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Remodeling Kitchens

kitchen remodeling help for 1950 s kitchen

6 years ago

Please help. I need to update my kitchen. I would like to know if anybody has any ideas as to how I could keep my same cabinets but get rid of the bulkhead and have the cabinets up to the ceiling. Could I keep the bottom cabinets and have someone match the top and just add new ones there? The Zbrick Has to go. I am also adding new countertops and new flooring that will run from the kitchen to the living room since it is all one big room. Does anybody have any ideas of colors for the cabinets so that it blends in with my living room. Should I stay close to the same color?Any help would be appreciated.

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Comments (4)

User
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
Your wants need full scale demolition and starting over. And a robust budget.

Maybe develop different wants?
Miranda33
6 years ago
last modified: 6 years ago
From your post, it sounds like your budget isn't that big. Once you start in with the soffit, it will snowball from there, and you will be in for an entire kitchen overhaul which will cost tens of thousands.

Here are some quick ways to update your kitchen without spending a lot. Halve the number of plates along the top of the cabinets. It looks old-fashioned; just pare the display down to the best ones. Remove the window valence, which is fussy. Change out the chandelier over the dining table to something more current. Not an ultra-modern light fixture, cause that would look jarring. But that chandelier is a faux 1930's style, and changing it out for something without curlicues or little lamp shades would update your kitchen. Also remove the doily/wreath/candle from the table. Remove the stuff on top of the microwave, the picture above the paper towel holder, and the chicken clock. Your range and microwave both have clocks, so adding a chicken clock makes the kitchen look old-fashioned.

If you want to get more ambitious in your update, I would change out the counters, sink and faucet before I'd change the backsplash. The backsplash isn't bad at all.
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I usually like banquettes when they are tucked into a corner, not free-floating. I think in this case I would flip the kitchen layout significantly. Here's one idea: I tried to draw squares of roughly 24"/side for each seat at the banquette & put a good size table in the open space. The door(s) into your office/ex-DR could be a pair of french doors, maybe 4' wide in total, set on a diagonal to clip the corner between the end of the long banquette seating & the wall between the DR & LR. I think this would give you good counter space & plenty of lower cabinets in the kitchen, but you would be short on upper cabinet space b/c you'd only have from the door to the laundry to the window (over the sink, which doesn't have to move). The stove would need to move, as would the fridge. For the peninsula between the kitchen & den, you may want to have it extra wide (I tried to draw it wider than the other base cabinets). If you used a 24" base & backed it with 12" or 18" cabinets that faced the den, you'd have storage for video games, books, board games, etc. This is just one idea, hopefully it sparks other (better) ones.
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iroll
6 years ago
Yes, definitely save up for a more satisfying remodel, if you are staying in the house for long. You have a decent amount of storage; what would you use the higher ones for, if you had them? Unless you're quite tall, you'd need to stand on something to reach them just to open the separate doors to see what's up there.

I agree with everything Miranda33 suggested for doing now, plus I would also suggest painting the Z brick a shade of cream that goes well with both the cabinets and the current countertop. Also, maybe install a shelf for the microwave to sit on, then you will have the counter space underneath. You could remove the fluorescent light by the fridge, and run LED tape lights under the cabs, and the microwave shelf.

We had Z brick and did a refresh by painting it; it turned it from dated fake brick to a textured wall.
User
6 years ago
If storage isn't an issue you could add just the face of doors above your wall cabinets. I would look like real cabinets. I'd get rid of the z brick, too.

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