Sinking Dreams - Redoing my 1930's Kitchen
sergeantcuff
15 years ago
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rmkitchen
15 years agolast modified: 9 years agokitchenwitch
15 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
Could you (would you!) rescue this 1930s kitchen?
Comments (36)I waited almost 5 years, only half intentionally, and my plans changed and solidified, and I saved up money. It was the best thing I could have done. Waiting a little might is not a bad thing at all. My 40s cabinets are like that too. I don't know how well they'd move, since there's nothing to keep them "square" while they're being taken down and moved around. But that's a question for a carpenter. You need to find one who is really invested in giving you what YOU want: informing you of the likely outcomes, good and bad, giving you his honest opinion, that you feel you can trust. I'm lucky that I have that with my contractor. Most of the time he knows I'd prefer to fix something old, even if it may not look perfect, or might be too fragile for some of the families on this site. But he will tell me if something is a bad idea, and when he does, I definitely listen. But some workers just want things easy, or don't have the knowledge to deal with an old house, or know they're going to slave for hours at their craft making something fit and then the homeowner is going to come home and say "But it's 1/8th of an inch off! That's totally unacceptable! Just put in a new one!" I think, for you, it starts with figuring out what you really WANT, and I get the feeling you're not quite there yet. As I see it: You can restore the salvageable 30s kitchen (little reconfiguration, cheapest option), recreate the 30s look with all/mostly modern components (some reconfiguration, middle cost, may exceed budget), start fresh with a new design with the very best of the 30s elements (some reconfiguration/more cost, likely to exceed $10K budget). Or another solution. In the end, the only opinion that matters is your own. Trust your gut....See MoreStarting Over 1930s - 1980s kitchen
Comments (23)I'll be contrary and say I'm against keeping that cabinet. The "old" cabinet is a hybrid from the (I'd say 50's-60's) previous renovation and the original cabinet. The bottom is original and the top has clutzy replacement doors instead of the (probably) of inset doors, the new doors were probably an attempt to blend the new cabinets with the old. The kitchen probably had one of those long wall sinks with integral drainboards in that area and the photos show the newly improved arrangement with only one small full depth base cabinet - the sink base. If you keep it, I think you can't place the dishwasher where you've drawn it - I don't think you have even 18" for a dw between where a farm sink cabinet would be and the edge of the antique base cabinet. You already know that its height from the countertop prevents you from using that counter space for anything but storage. If you keep it, you might look for new doors for it and a better companion cabinet for the other side of the sink window. The wall cabinet there looks like a replacement ir later addition anyway. Doing the return (making the little "L" on the dining room side) doesn't actually get you much - you lose more of the easy storage in the corner, the upper becomes more difficult to use and you don't really gain USEFUL counterspace because you can't use the counter in the corner. A lot of this will have different charateristics than it does now because you're much further away from that upper when you use standard size cabinets. The "L" prevents changing the dw to the left side of the sink - again I think that's necessary if you want to save the antique cabinet. In what I drew, You can have the ref where drawn free standing or with a small pantry that opens towards the bathroom. If you choose to do a range in that location, the suggestion above for an antique range is a good one - craig's list sometimes has chambers and others listed for baltimore that work and are reasonable. The issue with an unrestored antique range is SAFTEY. They sometimes have problems with gas leaks, rust or ovens that don't work right. You could also maybe do the 40" Frigidaire for something that feels more like an older style. Lots more cash than that gets you a restored antique range. Some more cash gets you something really stylish like this bert. At about that level of pricing, you can just reach a pro style range like an american or blue star. In any event, What you can't do is keep that partly old cabinet and "recounter" it deeper, put a counter in front of the window and expect to be able to reach inside it on either the uppers or the lowers (without crawling). By increasing the depth of the counter, you're increasing your distance from the upper and you won't be able to reach as well as you could before. You also won't be able to use either of the drawers because of the extended depth of the counter. I had to laugh about the wall fan (I have one). Isn't your kitchen greasy? Don't you spend time cleaning the grease off those pipes and the exhaust fan itself? Don't you find kinda gory dust on the ceiling fan - dust that clumps up because of the grease? Little flecks of greasy stuff on the walls and cabinets that are nearly impossible to clean off? Here is a link that might be useful: Frigidaire range...See MoreColor scheme for 1920s-1930s kitchen-what do you think?
Comments (25)Hello all, thank you! Cawaps, I've got a sample of the Formica Grass, and IRL it looks nice with the tile, but only nice. What I'm hoping is that something will really wow me. I would settle for even being somewhat wowed, haha. I wonder if stainless would work, as Jterrilyn suggested? In and of itself it's too cold a color, but maybe if it's surrounded by yellow it would warm up? Does anyone have pictures of stainless counters in warm-colored kitchens? We have stainless right now and functionally speaking it's excellent, particularly with the nautical edges, but I'm so SO not into grey. The only place I like grey is on cats. Or maybe dogs. That's about it. Of course, our stainless looks as grey as possible because our cabinets are grey and the walls are putty-colored. (The whole abomination is due to Tasteless Previous Owners with No Common Sense... see rants on other threads.) Black or charcoal grey I'm fine with, but not dull cloudy-day medium grey. Lavender, the black counters in Mama Goose's kitchen look great. Our first thought for counters was soapstone, but then we got a quote and I realized that my brain refuses to process any sentence that contains both the word "countertop" and the words "six thousand dollars." They just do not compute. :-) It's not about being able to afford it, it's about refusing to pay that much. The ghosts of my grandparents rise up and remind me that they grew up in the Great Depression, and then they say, "It's a COUNTERTOP. It's just a COUNTERTOP! You could lay BARE PLANKS across the cabinets and it'd work just fine! Do you realize what else you could do with $6000 etc. etc. etc." So that's what we're dealing with here... :-) And Lavender, I'm a total sucker for jadeite and also for carnival glass. Colors! Give me colors! Love 'em!...See Morevanity & sink for 1930s bathroom?
Comments (5)I know nothing about its quality but I have been thinking of this for my downstairs bath in my 20s house. It is really cheap at less than 250.Not a lot of storage but it seems more appropriate for the era of the house. And far less than the one I have been coveting from kohler's memoir line https://www.qualitybath.com/american-standard-0282-retrospect-bathroom-console-table-sink-19-34-w-x-27-d-x-36-h-product-216091.htm?sku=0282.004.020&gclid=CjwKEAiAkuLDBRCRguCgvITww0YSJAAHrpf-0aoNnZmpeVhGEvnUy0LE_87lQ4VAfLbD267suP1AfRoCcoXw_wcB...See Moregailrolfe
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