Kitchen Remodel Update and Brag

A few days ago I uploaded pics of our Wilson Art 'Betty' laminate counter top on Retro Renovation. Pam Kueber gives readers a chance to share their vintage finds and remodeling pics. Well, today she featured my photos and asked for the reader to come out of anonymity! Read the post here.

I first saw the Betty laminate on Pam's website this past January. You can see the original Retro Renovation post announcing the Wilson Art retro line here.

Pam's goal is to help people remodel Mid Century Modern homes in keeping with the original style. She also is all for 'saving the pink bathrooms."

I found this stainless steel retro bread box many years ago for fifty cents! The canister set I found at a local antique shop for about $30.

In a few weeks the final touches will be put on my kitchen. A door marred in installation will be replaced, a board will fill in the gap above the refrigerator and another to hide the under-counter light above the sink.

Then our contractor will have photographs taken for her portfolio.

My goal was a nod to the 1964 origins of our home--such as staying with slab cabinet doors--but with all the features of a modern kitchen. I added some bling by using spun aluminum lighting, drawer tab pulls, and of course that vintage canister set.

The back splash behind the range is all bling: Brushed steel mosaic tile!

I just love the kitchen. Thanks to Pam for all her inspiration.

Counter-top Decisions, and the Kitchen Plan Refined

Today we got ALL the counter top samples that I had ordered! Amazing! Thanks to Wilson Art and Formica customer service! The small chips were from local retailers Kurtis Kitchens and Baths and European Cabinetry.

I set the samples side-by-side with the various cherry samples I have. (None of which is the quartersawn natural cherry we are going with. I should have just gone online and ordered a door.) I also have a sample of cork flooring so I had that texture to compare.

Design is too large a scale...But I love those greens. The adjoining family room is Benjamin Moore's Potpourri Green after all.

 Solid surface. I like the texture... but it is too stark white.  Jonathan Alder's new designs great, but the colors too intense... except the linen which is too pale.

The warm colors in Daisy were amazing with the wood, but the scale of the design is too big.

 

"Endora" is pink and gold, and I think it would be great in my bath remodel.

"Betty" looks pretty good and we like the teal and orange. The design elements are are better scale.

This solid surface seems 'right' with the cherry.

So...'Betty' laminate, or the solid surface? We are getting a quote on each.

Here is the kitchen.  Sink and stove corner...

 and fridge and pantry on the other wall. And yes, that is a carpeted floor. Horror!

We need a working kitchen that will accommodate our needs as we age.

Here is what we worked out with Jen:

The sink will be where the range used to be. The cooktop is not to code in its current location.

The sink peninsula will become all countertop! What a nice prep area. The view opens to the family room and sliding door to the yard.

The range will go where the fridge used to be...with a venting hood, which we have never had before. 

Again, lots of counter space. And drawers, not shelves. Plus some glass doors for pretty displaying.

The new fridge had to go on the fourth wall, but will be 'built in'. Finally, a closet for my Swifter!

There is still open space for the table and chairs in front of the window area.

I feel some guilt putting so much into this kitchen instead of doing a DIY cool and cheap upcycling of elements. (I don't think I'm cool enough to pull that off!) 

We justify it because it is our 'forever' home. And we lived in provided housing most of our marriage, but for seven years in a Philly rowhouse. 

But mostly because this room is the center, the heart of the house. You have to pass through to get anywhere. I want a room that makes me smile, a room that I feel uplifted in. 

Our Kitchen Remodel Getting Underway!

We have the table.

We are in the final steps of planning the remodeling of our retirement home kitchen. The house was built in the early 1960s and never updated. No dishwasher. Little counter space. Shelves that are not adjustable. Our new refrigerator does not fit in the old place! We have a hutch there now.

The cabinets were made by a local man who did all the houses around here. The Alder Kay logo is still on the sink cabinet. Our contractor Jen once worked with the son of our cabinet maker!

 My brother refinished the cabinets in the 1980s, so they look pretty good.

We will stay with the slab cabinet style already in the house.

