Before and After: Kitchen Renovation in a mid-60s suburban home
Nick Horowitz
last year
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Lorraine Leroux
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Anyone remodel but keep the 'feel' of a 60's or 70's kitchen? Pic
Comments (22)You also might consider something like a china cabinet (a Haywood-Wakefield -style china cabinet would be very hot!) as a furniture-style solution. It can hold more than china -- vintage staples canisters, cookbooks, linens on the bottoms etc. That way you can just move it around the house as needed. Some people find things stay cleaner. (I have open shelves and don't have a problem.) You can definitely replace the laminate counter (they pull the whole counter out, not just peel off the skin) and put in a new laminate counter, or put in another kind of counter. Sometimes a "period feel" can be done with just what you have and some accessories. You don't need to add a thing that would turn anyone off. I also wanted to raise the issue that some people, contractors, designers etc, may come in and advise you to rip everything out. They may do this for a silly reason -- it's just easier for them, or a real reason -- a slow drip has been rotting the sink cabinet for 15 years, and it actually does have to be replaced. It's easy for things to get the "while we're at its" as someone here called it, and before you know it, your very modest kitchen plan calls for bumping out 3 stories and adding an indoor pool. I just want you to remember that, no matter what you decide, YOU are the one in control of this project. It's YOUR house. You can really say "No, we're happy with X as it is. We'd just like a quote on the Y right now, thanks." If you needed to get a couple of cabinets built because one is very rotted and unsalvageable, it might be done by a local carpenter for a reasonable amount of money, less than getting a whole new set of cabinets. But if what you really want is a whole new kitchen in 5 years, then -- get the leak FIXED, come back and let us know....See MoreBefore and After :: DIY kitchen reno
Comments (78)Annap, don't worry about a couple of months or a couple of years, actually to make finish choices. Really. Think about it. If you go with something that's not AH HA THAT'S IT, you'll end up changing it and wasting money. I'm here to tell ya'. After all. I installed reuse center cabinets. I reconfigured, gave them away or redonated, and built most of the next set myself. Then. I. Discovered. That. Beaded inset. SCREAMED my name. I gave all those away/donated and started again, with yet another reconfiguration. (Then I moved my refrigerator into the mudroom and cut off the peninsula, but kept the cabinets.) So just take it easy and go with what you love. I think I might put a sticky on it or something, so you don't get used to it. That way, something vaguely annoying that you remember you don't like will remain a (dare i? Sticking point) something to address. How are you enjoying those gorgeous windows?...See More60's Kitchen in Need of Update - please help!
Comments (22)I could recommend a few tweaks to the layout, if these were individually-built box cabinets. From what I can see, though, they are very solid job-built custom cabinets. These are so much nicer and better quality than the standard builder grade cabinets used most of the time now. I agree with those who say just change the minor things for now, and save up for a total renovation after you live with it for awhile....See Morehelp with 60s kitchen
Comments (31)Those solid wood cabinets you have are almost irreplaceable. I have some like that in a late 1950s vintage rental house, and it isn't even an especially well built one. They've stood up to almost 30 years of tenants, and all I've had to do was replace a few worn out catches. Meanwhile, the fake wood vinyl covered cabinets in another allegedly higher grade rental, built just 20 years later, look much shabbier. I've had interesting times reattaching cabinet doors between tenants. The screws strip right out of the particle board. Lizzierobin, I had a coworker a couple of decades ago who'd been raised in the 1950s and would have loved to have your "before" kitchen! When he and his wife (also a fifties kid) finally settled down, they bought a former rental that still had some of its "mid century" decor like they'd grown up with. The bathroom (only one!) had matching green sink and toilet, and the classic white tile walls with black trim and basketweave black and white tile floor. Unfortunately, their kitchen had been redone with generic big-box-store cabinets and Formica-slab countertops. They already had scrounged up vintage appliances, and one of their next goals was to find salvageable period cabinets and boomerang Formica counters. Now that some of those old Formica patterns have been reissued, maybe they finally have the kitchen of their dreams. :)...See Moresabrown72
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