Whoo Hoo! It posted. 3rd times a charm!

I like these lights for above my windows (I have 3 on one wall).

My layout is similar to the photos in the navy kitchens, with one full wall of lowers and windows & wall for backsplash to the ceiling. Pantry on the opposite wall. Beverage center on one wall next to the dining room.

I am not a design person but have a bit to add. We also wanted to finish the subfloor of our 1949 house. Didn’t work out so much but worked great for a few neighbors! Nails, gauges, etc made it not doable. Our kitchen is smaller so it cost just over 1k to put new white oak in and they did a great job of matching the finish. Just have new floors in your budget :;

ericakn, bummer that you couldn't refinish yours! We have priced out the narrow white oak that is in the other part of the house and are considering tile too just in case! We did pull up the floor in the adjacent half bath and it wasn't too bad, but the floor had settled so much we had to rip it up anyway to level the joists so we just did hex tile instead. Hoping for the best, preparing for the worst!

palimpsest...
yes, those are modern kitchens. I want to do a nod to the 50's not a restoration. I also have a cape cod, so a full mid-mod kitchen is not appropriate. Here are some 50's inspiration photos. Maybe you can find some elements in these that I can incorporate into a new kitchen.

I like the older inspiration photos but agree with Pal about the first ones you posted. In fact the first ones you posted basically remind me of HGTV specials.

If you have a 1950's house, use the 50's inspiration pictures instead.

Those new kitchen s all look alike. And will all date themselves in days. A retro inspired renovation attempting a 50’s vintage look would look much better. At least 50’s vintage would look appropriately dated. Those modern over the top too much bling kitchens look like they are from Mars in a cute 50’s cottage.

Checkerboard floors in a double color . Slab door cabinets. Cool retro laminate counters. Lots of vintage textiles.

Thank you Sophie for answering my questions.

My house was once a small cottage but the addition in the 70's more than doubled it so it is now 2600sf above grade and almost 4200sf finished. It is a struggle to marry the entire house!

What did you think of the pull?

cpartist...I like the vintage ones too, mostly....maybe not the garden lattice doors....

What is the key light style that makes you think 50's? My ceilings are only 8 foot, so I need sconces over my windows and maybe a semi-flush mount.

I grew up in a 1950's kitchen in the house my parents built. I have no fond memories of it, but it was awfully "kitschy", as was the style in those days.

I now live in a 1948 house. The 2nd owner took out the existing cabinets - they now hang the back of my garage - very valuable storage. He put in cheap wood veneer cabinets in the early 1970's when he bought the house, and added an avocado green refrigerator and range. I sometimes wonder how I got past that and we actually bought the house in 1984.

I have never had any plan to do the kitchen in the vintage of the house and have not. I redecorated the kitchen twice, put in new white Corian countertops the first time and had a few more cabinets built to match the one he had installed and painted them all. They got a new color and new wallpaper about 14 years ago. And then a year ago, I finally gutted the kitchen and got new cabinets (kept the white Corian countertops and other things as well).

Do my cabinets look like 1948? No. But they're simple, Shaker painted cabinets, and while I would have preferred white, it would have been too stark in the kitchen with a huge bay that takes up most of the west-facing wall. So, they're light gray.

In 15 years will they say "2016"? Maybe. I couldn't care less - I'll be dead by then! They do suit the house and my traditional style and the colors in the rooms off this fully enclosed kitchen.

The same is true in my bathrooms. I know what 1950's bathrooms looked like! I lived with them! I still have the original white tile with black trim on the walls (fully tiled), and the small black/white mosaic floor, in one bath. I replaced the hideous vanity the previous owner had added. and put in a regular basin with chrome legs. That's probably pretty close to what was in the house when it was built and it looks right in there.

But the other baths were added later and I used porcelain tiles for the walls and floors in the MBR - they look like honed Carrera marble but are more durable. I kept the tub and toilet, and the marble topped wash basin that had been reconfigured in 1982. The newest bath was built in that remodeling and I just replaced the black/white vinyl tile with the porcelain Carrera look-alike.

I think the key is to keep it harmonious without slavishly trying to duplicate the look of another era. Not always easy to do, but when it works, it's wonderful!

Retro Renovation can give you great ideas for your 50's touches and nod to the era. I think the handles are really nice and what a steal!

