1950’s Kitchen Needs a Light and Airy Update
Hi Houzzers:
My husband and I recently moved into a 1953 cape cod bungalow on 6 ½ acres and are looking to freshen up our kitchen. We are going to keep the appliances and cabinets for now as we will be doing an addition in the next few years. In the meantime, we would like to lighten up the kitchen with some new paint on the walls/white paint on the cabinets, cabinet hardware, light fixtures (can lights over the main cooking area and a pendant light over the dinette), flooring and countertops. For the floor, I am torn on wood or some type of a stone. Originally, I wanted wood, but can one have wood floor in the laundry room? As you can see, the kitchen flows into the laundry room/butler pantry/bar area so whatever we do to the kitchen, will need to carry over to the adjacent laundry room. All suggestions are welcome, thank you!
My husband and I recently moved into a 1953 cape cod bungalow on 6 ½ acres and are looking to freshen up our kitchen. We are going to keep the appliances and cabinets for now as we will be doing an addition in the next few years. In the meantime, we would like to lighten up the kitchen with some new paint on the walls/white paint on the cabinets, cabinet hardware, light fixtures (can lights over the main cooking area and a pendant light over the dinette), flooring and countertops. For the floor, I am torn on wood or some type of a stone. Originally, I wanted wood, but can one have wood floor in the laundry room? As you can see, the kitchen flows into the laundry room/butler pantry/bar area so whatever we do to the kitchen, will need to carry over to the adjacent laundry room. All suggestions are welcome, thank you!
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Wall color: SW 6211 RAINWASHED
First, instead of wood flooring, go with the ceramic or porcelain wood look tiles, and buy more than you need for right now. They are getting rave reviews and are so easy to care for. Buying extra now will allow you to continue into your extension without having to worry about dye lots and mismatched colors. http://www.builddirect.com/Porcelain-Tile/Woodstone-Oak/ProductDisplay_6933_p1_10075888.aspx
Second, paint the walls and the cabinet boxes white along with the doors on the lower cabinets. Just plain remove all the upper cabinet doors and leave them off. You'll be surprised how much this will open up the kitchen. I've done it in mine and I wouldn't go back.
Third, when you expand, instead of lower cabinets, but drawer units. So much better than cabinets!
The medium-scale fluorescent lights you have now put out a lot of light for very little cost in electricity. If you use can lights, you'll get less illumination of the upper cabinets' shelves, so you may need additional lighting of another type. Consider moving the fluorescent fixtures to the laundry area because that is one place where you really need a lot of light. The addition of wall lighting in the dinette area indicates that you may want lighting bright enough to read there, so look for pendants or mini chandeliers that have downlighting as well as uplighting, using bright bulbs.
As for colors, once you have primed all the pine wood with white primer and installed the new lighting, it'll be much easier to bring in some paint samples. I like the simple "inspiration piece" approach to choosing colors, popularized on tv:
http://www.mattandshari.com/show-103-bedroom-inspirations/inspiration-piece-decorating.html
In any case removing the upper cabinet between kitchen and dining nook would connect the rooms and reduce the darkness. Use those upper cab doors to cover your base trash/recycling area - They look about the right size - if not you should be able to trim down or add a mid-panel as needed as they are solid wood. The remaining open upper cabinets could be used elsewhere as open shelves, painted inside, such as over laundry machines, etc..
Another big difference item is to remove the wood from the upper walls in the kitchen. Keeping half height in the nook would still look nice as a wainscoating, bringing it up to the mid-height of your dutch door and countertop with a horizontal molding finish detail. (This is assuming that you are refinishing/painting the wall material and upper walls in light colors).
Third, move the stove into the kitchen further - possibly swapping or reducing the width of cabinets between it and the refrigerator. (is that a pass-thru ? - can you eliminate it ?) All these minor moves would open up/connect the space, centralize your three main kitchen functions and leave the nook open for kitchen-enlarging later - without tearing out what you have done to that point ....
I like all of the suggestions so far about light colors, but being a huge fan of real wood, natural finished or painted, Im more inclined to keep and improve it rather than trading in for certain newer materials.
Light wood floors with all white or light walls and cabinets would be gorgeous. Have fun
In the meantime, we will paint the walls white. Suggestions for a Sherwin Williams white paint color? We will also take down the upper cabinet above the pennisula and use the wood from the cabinets to cover the lower pennisula cabinet.
For the floor, I am leaning toward wood tile to provide some warmth if we paint the cabinets white. As for the countertop, I am still undecided if we should go black or keep it super light...I like both. Either way, the material has to be durable to hold up to entertaining.
Also, do the laundry room cabinets and kitchen cabinets need to have the same hardware, cabinets, counterops, etc? Since the space is so close, I think keeping everything consistent would keep from breaking it up but don't know the do's and don't.
Bprince - The pass thru goes to the dinning room/side entrance/living room. It comes in handy and is charming so I want to keep it for now. Eventually, we may tear down the wall to connect the spaces though. I am a big fan of the stainless steel drainboard sink too!
If you paint the cabs a color such as what I suggested above (SW 6225) then match a white paint color with the stone/tile for backsplash.
You do need some contrast-having everything white would be cold and uninviting. Hope this info is helpful... Good Luck!
[houzz=][houzz=Strand Porcelain Tile - Linear Stone Look Tile - Beige Tile - Floor tile][houzz=Gigi's Groovy Stixx- AlysEdwards Glass Tile- Peace Man Peace]
I almost laughed when I saw your photos because we did a similar remodel two houses ago. We kept and painted the pine walls a taupe that went a bit gray, that saved money rather than replacing them. We kept the original cabinets and had our contractors adjust a few of the weird things and build in a few custom areas, like a broom/ladder closet and a skinny vertical cabinet for cookie sheets. Then we painted them white and had new doors made, very simple raised panel and got new nickel hardware. We used the same white color for the baseboard, window and door trim. We replaced aqua tile backsplash with plain white subway tile, which was also a cost savings. We got laminate counters in a soft gray that had a very fine specks of white, taupe and charcoal. We had sconces installed at the sink exactly where yours are, they were brushed nickel with a frosted shade so they gave off nice light that didn't glare. We replaced hideous Harvest Gold vinyl flooring with a very simple pale taupe vinyl that had a speckled terrazzo look. It was an incredible transformation. We never wanted to take away the character of the original kitchen, but it did seem very dated and oppressive at times. We wanted something that respected the house, but was brighter and not so country looking. The contractors were amazed at how well it turned out. It has always been my favorite kitchen, sorry I had to move! I know you can get a lovely result because it worked for us!
I do agree with the suggestions to remove the upper cabinets by the eating area. And perhaps someone has mentioned and I just didn't notice, but maybe also enclose the cabinets where the trash and recycling is. Your flooring looks pretty good from the photos and is neutral. Perhaps you could keep that and spring for a new white or stainless dishwasher. Also, if you had a cabinet, shelves or wine rack built over the fridge and maybe a cabinet with a hood over the whole stove that whole wall might flow together a little better. I would paint the pass through trim the a color that matched the backsplash too. That section looks a little like everything just got placed there because it needed a space. Also, the eating area might look larger and be easier to use if the furniture was a smaller proportion, especially the table. A built in booth on one side with chairs on the other could be kind of fun, if it fit. The sink is a keeper if you ask me! I love Natalie's color selections above, and gumspring45 had a very similar result to our kitchen. We chose nickel with hidden hinges rather than keeping the black hardware, but that looked really nice as well. Good luck! Maybe once you finish your updates the kitchen will look so good you won't want to add on!