Do you love prewar bungalows and cottages and want to update your kitchen in that charming style? I bumped into this wonderful Clarion farmhouse sink again – an exact reproduction of a stand-along pre-war sink. Oh my goodness, wouldn’t this look fabulous with Bradbury Sunnyside wallpaper… yellow straw linoleum from Armstrong… an Elmira Stove Works range… a vintage dinette… subway tiles… and… hmmm, how about oak Arts & Crafts style cabinets? The daydream of waking up to this sweet sweet kitchen makes me want a prewar bungalow!
Kitchens – Countertops

When folks move into new/old 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s or 1970s homes, it seems like one of the biggest and most common needs is to update materials in the kitchen that are on their last legs. In general, if you have a laminate countertop that is in good shape, I’d say: Keep it. Or [...]

Arborite has two new laminates in their 2011-2012 collection that just popped onto my radar. I haven’t seen these as actual samples yet — I’ll order them this week. Meanwhile, I wanted to put them out there, because I know that many Retro Renovators have been left kind of up a creek since Formica discontinued [...]

Seems like I’m starting the week off with the spotlight on RESOURCES! I was checking out Formica’s site recently – and saw these two new laminates. They both have a nice retro groove, underscored by their names, Atomic Orange and Atomic Turf. Back in the postwar era, there were a number of laminates that had [...]

A few years ago I saw my first bathtub and shower surround tiled in with a “crazy quilt” of all different tiles, and it was love at first site. If you love color and pattern, heck, going crazy quilt means can have it all. Designer Amy Mescia — with her new company Oscar & Izzy – now [...]

A reader wrote to ask how to bring the luster back to her vintage laminate countertops. Paste wax, maybe? To get the answer, I turned to expert Grace Jeffers. She is the writer, design historian and materials expert responsible for restoration of the Ralph Sr. and Sunny Wilson House – including its gorgeous Mondrian-style kitchen, [...]
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Great blog! The wallpaper is a dream but I would never live with a sink like that again. It is cute as all heck, but it is so shallow, you end up soaking your whole front everytime you do dishes.
I can’t wait to read more!
Ditto to what Nicole said! Before we bought the mini-ranch, we were living in a studio apartment in my family home built in 1929. It had this very sink in the kitchen and while cute, I was regularly soaked.
We bought a 1918 bungalow last year – and the dream you’ve explained is just about what I’m working on doing to the kitchen! I’m going to mix eras though – I found a beautiful 1950′s Tappan range and a left-hand drainboard sink & metal cabinet on craigslist. I’m going to get thebigchill’s 50′s fridge & dishwasher to match the era of my stove, but going for arts & craft’s recessed-door wood cabinets to match the woodwork in the rest of the house. Throw in a banquette for seating and we’re done!
Love the blog, your focus isn’t the era of the house we own, but I believe in mixing and matching anyways!
Kristy – your kitchen sounds great! Be sure to send me pictures when you are done! And hey – I am all for mix ‘n match, too! That is the way people lived, in reality!
what kind of a countertop would you recommend to go with this?