Of all the 50s inspiration pics you posted, the last one seems to me to contain some of the elements seen in the modern inspiration pics -- glass doors in uppers, colored cabinets in a simple shaker-esque style. I think the pulls you like would look good on navy/darker blue cabs. You could nod to the 50s with elements like a drainboard sink

or checkerboard or patterned marmoleum floor

or the curved open shelves in seen in the last kitchen, along with some glass doored cabinets. That last 50s kitchen pic even has some cool semi-flush pendants that might work. I've seen very similar ones on CL here in Maine.

I grew up in an old farmhouse that had a lot of those 50s elements added. The drainboard sinks are fantastic-ly functional, and I hope my next house (ha ha ha) might be right for one.

Much of what makes a kitchen great can be readily adapted -- a functional layout, drawers and more drawers (oddly absent from the modern inspiration pics), a quality hood, a nice range, panty cabinet, etc. Your project sounds so fun, wish I were there to see it!

There are some really awesome color appliances out there that would really help channel the 1950s look you are going for.

If I were you I'd go buy up all those pulls from the Restore where you found them. The style is definitely 50's but the finish is more 70's and modern. Use them in the kitchen. Win-win!

Also the hood shape in the yellow kitchen you posted, Rachel, is a nod to the 70's but is also modern. I think someone already recommended this, but find pictures of actual 50's and 70's kitchens with elements that appeal to you.

For example, do you like the natural birch flat slab cabinet doors? That's very MCM and those pulls would be gorgeous with something like that. Medallion has a cherry, pecan stained flab slab door style that I love, Glenwood, pictured below.

I'd pick some 50s features, e.g. floor or slab front doors, hinges, appliances.

Wait, do you think there's hardwood underneath the current floors?

I love the first kitchen! I have the 2nd one pinned too. I think that one is a mix of 40's-50's, which mine may have done too based on some of the features in that part of the house and the wallpaper's I've uncovered which were more classic then retro.

I have been in love with the blue and yellow kitchen you posted, for years! To me, it has no MCM vibe--more post war. The kitchens you and NSM posted, with checkerboard floors and red formica tables look like 30s-40s kitchens that someone has updated to the 50s. It always makes me smile when I read someone on GW comment that Shaker is "too modern."

I love the older vintage look--MCM not so much, but I'm old enough to remember it the first time around, boomerang formica and Sputnik clocks. :)

A cape cod would not likely have had a Midcentury modern kitchen in any region of the country, it would have had a midcentury traditional kitchen. Even if you look at television programs contemporary to the era, the majority of the kitchens were midcentury versions of traditional. Even in movies the MCM house belonged to the sophisticates, not the everyday people. Where I grew up, there were a few MCM commercial buildings and a handful of houses at most even though there were tons of houses built in the post war. They were definitely midcentury but there was nothing too mod or atomic about the majority.

The stained glass is from the 1970s. The door may be original but the glass was put in in the 1970s renovation. Nobody was doing stained glass in the 1950s to speak of. The decorating books I have from the 1950s all talk about taking stained glass and leaded glass out, or creating ways to cover it up. It doesn't mean you shouldnt keep it.

The swag lights are more likely 1960s or 1970s. The hobnail sconce could be 1950s.

The objection (although that's too strong a word) that I have to your inspirations is that they are so elaborate. 99% of houses would not have had marble in the kitchen, and the houses that had stone countertops (there were some) had it for qualities other than decorative. The light fixtures (other than the baskets) might have shown up in the entryway near the front door. These kitchens are just too fancy. That didn't exist. There were kitchens that were large and had expensive appliances and were built like a battleship quality wise but they weren't so ...decorative.

And since the highly decorative kitchen (and master bath) in a house that's much plainer all around otherwise is so Millennial, it's going to be easily identifiable and stick out like a sore thumb at some point.

You can use quartz and marble and much better quality cabinets than your house had originally, that's not the issue. Your house may well have had stick built cabinets with a row of drawers built like a dresser (no rolling hardware) over cabinets with one fixed shelf in the lower all made out of plywood. There were some pretty spartan kitchens back then. You don't have to be a museum and recreate a budget kitchen. But the better stuff has to look more modest to fit in.

Palimpset...thanks for identifying the possible age and style of some of the items I have/had and for explaining what it is you "object" to. That is truly the feedback I am looking for.

I love that stain glass, even if it was added in the 70's and I won't be getting rid of it. It is part of this houses history and story. Hopefully some of the things I add to it will be eventually too. I think we live in a society that is too quick to throw things out and we should work with what we have, respect it and improve on it too.

