Reader Sara is mid-mod-mad, but she is biding her time in a rustic farmhouse while she and her husband finalize their plans to build their retro ranch house on the same, large property. She can’t wait any longer to get her fix, though: She has been in the farmhouse for five years and wants a jolt of retro in her kitchen NOW.
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So, Sara has asked the Retro Renovation community for our suggestions on how to retro-fy the kitchen without spending a lot, as they will not live in this house for a lot longer. The cabinets are from an old chicken coop, she has been told. That sink is original. Oh, and wait til you see the highly sought after Armstrong 5852 flooring. She’s also provided an “inspiration photo” from our archives.
What are your ideas, Sara asks: Paint the countertops? Paint the cabinets? Paint the bottom cabinets? Change the wallpaper border? Change the wallpaper all together? Paint the window casings? Curtains? What about painting the lower cabinets and the counter red to match the sink and replacing the wallpaper with a small print that has red and aqua in it (have the turquoise fiestaware)?
Go to it, readers! I’ll wrap it up on Tuesday with a mood board.
Here is Sara’s inspiration photo:
Click on the first thumnail to start the slideshow. There are descriptions below each photo, along with arrows to move you back or forward:
And here is some more background:
Hi Pam. I’m so grateful (in advance) for all the practical and down to earth decorating advice I’m hoping to get from fellow “love the house you’re in” folks. We’ve been here 5 years now and it’s been a lot of work inside and especially out. Nature can take over pretty darn fast when a place is left vacant! Anyway, I’ve included a lot of photos so you can pick through them. Just thought you might like some outside ones to get a feel for this place. As you can see, the setting is beautiful. And you know my hope and plan is to build a mid century modest home to live in for the rest of our lives (next 40+ years). This place has no foundation, old everything, and not one of those “solidly built” homes you have back there plus we worry about the fact that it’s basically kindling. And with one bathroom off the utility room and 4 bedrooms upstairs it doesn’t suit an aging couple. It is actually the 2nd home to be built on this property. But in the meantime, I want to enjoy it. It is my husband’s dream property and he’s always wanted it. So for us it’s all about the location and the lifestyle it gives us. We will be making a smaller footprint by taking down (recycling old wood) the house and outbuildings and building smaller.
Hey, this place was “retro” when “retro” was modern! I’m thinking a western direction would work. Keep thinking how everything “western” was so cool in the 50s. Movies, clothing, ranches, even the Mickey Mouse Club had a western story line. I’m a little overdosed on the whole “lodge” theme. My grandma went from a farmhouse to a pink mid-century modern home. I think I know where she was coming from! I hope people have fun with it.
Many thanks! Don’t know anyone else who doesn’t want to gut something and put in “updates”.
Sara
joyce's jane says
I too have a country home that i am trying to give a mid century flair to. Dont paint the cabinets…..this is one of the few settings that can really carry a wood theme. I installed new Hickory cabinet in my home and i LOVE them. Would sanding brighten them up? I also have Fiestaware and I would suggest getting more of that, especially in red, and continue to display. What do you think of a big wide retro stove? I looked for a long time and found one that I LOVE!!! I dont even like to cook! lots of oohs and ahhs and compliments. Love the little curtain under that super red sink, Id look for some cute retro fruit print. LOVE your canning shelves. You have a wonderful charming start here. Look for kitschy salt and pepper shakers, vintage baking pans and some more bright colors…..youve got a winner!
Bridget says
Sara, I like the idea of an awesome print under the sink but you could mirror the idea to hide your crawlspace under the stairs, and maybe a cute little curtain. I definitely think that a light blue bold print or something that contrasts well with the beautiful red sink and matches your fiesta ware. You can pretty much get yards and yards for relatively inexpensively so if you find a retro patten you love you could do touches of it all over and be really matchy! matchy!, like homemade napkins!
Your kitchen is totally amazing and good luck, I know it will be awesome whatever you decide!
error 404 says
I agree with whoever said ditch the hideous bordered wallpaper and think Betty bold.
The backsplash needs help, either pine like in the inspiration picture, or green to match the plates, like the countertops int he inspiration pic.
I also agree with whoever suggested the Ricardo’s CT kitchen.
