Unless you really dislike painted wood for some reason, painted cabinets are an easy, classic choice. I love a white painted kitchen, but pale colors and pastels are attractive too. Countertops - choose a retro laminate that you love. Backsplash - 4" square ceramic tiles to coordinate with the above. These are budget choices that will look homey and liveable and perfect for your charming house. Good luck!

Would you please post a couple of pics of the kitchen space, since that’s what you want help with?

I love the pictures of your house. It is very appealing and you have done a great job with your choices. The pictures that Beverly posted look like the perfect style for your house.

This picture is from my previous house built in 1931. Obviously with that tile work, it wasn't a cottage but the style of cabinets is the same. The cottage next door was built by the same family with the same cabinet style. That kitchen was small and had a storage wall side with shallow base cabinets, a countertop then upper cabinets around 12 inches above going to the ceiling. Many houses around here had a similar arrangement with a section devoted to storage and then perhaps a single cabinet or two elsewhere but stove and sink might not have cabinets next to them. The major difference in cabinets was those cabinets which were built in did not have toekicks like modern versions and were build in sections not individual cabinets.

Most houses I have seen in my area with stained cabinets were built prior to 1930 but there isn't any reason you need to have painted cabinets if you prefer stained. Just because painted cabinets were common doesn't mean that every new house was done like that. I would consider using cabinets of a similar color to your trim work rather than introduce another color.

I would recommend butcher block countertops and cabinets to the ceiling.

Darbuka, I did my best for photos, a straight on shot is impossible because the floor is only 4 foot wide. Gamm, I DO love the painted vintage look and have loads of inspirational pics I'm just worried that I have NO painted wood in the house and I don't want it too bright. Lyndee your tile wainscot is SO the direction I want to go. I can't find the right counter to go with the yellowish tile I found like yours. Whats it like living with butcher block?

The upper part of the wall and ceiling is a 5" tongue and groove, I'll be keeping that. For the lower portion I'll do wainscot tile just like Lyndee's I want either a pale translucent yellow or a grayish tone that's not too blue and then go from there.

Raye, here is my proposed cab layout. The bifold is a pantry created when they closed an original entry into the house. I'll be using that space for a paneled fridge, my dishwasher will also be paneled.

The pic of the lone cabinet is my door profile. (even though it's an earlier look)

This really is the best community! thank you.

How much space will you have in, and around, the pantry? Would it be enough to widen the opening and put the range there, similar to Lyndee Lee's pic? It might be easier to vent a hood, then the fridge could move over for a full depth ROTS pantry to the left, and MW in an upper cabinet.

Hope you are keeping that lovely ceiling.

Have you considered the low profile microwave? Same width, half as high

I tried to put my stove in the cubby but then I'd have walls on both sides and no elbow space, it ended up looking like it was in a closet - which it would be. lol

Yes, that's the micro I'm using I just couldn't get my free trial software to put one in. = ]

One of the nice things about a non-open floor plan is that you have more flexibility in changing up decor or colors from one room to the next. In an open floor plan, painted kitchen cabs can look jarring when the rest of the space has stained cabinets and trim. In an enclosed kitchen you only need to worry about about the framed view through the doorway, and I don't see that as being a problem if your living room is typical of your decor.

With respect to using the types of materials they had back then, I tend to approach it instead with the attitude, "If a person from the 30s with a 1930s aesthetic had access to modern materials, what would they have done?" That gives you more options. I shoot for vintage-ish, not "pass for original" vintage.

Are you doing hardwood floors in the kitchen? Matching the rest of the house? Or are you doing something else? I find it hard to pair wood cabinets with wood floors (I want there to be some contrast, not too matchy-matchy, but oh the floor is reddish and the cabs I want are more yellow...). I don't think it's an accident that hardwood floors became popular in kitchens around the same time that white cabinets became really big, as they balance each other. Wood on wood doubles down.

