Mediterranean Kitchen Mood Board — Limewash + Terracotta

An interior designer's working mood board for a warm Mediterranean kitchen: limewash, terracotta tile, olive wood, linen, brass and morning light.

Updated November 1, 2026

This board was made for one client's kitchen, a small east-facing room in an old house, and it is built around one decision: the room should look its best between seven and ten in the morning. Every picture was chosen in that light, which is why the photos lean on low sun, a sash window and warm shadow rather than on finished showroom kitchens. The first section is a photo grid: a hero shot of a sunlit rustic kitchen with a strip of details under it, showing the floor in low sun, olive wood on stone, linen at the window and herbs on the sill. Beside it sit the main palette, taken straight from those photos, and a short note to the client on why the morning matters. If you are making a mediterranean kitchen mood board of your own, start here. Settle the light before you choose a single material, and the materials become much easier to pick. The second section covers the walls and floor, the two largest surfaces. Texture photos of limewash and handmade terracotta sit next to a finish schedule that gives every surface a sample code and a status, with the site measure filed as a page. Clients rarely read schedules, but builders and tilers do, and keeping the schedule beside the pictures stops the two drifting apart. The third section covers the smaller materials that hands touch: olive wood, linen and unlacquered brass. It has its own palette for wood and metal, an old olive trunk and a close look at the grain to show where the shelf comes from, an old brass handle to show how the metal darkens, a short clip of olive leaves moving in the morning wind, and a plain note warning that brass browns and wood moves. Saying that early saves a difficult phone call six months after handover. The last section is for the client: a one-page summary of what is in and what is left out, a film reference for the breakfast light, a short list of what is still to find, a sound to play during the walkthrough, and a cluster of alternates that were shown and set aside but kept for later. Photos by Shiebi AL, Ron Lach, Diana ✨, Matthew Jesús, Daniel Wander, Rewan Ahmed, hello aesthe, Aleksandar Spasojevic, Mikhail Nilov, Diana Onfilm, Golboo Maghooli and Sueda Dilli on Pexels. Sound: "Birdsong volga st" by CopperAlchemy (CC BY 4.0) on Wikimedia Commons.

Limewash morning

Bone limewash — #e8dfcf
Chalk ceiling — #f2ede3
Terracotta, oiled — #a9573a
Sun on the tile — #d9895a
Olive leaf — #7c7a52
Shadow under the shelf — #8a7867

Close-up of a decorative brass faucet on a dark green tiled wall, evoking a vintage aesthetic.

Sunlight casts shadows on a beautifully patterned tiled floor, highlighting its intricate design.

Shown to Clare on the 22nd and set aside: green tile (too busy against limewash), hexagon floor tile (a week of cutting round the hearth, says Kofi), marble top (marks under olive oil and lemon), open shelves on both walls (too much to dust). Keep for the utility room or the next job.

Finish schedule

Surface
Finish
Sample
Status
Walls
Limewash, 2 coats, Bone
LW-03
Approved
Ceiling
Limewash, Chalk
LW-01
Approved
Floor
Terracotta 200×200, oiled
TC-02
Ordered, 7 wks
Splashback
Terracotta 100×100, matt glaze
TC-05
Sample due 6 Nov
Worktop
Honed limestone, 30mm
ST-01
Template 14 Nov
Shelf + boards
Olive wood, oiled
OW-02
Choosing slab
Tap + pulls
Unlacquered brass
BR-01
Approved

Wood, linen, brass

Olive heartwood — #7e5e3c
Olive sapwood — #cdb38a
Oatmeal linen — #d6cab3
New brass — #c2a15a
Brass at six months — #8c7340
Honed limestone — #d9d1c2

Call Me by Your Name (film)

The kitchen in a page

What we're making

A kitchen that looks its best at 8am. Warm, plain and lived in, built from things that get better with use: lime, clay, wood, cloth and brass.

The materials

Walls and ceiling in limewash, Bone and Chalk

Handmade terracotta floor, oiled and left to darken

Honed limestone worktop, 30mm

One open shelf and two boards in olive wood

Unlacquered brass tap, pulls and pendant

Oatmeal linen at the window and under the sink

What we're leaving out

Wall cupboards on the window wall

Anything

Walls — limewash

Lime, not paint. Two coats of Bone (LW-03), brushed in crosshatch so the morning light catches the strokes; ceiling in Chalk (LW-01) so it reads a shade lighter. The hearth wall read 18% damp, so nothing acrylic goes on it. It will look patchy for about a week while it cures, then evens out. Wipeable, not scrubbable: the splashback tile takes the cooking side.

For Clare — the light

Clare, the room is at its best before ten. Sun comes in low through the sash at 7:40 and is off the worktop by 10:30, so every finish here was judged in that hour, on site, on the 22nd. Limewash softens it, terracotta warms it, brass catches it. Evenings are lamps only: 2700K on dimmers, the pendant over the table the brightest thing in the room, nothing set into the ceiling.

Still to find

[ ] Olive wood slab for the shelf, 1.8m
[ ] Splashback tile sample TC-05
[ ] Second-hand table, seats 6, oak or chestnut
[x] Oatmeal linen for the sink skirt, 3m
[x] Brass pendant, 40cm, dims to 2700K
[x] Unlacquered bridge tap

For Clare — brass will age

Unlacquered brass throughout: bridge tap, 14 drawer pulls, the pendant. It goes from bright to a soft brown in about six months, darker where hands go. Please don't polish it; a wipe with a drop of oil each season is enough. The olive wood is only the open shelf and two boards: 35mm thick on hidden steel brackets, oiled, never varnished.

♪ Village morning — swifts — 0:53 · 0 BPM · M4A (plays on the board above)

Includes a nested board (open it from the canvas above)

▶ Olive leaves, morning wind (plays on the board above)