration during weddings.
They served as both decoration and protection from the evil eye, some of which can still be used today.
Of the plants, pods of red hot pepper, onions, garlic, nuts, rowan and viburnum fruits, poppy seeds and flowers, corn cobs, pumpkin, cones, ears of rye, oats, wheat, feather grass and dried flowers were especially honored.
Each of these decorations carried a semantic load, personifying fertility, luck, and prosperity. And as decorative elements they look quite attractive.
There were also many bouquets of wild flowers, baskets with vegetables and mushrooms, and fruits.
Among household items for decoration, you can use a cart wheel, a horse's horseshoe, pots of honey, porridge and milk, coins strung on a thin thread in the form of beads, a grip, clay and painted wooden utensils.
There was a special attitude towards brooms: turned upside down, decorated with ribbons and flowers, the broom was supposed to “sweep out” everything bad. As darkness fell, wax candles were lit.
Embroidered towels (towels) were an indispensable attribute of decor; the newlywed prepared them for herself from a very young age until the wedding; their supplies were quite significant.
Homemade toys made of clay, wood, fabric, straw, and motanka dolls were also used. Icons were certainly placed near the young people.
Design elements
You can have a wedding in Ukrainian traditions in a stylized restaurant; in this case, you won’t have to worry too much about decorating the hall; all that remains is to complement it with the elements that you would like to see, to suit your taste.
A picturesque corner of nature would also be a great place for it: a park, the bank of a river or any body of water. Outdoor tables are very “folk-like”. In this case, you should worry about what to do if it suddenly rains. Another option is to rent an open wedding tent for this day.
If you have decided to celebrate the birth of a new family in western Ukraine, you should look for a colorful, picturesque village in advance and agree on renting houses by the day, so that guests and newlyweds do not have to spend the night in the open air. In this case, the owners of the yard will probably provide you with the necessary assistance by providing the necessary items for the wedding surroundings.
The motorcade of cars is generously decorated with flowers and ribbons.
Invitations, bonbonnieres and other accessories
A distinctive feature of any wedding in the national style is an appeal to traditions and the use of folk symbols.
For Ukraine, such “calling cards” are viburnum, periwinkle, and poppy. It is their images that would be advisable to use when designing invitation cards.
Another key point is embroidery. In Ukraine, this type of needlework is still popular: it is used to decorate clothes, household items and holiday accessories. Therefore, it would be relevant to use such ornaments for envelopes, invitation cards themselves, cards for seating guests at the table, pillows for rings, etc.
Dried flowers, artificial flowers and miniature copies of fruits and vegetables - all this can be interestingly used when developing the design of printed products.
In addition, you can make such invitations yourself.
How to dress for a bride
The traditional outfit of the newlywed was a white embroidered shirt, a skirt with longitudinal colored stripes and a wreath of flowers with silk ribbons flowing from behind like a veil.
A mandatory attribute was “mysto” - red beads made from large round beads. Today, in order for a bride to look organic at a national Ukrainian wedding, it is not necessary to adhere in detail to strict compliance with the decoration of her ancestors.
Many wedding fashion brands have lines dedicated to ethnic style in their collections. White dresses, more familiar to modern people, are skillfully decorated with embroidery and complemented with national accessories. A corset or hem of a dress embroidered with patterns looks elegant and original.
If this option seems too bold, then the desired style can also be set using jewelry, a belt, or a veil.
Hairstyle
Both fair-haired girls and dark-haired brunettes look equally good as a Ukrainian bride.
As a wedding hairstyle, a traditional braid, hanging freely or styled in a crown, is suitable for this style. A French braid, a Greek-style hairstyle, and a headband look beautiful.
If your hair is long and beautiful enough, you can leave it loose, but this will be a departure from tradition, since previously in Ukraine it was not customary for a woman to go “plain-haired”
Bouquet
Complex bouquet shapes and additional intricate designs in the form of a handbag or tussie-mussie would be inappropriate in a Ukrainian wedding.