Where I am going with that is that if you carry the wood floor and wood trim into the kitchen, I would go with painted cabinets. If you are going to go for a different flooring (Marmoleum is very 30s), having the cabinets echo the wood colors elsewhere in the house would be nice.

Length?

Width?

Window and door sizes and locations?

Current appliances sizes?

Do you have any graph paper on which you could draw your kitchen to scale with measurements noted.

White would have been the appliance color for that era.

Cawaps, I am doing a different floor than wood. Marmoleum is one choice I have looked at. Love the butter.

And you ARE right - not exact materials but an "updated original" I envision an original brought up to todays needs. I just want that wainscot tile and counter matched. That's where I go off the rail with indecision. If I could pin those two down the rest will be easy.

Suezbell,

Dimensions, appliance sizes???? The lay out HAS been decided. my first post related the size as an 8 x 8 galley. My appliances are going to be paneled, the stove is what I have until I can afford to purchase a retro. I'm asking for Tile and Counter material and color suggestions. I'd appreciate help in that area if you have ideas. I'm frustrated because If I find a tile I like I can't seem to find the right counter and vice versa. This was my original inspiration, just don't want dark counters.

When you say, " I just want that wainscot tile and counter matched," do you mean MATCHED, or just coordinated. Because you said in the OP that you wouldn't go so far as to tile your counters, so getting them to match any tile (given that both tile and counters come in limited colors) would be really hard, or at least expensive.

I was thinking a solid-color counter would echo vintage counters without the bother of grout lines. Corian has a few solids and near-solids (I'm planning Glacier White Corian for my 1910 house), Silestone has some minimally-patterned quarz colors, and Wilsonart has solid-color laminates. A black or white counter would work with a colored wainscot tile without having to match hues. Or you could do a stainless steel counter. Soapstone would be era appropriate but maybe out of your budget.

If you do Marmoleum or other non-wood floor, I would look for cabinets to match your built-in hutch as closely as possible. Shaker in cherry (guessing based on the color, though that could just be the stain). This is a cherry Shaker cab with Marmoleum butter floors, Glacier White Corian, and Daltile Natural Hues tile in Buttercream (comes in a wide variety of shapes and sizes; I'm looking to do 4x4 squares in a staggered pattern in my own kitchen).

I liked butcher block on the countertop shown in my picture. On the opposite side, not so much. I would not use butcher block around water. It was just too easy to damage and I am not the sort to chase everyone else in the house to make certain they have wiped up all water that splashed. I had a problem with a guest who left a wet dishtowel on the countertop to dry handwashed pans. My counters were from IKEA so more expensive wood probably wouldn't be as finicky but I wouldn't do it again.

My kitchen in this house has granite and my basement has laminate. If I was buying new countertops, I would look at Corian and soapstone. We found a section of old countertop stashed in a basement storage area and it might have been the original. It was a wood trimmed linoleum and it was awful, in my opinion. Funny enough it resembled a really wild granite pattern but had red tones along with black and green that I haven't seen in granite.

We are sooo on the same page, I 'd love to see your kitchen.

I do want 4 x 4 staggered tile and your right about the cherry. I didn't mean "matchy match" What I should have said was in the correct hue. The counters will read blueish or greenish when I find a buttery yellow tile I love or if I find a perfect counter in a soft quiet pattern the tile reads really cool with the warm stain and floor.

I'm planning a trip to daltile as soon as they reopen the showroom.

What's funny is I found that exact counter at my home depot a few days back and the saleslady said it scratched too easily for a kitchen. It looked great with the yellowish floor I found from wayfair and the cabinet sample I got from Shiloh. Almost exactly like your suggestion.

Have you had Corian before?

I think the upstairs unit in my duplex (my old apartment) still has linoleum counters on a little-used stretch of original counters (the uppers almost completely overhang it, so it isn't useful as a work surface; we always just stored stuff there. But yes, that was done back in the day.

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