Bonnie is the proud owner of a 1958 “dream-home time capsule” and sent us some photos of some of its awesome original details to ogle and envy. I am particularly loving the coral countertop and cast-iron painted planter box — this color looks just lovely with the classic, 1950s natural birch plywood cabinets, don’t you think? Boo to the hoo that Formica discontinued the coral boomerang laminate, but I bet we can find something close in a solid for sure and maybe also in a subtle tone-on-tone pattern. Oh. Bonnie’s kitchen features these fabulous fold-down electric range top burners. Another 1950s innovation that… didn’t make it longterm. We see this occasionally in the wild. So cool to see them in this time capsule kitchen. Party on for more photos … and Bonnie wants our advice on regrouting the pink (of course) bathroom tile –> 
PAM! Hello!! My husband, boys and I have just moved into our very own dream-home time capsule from 1958. Also attached are images of our original 1958 kitchen with orange counter tops, space age wall oven from Fridgidaire, and flip down range…. We plan to work on the kitchen to gain more storage space and counter space in the future. Currently, though, we are going to live with it to make sure whatever design we come up with is thoughtful and meets our needs. We plan to keep it as original as possible to honor the architecture and time period… 
We will also be working on an original galley kitchen to make it more large-family friendly. It’s outfitted with a chrome flip down range, fridgidaire space-age wall oven, original cabinets, and orange laminate counter tops with metal edging…
Also, I noticed you love original lighting. All but one of the fixtures in our home is original. We are going to try to restore the finished on the lights to original brass (they are pretty dingy right now). Yet another idea for the blog… 
It has a classic pink, baby blue, and black bathroom that must stay…the problem is MOST of the grout in the shower is cracked. A lot. Any suggestions on how to save the tile and repair the grout? I hunted around for some suggestions on this site but didn’t find anything specifically about the grout situation. Would love to send you some pictures, if you are interested, and possible do a feature about this “save the pink bathroom”. Here is my pink bathroom in need of some repair…the grout in the shower and around the vanity is cracked. I was wondering if you had seen this before and if you knew of any way to fix it…we really love the original tile and want to keep it!!
Thanks so much for the inspiration from the blog. We love being in a home with a past! Bonnie
BONNIE! Thank you! What a lovely home, and you are SMART to take your time contemplating any changes (that aren’t related to enviroment and safety, of course).
Regarding fixing the old grout:
I don’t know about the grout. I am pretty sure that I have read that old grout can be Dremeled out. Very painstakingly. Then regrouted. *Some therapy*.
Replacement tile:
If you want replace that edge piece, my key suggestion is to work with World of Tile. Chippy always needs a real live sample to make a color match. But maybe she can tell you before you have to remove the piece to send to her, whether she even has something in the family. Golly, it looks like only a teensy chip. This may be a really lame idea but: Build it up, little by little with nail polish? That color of dark burgundy chocolate brown is popular today, I think! Again: I ain’t no properly licensed professional — on both these questions, best to consult with one.
Readers: You ever dremeled out old grout and then regrouted? Did it work out beautifully, or not?
Regarding your your kitchen:
You didn’t ask me for decorating advice, but you know I can resist: Wallpaper — vintage or reproduction vintage — for those soffits, dear? And the kitchenette wall? With coral in it. Note, I’m calling your countertop and the cast iron decorative piece coral, not orange.
xoxo
If anyone fusses about your flip-out cooktop, just tell them Frank Lloyd Wright himself used these at Kentuck Knob, a family home he designed in Pennsylvania near Fallingwater. I went there this summer and the kitchen was TINY — guess they used these to save space.
Thank you! I needed that information to back up my argument when I get the “what the heck is THAT thing look.”
Thanks for the reminder, I knew I had seen these somewhere but couldn’t put my finger on it. Yes I think FLW made the baths and kitchens small. The kitchen at Falling Water is all metal, small and relegated to the basement level.
But how could anyone possibly fuss about such a gem? That thing’s a marvel!
