1950s / Eichler / "Mondrian" style laminate cabinets, anyone?

8 years ago

So I searched and couldn't find any threads on here about this cabinet style!

Has anyone here lived with a kitchen like this or (gasp!) designed one?

I'd love to hear experiences, thoughts, tips. It's "just" laminate applied on plywood, I assume? Nobody is making this stuff stock but can it cost all that much to have made to fit standard boxes?

My husband and I saw this piece of furniture in an exhibit in a furniture museum and (to my great surprise) we both fell in love with it, and it's become our spirit animal for our kitchen:

Other photos I found sort of in this vein…

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engrgirl

8 years ago

You asked if anyone lives with a kitchen like this.... i have for about a year now. We moved into an un-updated modern-in-the-70s / retro house last fall, and have the top cabinets with sliders like your photos show. Mine are just laminated wood panels, that move side to side in a maple wood grooved cabinet frame, fairly wide uppers like in your second photo, doors/drawers on lowers.

On one hand, I like the "look" and want to keep true to the era and style of the house. This is probably the main reason i'd do cabinets like this again, because I feel like the practicalities of living with them are 50/50:

- pro: the wide doors on the uppers mean i can put wide things in the shelves, without wasted space that narrower cabinets/doors would have. nice for 9x13 pans and punch bowl for example. I have one shelf with three pans lined up side to side that with standard boxe widths would have at best fit two of them in the same overall length.

- con: you can only open one "door" at a time where they overlap, so if for example I'm putting away clean coffee mugs i start with that door open which means there are 2 doors slid over the pan area. if I then want to put away the 9x13 pan, i have to slide both the "mugs door" and the "9x13 pan door" over where the glasses go to open the pan part, and the both back to the other side to put away plates for example.

- pro: open doors aren't sticking out to hit you in the head

- con: It may sound trivial (or lazy), but it is a little harder to shut a door, so quite often we end up with doors left open which looks messier

- pro: cleaner lines visually when the doors are closed since doors can be wider than you'd make a cabinet door front

- con: to reach something in the "middle", need to slide the door over quite a ways- in my case (and in your second photo) like 2.5 feet which is a tiny bit more effort feeling than opening a hinged door, since (see next item)...

- con: our doors are pretty thin 1/4" or 3/8" laminated particle/dustboard. I'm sure they aren't original, possibly even new before they put the house on the market. Being that tall and thin, they warp a little bit, making them a bit stickier and harder to slide in the grooves to open/close. Not sure if a higher quality wood would be less prone to warping, or a fresh coat of urethane would make it glide better...

- unknown: I've thought about tempered glass which could look cool and not warp, but occasionally i have a coffee mug that clears the "mug door" just fine but hangs over the back groove for the "9x13 pan door" a little bit so when I try to open that door, as it slides behind the mug door it catches on the mug (blindly, hidden behind the mug door), so I've been happy to have it be a slightly softer wood that doesn't break the door or the coffee mug.

So.... At some time in the relatively near future we'll be updating the kitchen, and to be honest I'm still torn on what type of cabinets I'd do. Pros and cons aside, i love the look and the minor "hardships" of having them are not horrible, so I'd probably do that style again, but maybe research upgrade options (ball bearing glides and dampers?), less warping wood types or engineered/plyed type of wood that would be less prone to warping, etc.

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Comments (21)

User
8 years ago
Looks like Kerff Design would be your best bet. Very$$$ but ohh, so lovely!
mama goose_gw zn6OH
8 years ago
You're not that far from Long Island--check the furniture in the link. You might send them a picture or specs and see what happens.

Custom Formica/Mica furniture
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homepro01
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
The last picture you posted is from Kerf designs. Henry built also makes cabinets in this vein. IKEA with custom door fronts painted in a fun color can be used to recreate picture 3.

Good luck!
User
8 years ago
It sure looks like laminate applied to plywood. Is there a cabinet shop near enough that you could go there and show them these pictures? A handyman? Someone at work who builds things? If you were here, it would be a done deal and done well. Lotta help I am!
User
8 years ago
Nice kitchens!
ahoyhere
Original Author
8 years ago
Whoa engrgirl that is awesome, thank you! You've given me lots to think about. Any chance I could see a photo? :D

pippabean homepro01 Yup, Kerf… my heart broke when I realized they were 3000+ miles away. I also have a sneaking suspicion I can't afford them. Henrybuilt looks even more fancy/expensive.

Imhappy&Iknowit IOWA zone 6b That's my hope. I'm not sure if I can find a local guy/gal who's done it before.

mama goose_gw zn6OH oh nice! yes, they are local-ish! (wow their style is very Long Island-y… who knew you could make laminate bend like that tho? they must be good at their jobs.)
funkycamper
8 years ago
If we ever get far enough along on our remodel, my DH and I will have to settle this discussion. I looked into Kerf. Absolutely love their designs. It's way out of my price range and out of the value of homes in my rural area. So I want to build new cabinet doors and drawer fronts out of either Appleply or Baltic Birch plywood, if we decide to go with natural wood finish, or Finland Color Ply or Euro Color Ply, if we decide to go with color and the Mondrian look. He doesn't think it's going to work. I want to get at least one sheet and try it out before deciding. The debate goes on and at our slow pace, we have time to decide, lol.

