Is that applied molding on the cabinet doors? LOVE! I donâÂÂt have any suggestions as I have never had a craftsman home but you should get some good suggestions here. Congratulations on your new home⦠Yours will be fun to watch.

Maybe you could change out the top smaller cabinets with glass ones, like this:

[Traditional Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2107) by Seattle Architects & Designers Goforth Gill Architects

or paint the boxes and get doors with some glass detail, like this:

[Traditional Kitchen[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2107) by Seattle General Contractors Gaspar's Construction

I don't know what is period-appropriate, but I love what is there . . .so cozy. Whatever you do, don't make it too sterile looking! Something will be needed to fix the gap w/the dishwasher (or not), but make slow and subtle changes-- and maybe nothing to start until you've lived there at least a bit. Right now it has character and doesn't look like Every Other Renovated Kitchen!

Jterrilynn, I don't know if it is applied molding or not but they are the original cabinets so I assume yes? I didn't pay much attention to it and am only now getting into decorating. But thank you!!!
Pipdog, I love the idea of the top cabinets with the glass, it is beautiful!
Anele, it is a sweet and cozy home with a good vibe, and I am anxious to make it my own. The dishwasher will be the first thing replaced, along with the countertops so the gap should no longer be a problem.
It is a large kitchen, this side as you can see has this range hood fan that I am not too sure what to make of. It originally had a wood cookstove in that spot and am not sure when it was put in, so I don't know if it is a good fit.

Thanks butterfly, I love subway tile! This is my first house, as I have always rented and have never been big into decorating but I fell inlove with this house and feel I should keep it in 30's style while giving it a fresh look, if that is possible.
This is the other side of the kitchen, leading into the dining room and from there into the formal living room. It is hardwood underneath the carpet, but I have not looked to see what condition they are in.

Congratulations on your new to you home Annie. Butterfly is correct in that Craftsman style homes were all about wood. The style was kind of a rebellion against the ornate style in the Victorian homes in that the lines of the wood work in the home, though they still had loads of stained wood as with Vic's, it was less ornate. Most kitchens were in the shaker style as shared by PipDog only they were not painted. Most were in stained oak.
I once found an awesome website on home architecture, but I can not find it again for the life of me. If I can I'll link it for you. I'm sure it would help you allot.

Congratulations on your first house, and a nice old one at that! I've owned two Craftsman bungalows (currently in the second one), one from 1914 and this one from 1924. There is always lots of woodwork and maybe some built-ins in Craftsman style, but by the '30's, I think it was getting simpler with a fair share of wood and trim that was painted. Linoleum was very popular flooring for the kitchen and bath (true lino, not the vinyl we think of today), often in pretty colors and patterns. I've seen plenty of old 1930's ads with painted cabinets or unfitted kitchen pieces, too. I think painting your pretty cabinets could look very nice.

Sherwin Williams has a nice Arts and Crafts paint palette that should work for your era home. I don't think they have individual chips for the colors, but you can pick up a large brochure for the interior and exterior A&C palettes that have smaller paint chips inside. I love the BM historic collection, too, but the SW one really does a good job of separating out which colors for which era (they have Colonial, Victorian, A&C, and a few others).

Robert Schweitzer has prepared the attached brochure showing period appropriate house colors....take a look.

Jane Powell wrote a book called "Bungalow Kitchens". I would also suggest taking a look at it for lots of photo examples. Even tho your house may not be a bungalow, the kitchens are pretty standard in that era regardless of the house style. There is a list of 6-7 bungalow references at the end of Schweitzer's article, too.

Keep the woor unpainted!

Here is a link that might be useful: Historic House colors

You will have to dig a bit, but somewhere in here are a bunch of historic kitchen pictures.

Here is a link that might be useful: kitchen photos

Just my two cents: those cabinets have stayed unpainted and in good shape for 75 years. I wouldn't paint them. My old house's original 1920 kitchen had painted cabinets, and although they were well done and looked nice, they did not compare to my neighbor's identical kitchen with the original unpainted cabinets. I had serious cabinet envy!

Live with your house for awhile. Make changes that will have immediate benefit and leave the purely aesthetic changes for later.

My son lives in a craftsman bungalow outside Chicago. They recently did their kitchen, had to, and they went with tile countertops and same tile up about 6" for backsplash. It's an absolutely gorgeous kitchen now, for not a lot of money.

I'd agree keep your cabinets wood.
And while you want to be authentic, remember to balance function with authenticity. The hood may be inauthentic, but it's a functional necessity that they simply didn't have in the 30's. If you plan to cook in your kitchen, keep the hood. You're not going to install an old wood cookstove either.

As others have said, make your changes slowly. Live in the house, and go to the library and take out some books on craftsman architecture and sit and look at your space and figure out what you like and want to do with it.
Congratulations on your first house!

Yes to everything jmc01 said. Kitchens in the average house back then were utilitarian and didn't vary much regardless of the style of the house. What we see today as Craftsman kitchens are modern interpretations.

Good luck!

Congratulations. Let me chime in late. I have a 1937 home, but it is not a craftsman. There are plenty around in my neighborhood. I did a lot of research into period styles prior to my last round of renovation.

By the 1930s, bright colors and lingering Art Deco influences were creeping into other styles. This could be a regional thing, so your area might be different. All of the original tile in our neighborhood is regular square 4x4s, in black, white, pink, aqua, mint green, maroon and yellow. The tile was used in BS, counters and baths.

But with Craftsman, as everyone said above, it was all about wood. I love your cabinets and would only add the glass and refresh the finish. But if you did want to paint, white was pretty commonly used (as were the pastels).

Counters were usually tile or formica; people now go back to earlier eras and are adding soapstone.

I don't know if you saw this thread, but it had a pin board with retro homes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Retro Home Thread, Click through to Pin Board

Congratulations on your new house! 1920s and 1930s kitchens are my favorite, and yours looks like a dream to work with. Just a few little tweaks will make this kitchen shine. Painted cabinets are great, but these beautiful the way they are. I'd clean the cabinets well and lightly refresh the finish if needed. It's hard to tell from the photos, but if the cabinet pulls aren't original, I'd swap them out for something that reads craftsman. You could do a wood or tile counter, with a subway or 4x4 tile backsplash (or no backsplash), and it would look great. You might want to swap the sink out for a white one if you're sticking with white appliances. A white sink would also be a more period appropriate. If you feel like it, you could do that with the hood too to keep things consistent. I'd get rid of the wall paper and paint in an an arts and crafts friendly color. You could add some runners, a rug or a floorcloth to being in some more color and pattern. Good luck and have fun!

This is not the website I was talking about, but it's an awesome example of Craftsman style. By what I can figure this is a remodel, but stunning none the less.

Here is a link that might be useful: Craftsman Interior.

Congratulations on your new home! I love Craftsman homes. Your cabinets are lovely, but I wonder if they are original. From your photos, it doesn't look like the cabinets around the oven and range have been rebuilt to change from a wood stove to what you have now. The cabinet around the oven looks more like 50's, in my not anywhere close to expert opinion. But I wouldn't paint 50's cabinets either.

I would take out the oven hood and the longer cabinets above it, and install the hood under the shorter doors. That cabinet will have to be rebuilt and looks like the cabinets were built on site, and not in pieces, so it won't be simple. But I could be wrong and there are joints there that I just can't see.

Mamagoose posted this in Kitchens... an article on vintage kitchens from the late 1800s to 1945.

Here is a link that might be useful: SF Gate article, regional diferences may vary