I will work on finding some more modest finishes to complete the design. I really don't want my kitchen to scream "millennial kitchen". Thank you.

I save a lot of kitchens from real estate. These are not directly applicable to you but they reinforce my point.

This is the kitchen in a very large house in Westchester Co. The house is from the 1930s, The kitchen from the 1950s and it has Four wall ovens (high quality Western Holly) with their own vent hoods, six built in burners, probably Chambers...this kitchen was built for serious entertaining and is from a house which had staff. It's nice but it's not showy

This is a 1970s (probably) kitchen in a house designed by John Elgin Woolf in Trousdale Estates, owned by a celebrity:

This is the Bush's kitchen. This could have cost as much as the average house in the US, who knows?. And it also could have been designed in 1975 or now.

Love seeing them!

I had to go back and look at my pictures to see what lights you were talking about too. I really wasn't looking at any of those since I have low ceilings and no space for an island and won't have ANY pendents. While inspiration photos are helpful, I think we were also focusing in on different elements too. Although, I will admit the white and gold one is pretty full of "bling".

Ok...what do you think of these inspiration pics?

Navy with white subway tile, solid color counters, wood floor. My only uppers on on the ends and will be navy not white.

like this without island and pendents. Love the tile and hood vent. Might have to paint my window trim to make it pop. Mine is white.

Again, no island or pendents. White and green and black. I really like this. I also like the semi-flush mounts by the wall, would put something like them over the counter in front of the windows for task lighting at night. Fun hood vent. No bead board ceiling.

Am I more on the right track?

I think Pal has really helped you start in a good direction. The idea is to get the feel of what was a traditional post war kitchen but with modern materials. Kitchens as I remember them from back then had painted wood cabinets in some interesting soft colors and "modern" conveniences. Heck my Mom even had a dishwasher in her newly built 1950 ranch house.

These are much more consistent with a cape, I think. A tile backsplash but in square tile (4x4 for 1950s, maybe 2x2 porcelain for 1970s) would be more fitting than 3x6 which probably was not available in the 1950s or 1970s.

Um, not the first two. Those two are still HGTV specials.

I think the third one definitely feels more like an updated version of an older home with the beadboard ceiling, the light fixtures, the green island, the soapstone looking counters, and that range hood.

My sister bought a 1940's house and I think she did an excellent job on hers so here are a few pictures.

First one is looking into the kitchen from the dining room. Note the soapstone counters and she used shaker inset cabinets, found a chambers stove she had painted red, and the schoolhouse lights. Note also the beadboard ceiling?

I think the first two could be "tweaked" like pal said with different tiles and such. But, I really like the third one most.

I have the original wide tongue and groove on my living room ceiling and breezeway ceiling & on the walls in the landing upstairs and the basement, not sure I would want to add a different t&g where it was not already.

I love the idea of soapstone.

It would depend on how it lays out with the rest of the house. Pal can probably answer, but was 8" t and g used in earlier homes? That looks more like what was put up in the 70's. (My Mom had a version of that in her family room.)

In the 50's I believe narrower t and g would have been used, but as I said, maybe Pal can answer better than I can. (I tend to lean more towards late 1800's victorians and early 1900-1920's craftsman houses)

Half my house is 50's and half was 70's (an addition that doubled it) and many changes were made in the 70's throughout the house. The living room is 70's and I'm sure that is when they closed in the breezeway and redid the basement. The landing upstairs is a bit different and original 50's I think.

Have you seen Alison Kandler's houses and kitchens? They're fun, colorful and hark back to earlier times. Maybe there are some ideas there. I happen to love her sense of style and think it could work well as a jumping off point for you.

I had seen a couple of her pictures but not been to her page. I will check it out. Love the fun colors!

Rachel those pulls are gorgeous. I hope you went back and bought them all!

Yes definitely buy all those pulls.

I bought 40 of these pulls and found a dozen knobs that match nicely, so these are my starting point! I picked up some green and some cream 4x4 tile samples.
What do you think?
Cream cabinets with green tile is my favorite. (I had to use a tile to simulate cabinet color)

Navy cabinets and cream tile backsplash. Love the hardware on the blue, but feels off otherwise. Thought maybe tile the are behind stove with a decorative tile like the third pic???

constructive criticism & suggestions welcome.