If we go with the plywood, we will not be doing sliders, just door fronts on hidden hinges to copy the look. And I want that great plywood edge showing. Partly because it would be harder to retro-fit our cabinets for sliders and partly for the reasons engrgirl stated. I lived in an apartment years back with sliders and I'm not sure the pros outweigh the cons for function. But, oh, the look is so fantastic. If I could justify the cost of Kerf Designs, I would find a way to live with sliders and do it gladly.

Check out those plywoods I listed when you're shopping for a craftsman to help you build your cabinets to see if they work for you. Of course, there may be others out there I'm unaware of.

If you do this, please share your experiences with the build process and your kitchen reveal when you're done. I would love to see someone doing this style in their kitchen. What fun!
ahoyhere thanked funkycamper
practigal
8 years ago
I love the modern color block look. At the time of those doors were made to be sliding doors there were no choices. Today there are many types of door hinges-you can slide the door up, you can fold the door up, you can slide the door to the side, etc. I wouldn't mind re-creating the look but with the modern-day conveniences available due to changes in technology.
withoutanh
8 years ago
engrgirl--I grew up in Palo Alto, CA, which is pretty much Eichler ground zero. I still lust in my heart over owning/rehabbing one. The thin kitchen cabinet doors were original. I remember them as being made of Masonite and stained mostly earth colors (probably depended on the taste of the homeowner?) rather than the bright, lively ones you are showing. I also remember my friends' mothers complaining about the sliders being a pain.

One thing they all had was a dining table attached to the end of the kitchen counters. The table was regular dining table height and the top was the same as the countertop material and seated 4; 5 in a pinch.
ahoyhere
Original Author
8 years ago
So I have a couple pieces of 1960s furniture that have the sliding doors with the round thumbholes and all (in black and white!)… I can see how those doors, as made, are not sturdy enough for kitchen cabinets, but being able to have an "open shelving" look just from sliding something over is pretty cool. And then you can choose to hide the mess again if you want to. :) That's one reason I thought the sliders might be awesome. IF they were made in a sturdy way.
ahoyhere
Original Author
8 years ago
funkycamper thanks for all the pointers! I am 95% sure we're gonna do this. I THINK that we are going to get our contractors to get smart and gussy up IKEA cabinet boxes. Depends on the quote for custom…

Did you find a source for this color laminate? I looked, haven't found anything. I know formica sells a wide range of solid colors in the UK that they do not seem to sell in the US… of course.
mama goose_gw zn6OH
8 years ago
I had to stop by the office of our local Kroger grocery store this afternoon, for a raincheck. In all the years I've been shopping there I'd never noticed until today that the cabinets are formica (or something similar), with sliding doors and finger pulls. Now I'll be looking for those everywhere. ;)
emilymch
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
ahoyhere, I love your kitchen inspiration pics! I am hoping to someday renovate the kitchen in our 1958 split, and I really want to do something appropriate to the house like those that you posted.

For tons of fabulous colors of laminate, Abet Laminati is a great company. They've got some excellent retro colors. I have heard that that is the laminate that Kerf Designs uses, but I'm not sure if that's actually the case.

Retro Renovation is also an amazing resource for planning a retro kitchen. Here's a post about retro laminates - I think this is where I learned about Abet Laminati.

http://retrorenovation.com/2011/09/19/8-places-to-find-retro-laminate-for-kitchen-or-bathroom-countertops-my-researchtips/
funkycamper
8 years ago
Yes, Anderson Plywood Sales

http://www.andersonplywood.com/323/euro-color-ply-phenolic/

http://www.andersonplywood.com/326/finland-color-ply-phenolic/
engrgirl
8 years ago
These aren't the greatest pictures, but with my Ipad this is as good as I can get now.... Here are a couple of photos of the kitchen in our house.

I think when the previous owner got ready to sell they put in new "doors" and just did cheap $2 handles- i wish they were the finger pocket sliders because they look more true to the style and also would be able to slide past each other, but at this point the holes are already drilled for the others so they will stay.

Also here's a close-up of the construction: pretty basic boxes with grooves routered into it for the doors to slide on. If / when we redo our kitchen I'm going to look at bearing glider sliders tho....
User
8 years ago
What a cool kitchen engrgirl!
ljwrar
8 years ago
engrgirl, if your doors are difficult to move, you can rub paste wax into the grooves to make them slide easily. Use a q-tip to get the wax into the groove.
engrgirl
8 years ago
Ljwar, thank you for the suggestion- I'll try it!
ljwrar
8 years ago
engrgirl, good luck. I've also just used a folded paper towel or paint rag instead of a q-tip.
areessvee
6 years ago
i'm very late to this thread. i'm looking for kerf-like cabinets in new york or connecticut to save the exorbitant added cost of shipping from seattle.

engrgirl, your kitchen looks perfect to me - i wish my 1968 kitchen looked like your's. regarding finger pulls, if you don't mind having two holes, one above the other, you can remove the pulls and drill each screw hole larger. alternately, you can drill only one hole larger and fill in the other. doing so will gain a few inches of overlap. also, another way to lubricate grooves for easier sliding is to use a candle. a birthday candle will fit easily into the groove. i learned that last tip from my carpenter dad : )

1950s / Eichler / "Mondrian" style laminate cabinets, anyone?

engrgirl

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