Well, it's too bad she's not ready to move on things yet. Even without fori's amazing range. BTW, did you know those sell for 6 to 8K at the specialty shops on this coast, fori? You could have a second career. In just one day I was able to dig up these--wouldn't they make a darling kitchen? You'd have to have a larger companion or two made to the side piece, but how Florida these colors are. Range (considering electric as well as gas, since gas availability varies in those neighborhoods--not worth it if she has to foot the bill to run service, and unfortunately a lot of the area is the kind of neighborhood where people would steal propane). I just lost my heart to the color scheme here, although we could have something else redone in the same buttercream+sea green, I suppose: Hoosier with side (original paint). Small, but with a repro side or two, could work: Reproduction cast iron sink. There are lots of old ones, but there was a problem with getting iron reporcelained recently, so this would be the fallback if we can't find a real one in good condition or a steel one that can be redone. Would love an old one in buttercream yellow, though. Not bad for less than a day's worth of looking around, and the total cost of everything including modern fridge and re-enameling a vintage table to match would be under 5K, even with repairs and shipping.

Jterrilyn, that floor is actual antique tile I saw on The Antique Floor Company's site (see link below). They're a French company based in Burgundy. This particular floor sold a good while ago (understandably). It was, quote, "recovered from a town house in the Champagne region of France." I'm sure it wasn't cheap, and shipping it from Burgundy to the US would also not be cheap. There are several close-ups at the website that you could use to recreate this tile, if you had infinite money. :-) Here is a link that might be useful: French antique floor tile at the Antique Floor Company

I suggest looking at Modern Aire for a vent hood. They can be totally customized and they work really well with a vintage stove. Modern Aire with vintage stove. As others have suggested, look at 1920's kitchens and butlers pantry's to get inspiration. 1920's kitchens were were eclectic and almost all had a Hoosier or Hoosier type cabinet in the kitchen. In the late 20's and early 30's, cabinets began changing from Hoosier and free standing cabinets to standardized cabinets with toe kicks. Many kitchens became modernized with newer cabinets but kept older appliances.It was the beginning of the kitchen triangle. Also look at Hoosier style cabinets for color inspiration. They were painting Hoosiers in cream with painted trim especially Sellers and Napanee in the 1920's. Generally, they were a cream or white main color with another color for trim. That era also used marble, slate, wood and soapstone for counters. However counters were not normally very wide unless they had a wall of counters, The kitchen table in the center of the kitchen and the Hoosier was where most prep work was done. However, towards the end of the 1920's and early 30's linoleum was being brought to the kitchen but they were mostly black for the counter. Floors were wood or tiled. Linoleum on floors is more 30's. Antique homes is a great place to start. The other site is Archive.org At Archive.org you can look up old ad's for kitchen's, builders books, Hoosier's and hardware to see what was being sold in the 1920's. It's a bit of a frustrating site to find what you want but once you get the hang of using the search, it's got a huge repository of information. Sears catalogs, Curtis cabinets and Hoosier style companies should be your first search. Incorporating your Hoosier sounds lovely with that wonderful old stove.

M, So great to hear your take on form following function. I think we share a practical streak. On the one hand, I'm not a preservationist, on the other I do want to be true to the spirit of the house. I'm not aiming to make it something its not, and I don't want to "over improve" either. I agree that its entirely possible to "design a modern functional home and have the original vintage design-spirit prevail". In fact, thats precisely the balance I'm striving to achieve. In my situation, honoring the vintage design spirit means keeping certain elements intact: --the cottage windows --the china cabinet --the built-ins in the living room flanking the fireplace I'm not as attached to keeping the kitchen and breakfast room spaces separate as my partner is. In the spirit of cooperation and domestic harmony ;-) I've solicited feedback on how we could fit everything in the footprint of the kitchen proper, and posters to this thread stepped up admirably (THANK YOU!!) Reading the comments here has allowed me to feel more comfortable with merging the kitchen and the breakfast room--that this might be the right place to "modernize". Considering the two spaces as one is beginning to feel…well…more practical to me. Your point about it being possible to botch both the form and the function strikes a cautionary note---Sheesh, that would be awful. Aiming to avoid this, on both counts! Thanks so much M, for your always incisive comments.