Two Januaries ago we fell in love with a ten year old model kitchen in a big box store in Ludington, MI. It was a natural quartersawn cherry. We can't get past wanting those cabinets. Here is a photo from the manufacturer:

We ordered new lighting for over a peninsula counter in spun aluminum:

We are considering different counter tops. I went to manufacturer's website and ordered larger samples. We have samples of natural cherry (not quartersawn) and laminate.

Three samples are Jonathan Alder's new linen look line for Formica. We have a pale blue Boomerang retro print. Some of the other samples I ordered can be seen here. I also love the upcoming retro collection found here but we would have to wait until summer to get them. I keep up on all the Retro news from Retro Renovation run by Pam Kueber, Her focus is on authentic restoration for mid-century homes.

I love the intense green and oranges, but I don't want the eye to go to the counter tops and not the cabinets. Also, the cabinets will change color with age and we must consider they will be richer and more colorful over time. Yesterday we saw 20 year old natural cherry cabinets. Amazing!

We went to European Cabinetry in Roseville, MI to look at laminate samples. The owner heard the name "Jennifer" and took us under wing. He took us to see the Cesarstone, and I have to admit he gave a pretty good sales pitch and I saw some samples I liked. Then he gave us a tour.

Here is their sample kitchen with the in-house hand-carved corbels and an amazing back lit onyx back splash.

 We will not be getting that kitchen.

 The hand carved work is amazing. The artist said it took him a month to carve one.

Back to reality...

Mid Century Modern Decorating and Kitchen Ideas from May 1961

 "Good News in home furnishings"... in the Family Circle magazine of  May 1961 looked like this:

 Left: "Designer Allan Gould's space-problem solution--a storage system with supporting poles (some wired for lighting fixtures), shelves, cabinets, hi-fi and-turntable unit, stereo speakers, record rack, magazine rack, and dining table.'

Top Right:" Lawrence Peabody designs a modern bedroom that's easy to live in. It features a tilt-for-reading headboard, a night table (with a plastic-surface drop-down door that's big enough for a breakfast tray), a plastic-upholstered bench, a wicker chair with zip-off cushion covers."

Lower Right: "Industrial designer Walter P. Baermann's revolutionary concept for the production of living-room furniture uses one-piece molded seating frames with polyurethane cushioning. This brings you sofas for under $200 and chairs for under $100, with zip-off upholstery for redecoration, for replacement, of for seasonal changes."

An easy 'queen bed' was to have one headboard with twin beds.

 Kitchen Ideas To Adopt or Adapt

"A cutting board bolted to a shallow cabinet built next to a range extends the cook's work surface a much-needed two feet. Closet holds supplies for which there was no wall-cabinet space, since windows line wall opposite the range in this tiny L-shaped kitchen."

I note the copper pan, turquoise coffee pot and salad bowls, and the pink stove top.(In 1978 our parsonage had a pink refrigerator that was replaced after it broke down twice!)

"Colors in this kitchen--white, pink, orange, and brick red--blend with those in family room beyond. White of cabinets reappears in floor of family room; orange walls are picked up in counters; appliances' pink is repeated in family room curtains."

The corner sink gives me shudders, since we lived with one! It was quite small and next to the dish washer and stove. It was a one-cook kitchen.

Lower Left: "This well-equipped kitchen mixing center serves also as a planning desk, a snack bar, and a place to display decorative and useful antique containers and jars. Metal inserts in drawer next to mixer hold flour and sugar. Mixer swings into cabinet when not in use."

Upper Right kitchen is in seven colors and has mahogany cabinets!

I had no idea that kitchen had drawers for dishes back in then.

+++++

The Latest in Kitchen Design...Circa 1962

The May 1962 issue of Family Circle featured six pages of kitchen ideas. Many of the design elements are popular again today, including the hanging pendant lighting, colorful clear glass, bright colors in kitchens, and open shelving and hanging utensils and pots and pans. We see islands with eating areas and integrated refrigerators. Plants hanging in the kitchen are also being seen now. Our 1962 kitchen looked nothing like this! but our kitchen remodel, still  in the planning, might have some of these features.

Today we have desks for computers in the kitchen,

I love the double sinks