The classic version with a leg is preferable, in which the emphasis is not on the design, but on the plants themselves. Poppy is very fragile and quickly loses its fresh appearance, which is why special, more “durable” varieties of these flowers are used for bouquets. Sunflowers, cornflowers, gerberas, delphiniums, irises, roses (especially tea roses), daisies, and zinnia also look beautiful.
The composition should be bright, colorful and cheerful. The same flowers are used for the buttonhole of the groom's jacket.
Accessories
A Ukrainian bride will not need a lot of jewelry, otherwise her image will be too tacky. The neck can be decorated with beads, for example, threads of the simplest classic round beads, in several rows.
It is not necessary that they all be red; multi-colored ones are also allowed. A handmade necklace made of natural coral, garnet, jasper, carnelian or a patterned beaded item will look elegant and at the same time thematic. Earrings, if any, are chosen to match it.
The traditional diadem is replaced with a wreath of flowers, real or artificial. The flowers for the wreath can be the same as in the bouquet, or the leading plant that will dominate the image is selected from a variety of herbs, most often it is a poppy.
Instead of the usual white shoes, you can choose red shoes.
Kitchen lighting in Ukrainian style
Kitchen lighting in Ukrainian style is fundamentally no different from a conventional kitchen system. As lamps, it is best to use spotlights for furniture or strip lighting along the contour of the ceiling.
If you want to enhance the folk style of Ukrainian cuisine, you can hang a traditional candle lamp on a wooden frame and chain hanger in the center of the room.
For your information! Lighting in the style of antique windows in a classic frame with round windows turns out to be very beautiful.
Wedding rings
According to the traditions of Ukraine, they should be as even and smooth as possible. This symbolizes a happy marriage and a calm, measured family life in which there are no conflicts.
For a wedding in Ukrainian style, light-colored cars are ideal, especially for the bride and groom. If you are a very creative and courageous couple, then our portal Svadebka.vs can recommend that you order a horse-drawn carriage for the newlyweds. It is she who will deliver the bride and groom to the ceremony site.
Kitchen furniture in Ukrainian style
The main decoration of a kitchen in any style has been and remains furniture. In the Ukrainian version, authentic kitchen furniture always has rounded contours, massive legs, a table top and, most importantly, the dimensions of the set are individually selected to suit the dimensions and shape of the room.
Such furniture was always made to order to match the tone and color of the china shelves and cabinets. In a modern interior, national furniture can be successfully replaced with wooden and even plastic furniture.
To maintain the style, one or two things in the national Ukrainian design are installed in the corner or at the entrance to the room so that the overall picture of the interior is preserved.
Curtains for the kitchen in Ukrainian style
Choosing the right curtains and curtains that match the style and texture of the Ukrainian theme of kitchen decor is not particularly difficult.
Fabric and fabric canvases, decorated with ornaments and embroidery in the Ukrainian style, are widely used to decorate the most important and honorable places in the room. Light curtains made of natural fabrics with a red and white pattern always border the windows and can be hung above the entrance and festive table.
Advice! Particular attention is paid to tablecloths and napkins embroidered in the national style. The cloth was used to cover dishes, bread, vegetables and food to preserve them in the warm Ukrainian climate.
Ukrainian traditional wedding
The ceremony, of course, is unthinkable without rituals. One of the oldest is lighting the family hearth. The mothers of the bride and groom light a candle together in the hands of the newlyweds, passing on wisdom and sharing a piece of comfort and warmth with the newly created family.
Bridal bouquet in Ukrainian traditional style
Once upon a time, this ritual deprived girls of their pride - luxurious braids. Now everything is not so harsh and is limited only to unraveling one’s hair, which means transition to the status of a wife. The future mother-in-law and the groom remove the wreath from the bride and put a “chip” on her head.
This is a special scarf. A head covered with it speaks of obedience and devotion to her husband. The girl throws the wreath (not the bride's bouquet) to her friends so that she knows which of them will soon be expected to become matchmakers.
