We live in an 1850'5 house with the kitchen in the 1900 addition. We opted to design a collected kitchen, one that looks like it has evolved over the lifespan of the house. The sink area cabinets are traditional, others are unfitted, pieces of furniture. The fridge and the DW are panelled, the stove is a Heartland Heritage, which looks like it came from about the 1940's.

Some of the pieces are antiques, others reproductions with modern fitted interiors.

Pictures of our kitchen are on the thread below. Just click on the thumbnails to enlarge the photos.

Here is a link that might be useful: Forum:Anyone ever do a kitchen with NO cabinets per se?

I have a 1920-era Colonial Revival with a 1960-remodel kitchen. I want to redo the kitchen, and your plan sounds very familiar! I'm looking at Crown Point Cabinetry. Their Arts and Crafts base cabinets are exactly what I'm looking for, although the Victorian line has white cabinets, which is what I want.

I want soapstone too!

Here is a link that might be useful: One page from the A&C gallery on Crown-Point.com

My kitchen was completely redone last year. I sacrified some antiquity and authenticity for convenience and efficiency and frugality! Mine was definitely a budget remodel, but I'm happy with the results. I went with KraftMaid beadboard cabinets in birch and Formica countertops in Travertine. The other appliances are in bisque. The kitchen and dining area are all in one room that contains an antique cupboard and table and the two reproductions pictured below the photo of the kitchen.

This one was photographed in the shop where I bought it:

This was photographed in my house:

The house and ice house:

I can remember an aunt's kitchen that had no cabinets - just frig, stove, table and a wall mounted cast-iron sink with drainboards on each side. There was a wonderful walk-in pantry about 5 feet wide and 8-10 feet long. I'd love to have that pantry.

Another aunt's upper cabinet doors were clear glass with divided panes. As I recall they were painted white. Counter tops were wood.

Sara, I meant to say I LOVE your house! Architecture is one of the things I most appreciate about New York State. You've made it look so inviting with the flowers and flag.

Susan

This talk of New York stae reminded me of the drive we took to Cooperstown last year. People drive up to Maine from New York and Pa, etc and drive around saying how quaint this is or that. I thought some of the area we drove through near Cooperstown was fabulous. The houses were charming. If we didn't have a young son that would hate leaving his present school we would have started looking at real estate. In one tiny town I saw house after house that I would have loved to get my hands on.

We did our kitchen renovation about 5 years ago (can't believe it's been that long!). Our house is an 1870s/1880s center entry Queen Anne.

{{!gwi}}

More of our pictures can be found here:

Here is a link that might be useful: House pics....among others....LOL

Don't you have those beautiful built-ins in your dining room? The design of those, including the hardware, could give you a great start for a kitchen design. Our kitchen would have won an ugly room contest. I started the process by tearing pages from magazines of kitchens I liked. After a while I noticed lots of common elements. Our kitchen is very understated to the point where one visitor said, "So, when are you going to do the kitchen?" Please email for pictures if you'd like to see our kitchen and pantry.

Vivian, cute house. Gothic revival, not Queen Anne. Looks more like 1860's or 1870's.
Sarah, I agree that the cabinets in the dining room could be inspiration for the kitchen. Since they didn't use anything like the kind of cabinets we use today back when your house was new, you could go with whatever appeals to you.
I think painted cabinets fit nicely in old houses. Generally they used to paint any cabinets or shelves they used in the kitchen in the olden days because it was easier to clean. Remember you can use another color other than white. I've seen sort of distressed looking painted cabs in magazines and cabinetry brochures that looked nice. Also saw some painted an ocean blue in one magazine that I really loved, saw a similar blue in a cabinet display showroom and wished I could go for that color. DH however couldn't grasp the vision of a blue kitchen, he can however go for a light yellow or off white, so that's what I'm getting.
You could go with cabinets that had the same styling as the ones in the dining room, but paint them. Or echo the cabinets in stain. A simple raised panel door in the kitchen in paint would look very nice, and would compliment the old cabinets. I was just now looking at your photos and my personal choice would be the last one. This is not because I'm going that route myself, but because you seem to have a similar situation to mine. wanting an old fashioned looking kitchen and not having a whole lot of bright sunshine streaming in. Partially because of cost, I'm blending painted cabinets with stained. I like the look of stain on the bottom and on the island and the paint on the others. Paint costs more than stain, you see, more hand work.
By the way, it's true that sometimes custom cabinet shops can give you a better deal than stock cabinets. We found a shop whose product was much nicer than the Brookhaven cabinets we had been looking at, and cost less.

"Vivian, cute house. Gothic revival, not Queen Anne. Looks more like 1860's or 1870's."

Well, so much for what the local historians have said...LOL. I got the "center entry Queen Anne" from one of our local books where they supposedly indexed all of the older houses in town.

And we do have a lock set in this house dated from 1863, but I have never been sure about that date really affixing to anything since the lockset is cast iron and that does have a tendency to last a bit....LOL The date of construction is not on the abstract.

Anyway, thanks, kennebunker. That would make a lot of sense. I just know we love this old beast...

Anyway, we had a great time doing our kitchen. Lots of fun--although there are things that I'd do differently now.

Vivian, I'm still staring openmouthed at the Angry Shaved Cat. :-)

Cool that you have an 1863 dated lock set. That would fit perfectly with the look of the house. I'd say most likely that's when the place was built.

Thanks for all the help and suggestions!! This message board really is priceless!

Here's the built-ins again, in case anyone has seen new cabinets that mirror these well. I thought I preferred recessed panel to raised, but I really like our built-ins, so maybe doing something similar would work. Of course, they're inset, which I'm now learning, is raising our costs quite a bit. Again, they're in the dining room which is next to the kitchen, but not completely open to it.

My two favorites from Wood-Mode are the Hancock Raised panel (closest match, I think) and the Essex Recessed.

Thanks again--for all the pictures and suggestions!! (for some strange reason, this website is not sending me follow-ups by e-mail even though I clicked the box that asks for them, so i apologize if it takes me a while to hunt down old threads I've posted!)

Sarah

Those cabinets are GORGEOUS!

FWIW, I don't think that I would even try to match them. Were it me, I would probably go with a painted cabinet--maybe an ivory color with a dark glaze. Even a green with a glaze would be pretty.

Alisande, I don't even remember where I got the Angry Shaved Cat picture, and because of that, I'm hesitant to delete it....LOL I don't know where I'd ever find that again!

...and for anyone interested, I have some UPDATED photos on the site now. Some of those were 2+ years old! LOL

Here is a link that might be useful: House pics

We are currently doing a gut remodel on a post/beam home in VA built in the 1700's. Unfortunately, some of the previous owners didn't have the love for older homes that I do. We are about 2/3 the way through and will be putting it back to what could be close to what may have been in some homes for the era. Plinth blocks, rosettes, base caps. I have remodeled many homes over the past 30 years that date back to as far as the 1700's, I think the oldest is one that used to be a tavern in Alexandria, VA. My problem/question is this: My partner, who has never done this kind of work wants to have painted/pickled cabinets in the kitchen, my preference is to go with a maple, square rails with a flat panel with a medium finish that would resemble the color of finished pine after many years. All the floors are original 5/4 pine that will be finished natural. The kitchen floor will be slate. Please help with this only place we can't agree. This home will be completed for sale, not for personal use.

The first time I used this forum... I posted my previous message in the wrong place. I reposted where it belongs.