I adore the kitchen! The birch cabinets are the ones that I so love! I saw the drop down just once on craigslist and thought what a neat idea. If you need parts for your wall oven, those show up on craiglist too and I believe there is a pink one on there right now, but probably way far away from where you live, Bonnie! The motel in Maine that we stay at has the original bathroom tiles in all the bathrooms except for one. They have a man come in who regrouts the entire bathroom and it comes out looking like new. I should ask for his name to find out how he does it; I would bet it isn’t cheap but the results are worth it and far cheaper than replacing it all! So it IS doable! I also need to hound them for the original sinks that they have been replacing with new pedestal sinks. I told Eddie to save them and hope he did! Bonnie, your house is just what I want!
Bonnie, just thinking that bathroom looks identical to the one in my first house, pink and black tile and all! Is there a closet just to the right of the bathtub? We are going to Maine this weekend and I will ask the motel owner the name of the fellow who does their tile. If he is an old timer, and a true Yankee scrounger, I would bet he saves tile all the time! Might just get lucky!
Go to the story about where to find parts for vintage stoves – it’s in the Kitchen/Appliances category. I bet you could find resources there…
THERE IS a closet right next to the tub!!! WOW!
Also, would love the name of the man that does the tile work, THANKS! We are in the midwest but who knows…maybe he knows somebody!
I also have a Frigidaire range (not a flip-down, but a Compact 30) from this era with that same style of wide-element burners, and I am having a heck of a time sourcing new elements. Anyone have a handle on where I can find replacements?
Very nice kitchen. My friend had a range like that in her 50′s house. Here is a modern version of the range. Not cheap, but looks retro to me.
http://www.universal-akb.com/amra30frdoga.html?productid=amra30frdoga&channelid=NEXTA
or…for a little color
http://www.amazon.com/AROFG-30YW-Legacy-Series-Natural-Innovection/dp/B005OVYUMY
I am undertaking the same re-grouting task as you and dreading it! It’s just a portion of the shower but still… There are many tutorials on YouTube and such, you don’t always need a dremel, sometimes a screwdriver and a box cutter is enough. They even sell a little hand tool at the hardware store made just for the job. I plan on using only hand tools and no power tools because I’m afraid of damaging my tiles. I’m also concerned about matching the grout color. It will most definitely not be white lol I’m going to try a bone or off-white color to try and match the rest of the dingy grout! I don’t want my patch job sticking out like a sore thumb!
Agree, white is a nightmare! One of the many concerns I have is that a contractor friend things the cracked grout lines are at the seams of the sub-wall. There may be some shifting happening. I’m going to try to repair it and see what happens…if it cracks again we may be taking it out and repairing whats underneath and then re-creating the fabulous-ness.
The grout is a simple fix.
If the drywall behind the tile is firm I would simply use something like a plastic putty knife to scrape out only the loose bits. Plastic because it wont nick your tile. Leave any grout that is still in there firm. Once all the loose bits are out then just re-grout as if the tile were just installed. Then make sure the grout is sealed well in the high water areas.
Hope this helps.
It does! I’ll give it a go!
We did exactly this with our blue 1961 bath – the loose, soft grout came right out with a pointy grout tool, then we regrouted the entire tub area in white. Turned out beautifully! Unfortunately, when the handyman did the same thing with our yellow shower stall, the tiles came cascading off the wall – rotted drywall underneath. No wonder that bath smelled like a humid, public swimming pool even though it hadn’t been used in months! We used a Schlueter (sp?) underlayment system to rebuild it and decided to mostly use white tiles. A number of yellow tiles were reused to add punches of color. Though no longer original, I think we kept the spirit of our mid-century gem alive, plus we no longer feel like we’re showering in the inside of an egg!
Bonnie, what a great looking house! For your light fixtures, have you heard of Rub n Buff? I haven’t used it myself, yet, but I’ve been seeing it on the internet lately and it seems to work really well to either restore or change a metallic finish. Good luck with the grout. A hard, messy job but nothing is nicer than fresh, clean grout.
I’ve never heard of it. Thanks for the tip! I’ll give it a try!
