Retro style wood cabinets for a 1950s or 60s kitchen renovation
50sPam on Nov 03 2007 at 1:20 pm | Filed under: cabinet hardware, kitchen
Steel kitchen cabinets are what started me on this road to the retroblogosphere. But I also completely admire the look of nicely executed wood cabinetry. In reality, it was a Steel vs. Wood dual for most of the 50s with the two industries duking it out for the heart of the mid century housewife. And Wood won!
I will do more posts on this most fascinating and important of subjects over time. But to start, my core recommendation if you want to go with wood is to: Consider Dynasty cabinetry in the Vail door style shown. Dynasty is a brand of Omega — a company that did very well in an evaluation by “a major consumer publication that you know the name of but which would sue me if I used it.” Bottom line: This is a good brand constructed to last, and they have the door style you need for a retro reno.
You’re looking at a “slab” door in a “full overlay.” It’s basically identical to how steel cabinets come together - just in wood. Streamlined, not fussy, 50s and 60s Modern. There are a number of finishes - and you can match them to the vintage photo I’ve shown. I’ll post more as I find them.
Add the right cabinet pull, or have them notched and go without. You could even skip the kick plates and put them on little Danish legs - that would be really Modern. Omega can, I believe, even notch out the “air vents” in the sink cabinet, if you want that.
A couple more notes:
- This recommendation is for stained finishes only. If you want to get new wood cabinets and paint them (like the wall cabinets in this image) — you want to go with MDF doors, which will take paint better. I’ll post a bit on that later.
- And I have one more door style to get to soon. I’m looking for the perfect vintage ad to illustrated it.
7 Responses to “Retro style wood cabinets for a 1950s or 60s kitchen renovation”
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Judi's Lexington ranch
Amy's San Diego bungalow
Could you give me a hint on that publication and what month that was out? I would be curious to check it out. Thanks!
Hi kbk. The photo is from an advertising pamphlet I have, no date, sorry. Ditto the previous photos I had up. I have lots more advertising ephemera, a stack a foot high actually, and will be posting much more over time.
[...] that this fixture, paired with slab-style wood cabinets, in the same finish, as recommended in my post last week, would look awesome for a late 50s or 60s retro reno kitchen. Be sure to include Bradbury & [...]
[...] of all, see the photo from Omega showing how they’ve created a malt-shop feel with their slab-door wood cabinets. You can replicate this with wood or metal cabinets. But I think the awning used as an interior [...]
It’s funny because when we redid our kitchen we couldn’t afford fancy cabinets, so our choices were very limited. We went with hickory cabinets, but everything else in the kitchen is very mod. It’s truly amazing how good it looks. I was really worried at first, because when you’re in the middle of a project it’s difficult to imagine the finished product, but it worked out great and really has a 50’s flare.
That’s great to hear, Laurie. I was doing research on other wood styles last night and have a few more that I am planning to post. The bottom line: “Modern” melds very well with more traditional styling - especially if you put love into the project!
I’m looking for the hinge pins that are found in old metal kitchen cabinets. They sort of look like the inside of a ball point pen,(dowel with a spring) that insert into a door and have spring loaded heads that pop into the flange that is attached to the cabinet. I had a set of cabinets refinished and the painter lost a few hinges making the cabinets sort of useless. (but good for poltergeist, since they fall off randomly.)
I see a lot of these cabinets on the net and often they are just going to get tossed during a remodel if they are in poor shape. I doubt if the hinge pins can be in too bad of shape no matter what the condition the cabinets are.
A picture of what I am referring to can be viewed here:
http://www.thebenefitnetwork.com/hingepin.jpg
If the picture is still there, I still need the hinges.
If the picture is gone, and you need hinges I may have picked up some spares.