The words “retro cowboy” scare me. You want it to look like a home, not a themed restaurant where waiter/impersonators serve huge burgers.
I also wouldn’t paint he sink base, but would consider painting the ref and dw as the white stick out like a stark sore thumb in an otherwise rather dark room in the photos
Pat says
Whatever you do, DON’T paint the cupboards, they are gorgeous! I don’t see much to do, except change the color of the island piece.
Frank says
I have no specific suggestions, but perhaps you could take some cues from the Ricardo’s Connecticut house (l Love Lucy) and find some early-American furnitue, blonde maple tables and wing-back couches, that were so popluar in the 50’s and 60’s.
Something along these lines:
http://www.freewebs.com/lollipophouse/Furniture/couch.jpg
Teresa Halpert says
I love this kitchen, and I don’t think it needs much to make it fantastic. I like how the island can work as the landing area for the fridge, and the dishwasher top serves for the stove. It seems to me that it has the feeling of having originally been an old-style “unfitted” kitchen. From researching my own house, I know that the owner of such a kitchen sometimes acquired a “modern” cabinet sink which could stand alone, without redoing the whole kitchen. I like what other people are saying about generations of acquisitions.
I LOVE LOVE the sink. I don’t think it needs to match in hardware to the wooden cabinets. I would put chrome mid-century pulls on it, to match the curving chrome trim on the front. (I also think the sink would like to have a dishmaster faucet.) Then it will seem as though they might have acquired their chopping-block cabinet with its deco-looking pulls in mid-century, either before or after the sink.
The wooden cabinets (also LOVE) seem older–like a rustic sort of butler’s pantry. My 1950-alter-ego feels that I would keep the hardware but give them a “new” counter top, like a speckly or patterned formica, with metal edging. I disagree with others in that I would use a light-colored one, like “glacier boomerang” (or maybe “red glacier boomerang”), because you have white appliances, and some white in the counter top would integrate the appliances into the color scheme. You could use the backsplash to bring in the turquoise with a laminate or a retro wallpaper, or just put zinc there. On top of the dishwasher you could put a piece of stainless since it is practical next to a stove.
Then I would try to imagine how they would have acquired “modern” bits to utilize the unfitted wall over the sink/stove. I would lose the light/vent over the stove in favor of a round through-the-wall vent that says “50’s” and then a big thing above to hang pots–maybe even one of those pot racks with lights–or a deco porcelain or atomic chrome light could go on the wall above the stove. I would use the wall to the right of the window for a retro-style first aid/medicine cabinet–maybe a metal cabinet painted to pick up the complementary color of the backsplash (or keep with red), with or without a deco-style mirror. Or you could hang a large spice cabinet.
Since there are not fitted cabinets over the sink, a curvy wooden valance like in your inspiration picture could be anchored with a cornice.
BungalowBILL says
I look at your house and kitchen and immediately I hear in my head Kid Rock singing ” I want to be a cowboy baby”. I think that’s what your home calls for, remembering the mantra “love the house you’re in”.
I would take my decorating cue from the great lodges and dude ranches of the 1950’s and think along the lines of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. I’d get inspiration by googling Thomas Molesworth furniture, Old Hickory furniture., or vintage Monterey furniture. Don’t touch the wood, faux paint the island like Monterey, use bandannas or Mexican blankets for in front of the sink and window treatments, carry it over to the furniture in the living area. Use some strips of leather or vinyl and tacks along the edges of the shelves.
Start a collection of 50’s diner china or pottery for display on the shelves with your canned items, a wagon wheel chandelier. All these things are inexpensive and add punch. Here is a link to a company that reproduces the 50’s cowboy china: http://www.truewesthome.com/
I don’t see going real atomic modern with what’s there now. Save that for the new ranch.
J.R. says
Trying to keep in mind that you are not staying in this home, which is a situation I am similarly in, I offer the following…
Love the enamel sink, but the base is problematic, consider having just the base faux painted to better match the adjoining cabinetry, and use the red sink as both a focal point and guide for accent colouring. Starving artists from a local gallery or community college can do it on the cheap, just remember REAL enamel paint, like Rustoleum, is the only thing that will work. Counter tops can still be had in red cracked ice formica, if you have a local cabinet guy with some good inroads. Using the turquoise as a secondary accent colour should work out fine. And nothing says you cannot replace the missing sink doors with wooden ones, a good handyman can make it work.
