If there's any room in your house that should be designed in the Tuscan style, it's the kitchen, because that's the one room in the house that exemplifies what the Tuscan style is all about - food, and a lot of family to share it with!

Tuscany is a region in Italy famous for its rolling hills, vineyards, and rustic old farmhouses, and the Tuscan decor reflects this. There's nothing "modern" about Tuscan decor (although that doesn't mean you have to get rid of your efficient microwave, let alone your oven and refrigerator!), it's all about warm tones, lots of pots and pans, sheafs of herbs and spices, and sunshine.

Let sunshine flood into your kitchen. It's all the better if you have a view from your windows of a large backyard with plenty of children playing while they wait for dinner, but even if your view is of another house across the street, it's worth it to let the sun in. If you live in an apartment, you may or may not have a window view...but you can always place a mural depicting a sunny scene in such a place that you can enjoy it while you work on the dinner.

Let the wall of the kitchen glow with that sunlight as well. Light shades - not white but beige or gold, will glow with the sunshine.

There's little you can do with the refrigerator, the oven, and the microwave - in these days you need those modern conveniences.

But there's lots you can do with the actual decor in the kitchen.

Even though you may never use them, acquire some cast iron pots to place on the oven. Visit your local home furnishing stores and acquire traditional Italian cookware and utensils to provide an authentic look to the kitchen.

What does traditional Italian cookware and accessories consist of? Well, glass jars are an essential, so that foodstuffs like dried beans or pasta will be in plain sight. Pewter and copper pots and pans will reflect the light and make great decorations when they are not in use.

Once you've gotten your kitchen designed the way you like it, the next thing to do is make sure you can cook Italian food! Lots and lots of pasta, spaghetti, pizza (made the Italian way, not the American way) and canoli - those are the proper foods to be cooking in a Tuscan kitchen!