Ukrainian traditional wedding - photo
The division of the loaf used to determine who would be the head of the family. The heroes of the occasion broke it in half, and whoever had the largest part had the authority. At the end of the wedding, it was necessary to distribute all the butter bread, to the last piece, to the guests. Thus, the newlyweds shared their happiness and joy.
Many guests, delicacies on the table, songs and noisy festivities - everything promises the young people a sweet, carefree life.
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Utensils and decor for the kitchen in Ukrainian style
Kitchen utensils, dishes and cooking utensils, spices and seasonings were traditionally stored on shelves next to the stove. In this matter, the style and orientation of Ukrainian cuisine is no different from the organization of the interior of any other kitchen space.
Another thing is what the entire set of kitchen utensils looks like. Most of the dishes were made of clay, so all the most valuable things were stored in clay pots and wooden bowls.
Some of the plates, painted in the traditions of the last century, are hung on the walls and displayed in cupboards. There are also rolled wheat sheaves of amulets, dried herbs and flowers.
You can enhance the impression of the interior with the help of a small composition of a fake piece of bread, a bowl of fruit and a clay pot with sour cream - a traditional set of Ukrainian cuisine.
How to decorate a hall for a wedding celebration?
In order to maintain a unified style of the wedding ceremony, you need to think in advance about how the decoration of the hall will look. Preference should be given to bright colorful colors. On the walls of the room you can place folk musical instruments, pottery, and embroidered towels. You can decorate the hall with wreaths of flowers, bunches of viburnum, and colored bright ribbons.
Additional decor will be created by embroidered linen tablecloths on the tables and flower arrangements in ceramic vases. Instead of chairs, you can use wooden benches or wicker furniture. The photos presented here will help you get design ideas.
Kitchen accessories in Ukrainian style
The national Ukrainian style presupposes the presence in the room of a huge number of all kinds of items that are not related to the cooking process, but were traditionally stored and repaired in the kitchen.
This could be a set of antique tools for repairing clothes and shoes, carved accessories for making wooden bowls and repairing dishes. If you need to add Ukrainian flavor to the kitchen interior, then you can place a bottle or a wine barrel in the corners of the room, use pots with sheaves of wheat and even traditional musical instruments. Any authentic items will be useful for Ukrainian national design.
Bridal bouquet
In the old days, the bride's bouquet was replaced by a wreath woven with her own hands, into which the girl put all her love. You can remember this long-standing tradition and make such a decoration for a gentle and sensual bride.
But if you want a bouquet for a wedding celebration, then it should be as stylized as possible. Bright traditional Ukrainian wildflowers with multi-colored ribbons will look good in it.
Small kitchen in Ukrainian style
To design a real kitchen in the Ukrainian version, you will first need to change the shape of the countertop, hob and hood. More precisely, all three main parts need to be combined into one design in the style of a national Ukrainian stove.
The base of the oven and the apron are decorated with light tiles, and the surface of the hood is decorated with a stylized ornament. The table top with the sink is moved to the window opening, most of the furniture is painted with red furniture varnish.
Highlighted wooden ceiling beams and lamps in national colors will only enhance the overall perception of the room in the Ukrainian cultural fabric.
Food and dishes
Ukrainians are hospitable people and such a significant event will be a “feast for the whole world”! Therefore, there should be a lot of everything on the table. It is ideal if the restaurant specializes in national cuisine. The menu for a festive feast may include cabbage rolls, dumplings, borscht in crispy bread pots, potato pancakes, dumplings, skewered zucchini, potatoes with cracklings, potato pancakes and, of course, loaf. It is decorated with periwinkle and viburnum - symbols of spiritual affection and fidelity. The round shape is designed to “smooth out” unpleasant turns in the fate of the newly-made family.
Plates can be replaced with clay bowls, and glasses with cups. Spoons cut from wood.