Ditch of course the 80’s “country” wallpaper, and think “Mad Men” … go with a big plaid pattern, or there are even retro cowboy papers out there, but I think those are better suited for kids rooms or maybe a bath.
I don’t care for islands, but if you want to keep one I think something a little more solid and heavy looking would fit better. This one looks a little anemic compared to the other cabinetry. I’d go with a hefty 2″+ thick- butcher block top on it.
I would go too with different light fixtures. Try the classic and very retro “dish” styles that are still available, and only cost about $5. Different style shades (if you don’t like the ones that come with the fixture) are out there still too. Most smaller hardware stores will have them in stock for anywhere from $2-$15. Go with halogen bulbs to brighten up the space a bit more.
Other than that… update with some nice retro curtains, maybe even bandana material, and furnishings. For wall decor, I think framed old print ads would be great, especially with a western theme… finding a few old and not-to-nice to cut up copies of Arizona Highways would be a good start.
Hope this helps, Enjoy!
Susan says
But if Sara paints the base, she’ll lose the ombre effect on the drawers. I’d definitely leave as is!
Teresa Halpert says
Yes–I love the sink base too. If the kitchen must be reborn, I would save this cabinet sink and give it a place of honor (perhaps with chrome boomerang pulls and curtains to match the new kitchen). It was surely someone’s pride and joy at one moment in time.
J.R. says
I understand the concern…It is a suggestion not offered lightly, I have in doing restorations cursed many an appliance/ furniture painter. I just can’t make the base work in my mind’s eye, and the effort of replacing it would be defeating in the case of her temporary arrangement. There probably are better ideas, particularly for those with the vision to male the sink work as is. On the same note though, you can still get those missing lower doors replaced with wood (rounded particle board probably) and get them painted to match the current unique effect.
Sara in WA says
I won’t be changing the sink; I like the color and it’s just not worth the effort to add wooden doors. So handy to the garbage can and the curtain is easily washed. Hardware matches the cabinets and it’s one of those things that I thought I wouldn’t like but actually do. But thanks for the suggestions.
SaraTinkelman says
Oh, Sara – step carefully. What you have is already a treasure! Here’s what I’m thinking: Since you’ll be building your dream ranch, why not consider creating the atmosphere of a very old farmhouse summered in by a post-war family? They’d probably have “modern” cookout impedimenta such as a grill & chef’s hat for Dad (!) and a real wooden picnic table; mid-century melamine dinnerware (Russel Wright made some of the coolest) and mixing bowls; a second-hand electric beater; maybe a (50’s) blender for those fruity cocktails; super-hero or cartoon character juice glasses & pitchers; plastic red & yellow condiment squeezers; a portable “record player” & some Sinatra LPs; a post-war dinette set for indoors; some 50’s wall art & figurines, etc. With the exception of up-dated electrics, a tight roof & sufficients functional windows to take advantage of summer breezes I’d try not to change too much structurally. I spent my 50’s – 60’s summers in an 1850’s farmhouse in the middle of Rural Nowhere, Pennsylvania. It was filled with several generations’ worth of cast-offs (“I was gonna throw this old thing out but I guess it’s good enough for Camp” was what my great-grandparents, grandparents & parents often said) so the place had yellowed and forgotten “Buy War Bonds!” – type 40’s calenders with curled corners still hanging from the pantry wall; slippery horsehair furniture in the parlor, antique Blue Willow, & a lot of post-war Pyrex cookware. The juxtaposition of all this stuff from different periods is still a part of its endearing & enduring charm. It’s why my cousins still come & why our kids & grand-kids love the place. You might just be in the process of creating something as precious for your family, too! Just sayin’.
Michelle says
Had a second thought on the backsplash – since you’ve got that great turquoise fiesta, maybe go with silver tin tiles, then the fiesta would pop. Love a wagon wheel chandolier idea. The key is not to make it too matchy-matchy or too “I’m doing a a cowboy theme”, ,