Pass Thru Ideas Needed for 1960's Kitchen

13 years ago

I'm still trying to figure out what the heck to do with the existing kitchen in the house we recently bought. So far, nothing concrete has come to mind and I'm at a total loss.

I'm trying to keep the kitchen that's there if possible but having a heck of a time trying to figure things out. It seems I really can't move around cabinets in here and trying to work with what I have is proving to be a lot harder than I ever imagined.

The pass through, can anyone give any suggestions on what I can do in this area? I'd love to move the stove, but that doesn't seem possible if I keep the kitchen as is. Would possible putting a slide in stove/oven be the best choice? Have someone make doors with a similar trim for the area where the oven is? Stay with a cooktop and wall oven (which seems to be so small to me!)

I didn't think it was going to be this hard, but it's definitely hard to come up with some ideas. It's getting to a point that I may ditch the whole idea of keeping these cabinets and gut the whole kitchen.

Thanks for any help!

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Comments (6)

monkeymo
13 years ago
Are you wanting to keep all existing cabinetry or are you getting new cabinets?

What does the other side of the kitchen look like, can you post a photo in the other direction?
rookie_2010
13 years ago
The cabinets look like they're in great shape. Maybe you can save most of them. If you're trying to use the layout that's there, I would look into losing the cook top and the cabs beneath it and go with a slide in range. You could then get rid of the cabs above and do a nice vent hood. I guess you'd have to have the duct moved over to the right? I'm definitely no expert on this type of thing!
Maybe you could get rid of the wall oven and have a carpenter tweak the space for a built in microwave since the electric hookup is there. Any remaining space in the wall oven cutout, you could always do a small open shelf for cookbooks.....
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lazy_gardens
13 years ago
Clean it thoroughly and live with it for a few more months until you have a clear idea of how it works and doesn't work. How is the work flow? What is the traffic pattern?

And in the meantime, collect clippings of kitchens you like in magazines and on-line.
palimpsest
13 years ago
If you removed the wall oven and cooktop and replaced the cooktop with a slide in, could the doors under the cooktop be modified to fit over the former oven space?
eldemila
Original Author
13 years ago
Thanks for the replies.

Monkeymo, I'd like to try and keep the cabinets but if I can't utilize them then I'll have to start anew, and that will prove to be not only a bigger expense, but hard for me to figure out just what to do.

I've posted a link to a previous post on the same kitchen, there's lots of pictures. As you can see from the date, it's been almost 8 months since I posted this msg and I still haven't done a thing!

Rookie, cabinets are in great shape, at least they are sound, but close up they definitely need to be restained. Not sure about having a vent hanging in the middle of all that. I'd like to try and not lose too much in the way of the cabinets though.

Lazy, I've been back and forth to the house since buying it in Jan. and was really trying to do something in there before we totally move in, just a lot easier before getting things in all those cabinets. Since there's just the two of us going to be living there, there won't be much traffic, esp. on a daily basis. The only thing I really don't like is the location of the fridge, not in the "recommended" triangle. Clippings, I have hundreds and hundreds. Have looked what probably amounts to months on the internet for ideas and have taken out books galore from the library, still, nothing has given me an inkling of what to do in there.

Palimpsest, I think it may be possible to utilize the doors elsewhere. I'm able to find the trim that's on the doors from Rockler, so I can probably have a cabinet maker do some mods, or make new doors. I just don't want to end up spending more money or something close to what it would be to have new cabinets installed.

The countertops definitely need to be replaced, as well as the floor and the appliances. I need to get new lighting, and want pullouts in the drawers and two corner units for the dead space.

So, back in Nov before I bought the house, I didn't know what to do with it, here I am almost 6 months of owning it and I'm still no closer. I hate to have to remove perfectly good cabinets but unless I come up with something soon, it seems that's going to be the way I'm going to have to go.

Here is a link that might be useful: 1960s Kitchen
eastbaymom
13 years ago
I looked at your older thread, and I can definitely see the charm of keeping the other side of the pass thru -- that paneling on the cabinets that you can see from the eating area.

However, getting a new stove in there would be a functional priority for me over keeping the style of the other side of the pass through. I would take the wall oven out, and turn that into a longer peninsula with a slide-in stove and oven. The back of the peninsula would need to be raised so that spatter from the stovetop could not endanger people in the eating area.

Functionally, I would also want to add a vent or hood of some kind. Perhaps you could find a skilled carpenter who could reuse panels from the old pass-through to build a surround for a vent hood, so that you wouldn't have any 2010-era stainless steel clashing with your 1960s vibe.

I know that you wrote that you don't want to lose too much in terms of cabinet storage. You would only be losing one large upper cabinet and two smaller ones (over the current cooktop) and I think the functionality would be worth it -- having a new stove and oven that work reliably.

It sounds to me (and I might be completely off base) that you are worried about the cost of different options, and so you are stuck about how to move forward. Perhaps you need to give yourself permission to get quotes from different carpenters or contractors, so that you can really "face the numbers" and figure out what you can afford.

I hope you find something that will work for you!

Pass Thru Ideas Needed for 1960's Kitchen

Comments (6)

monkeymo

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Pass Thru Ideas Needed for 1960's Kitchen

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