My grandmother had that same oven in her home, built in 1958. I knew it must have been that was sold and installed back then, but I’ve never seen another like it.
Nothing like Grandma’s oven! Am I right? I’m lucky, this one works like a dream!
That grout won’t be as hard as you think. Others have mentioned the grout remover tool, it goes pretty fast.
In my time capsule bathroom, the grout was solid as the day it was put in, but it was stained with nicotine. We scrubbed and scrubbed with no noticeable impact. I was facing having to regrout the entire beautiful robin’s egg blue bathroom, ceiling, walls, floor, countertop. The contractor was willing to do it but said it would be a tedious job.
Then we found some magic grout cleaner at a flea market, and it worked. My contractor brought his son in and the young man spent four days scrubbing with the magic cleaner and with Zep, which he said worked almost as well. All is done except the ceiling and one tiny spot on the wall. I’m bettng your regrouting the shower won’t take four days.
I hope it doesn’t take 4 day! 3 small kids would be rioting around here!
I have those same cabinet pulls, and I always thought the drawer pulls were put on “upside down”. Thanks, Bonnie, for showing me they were always normal!
Last year my wife & I nearly bought a 1950s time capsule home designed by a famous architect (at least where WE live). The kitchen had the Frigidaire flip down burners and serious 50s built-in stainless double ovens along with real poured Terrazzo floors. It was stunning. Unfortunately, the people who bought it are most likely gutting it. It breaks my heart to think about it.
Hi Marti. I would love to know who is the architect of the home you nearly purchased. There is a group of wonderful old PNW architects and it would be fun to know whose design you encountered. Ralph Anderson did my folks home when he was a new grad from the UWa School of Architecture… he was reasonably priced at the time because he was unknown and went on to be very well loved and known for his designs.
I can’t recall his name at the moment. He designed commercial buildings and schools. I’ll see if I can find him again. I have ONE photo of an alternate floorplan. I’ll have to find the photos I took, and see if his name is on the drawings.
Hi Martini. I just looked at this site again and saw your reply to my question about the architect of the vintage modern house you did not buy. What part of the country was that… as I mentioned, ours was in the Pac NW.
I get a little misty every time I read “time capsule house…” It means yet another one has been saved. Hooray for you for finding a house you love and celebrating it.
Margaret
Well thank you very much! We had some concerned looks from several friends and family members but we KNEW it was just right for us!
I love to go to open houses when I find an intact vintage ranch – even though I am not in the market – just to see them and their details. It’s sad to overhear other people going through an INTACT vintage house, complaining about it and all the things they would “have” to change….. Why not find a house that’s already been ruined, er, redone?
So glad your gem is in good hands.
Best of luck with it, Margaret
The ironwork planter is pretty with the maple leaf. I wonder if there is ironwork on the front porch too, that matches the planter. It looks like two lacy edges that adorn a column of ironwork.
No iron work on the front here, but I know what you mean. It is a small stoop-type entryway with no columns. There is a lovely “wing” wall made from stone with cut-outs.
I love it all but especially that ironwork!
Yeay! Thanks! I had a friend walk though who chuckled and said, “I assume you will be taking this out?” I said, “Heck no! In a few years, you will realize this is a precious antique!”
Bonnie!
We are kitchen cousins, we have the exact same frigidare pull down burners and wall oven. Our cabinets are youngstown a mixture of steel and birch. I love our flip down burners and dread the day they stop working. I wish I could say the same for our bathrooms, some dummy painted over the teal plastic tiles. Good luck on the grout.
Blair
Kitchen cousins! So glad to know you are out there! Sorry about your floors tho!
Regrouting is tedious work, but if you do it right it could be a decade or more before you have to mess with it again. The Dremel can save you time, but you should practice before going at it, because if you get impatient or slip you can damage your tiles. When regrouting a it is nice to get grout with sealer included, then you don’t have to go back and paint it after the grout cures. Not sealing your grout is a quick way to ruin all the hard work and you might be surprised how quick mold will settle in and water will leach into the wall behind the tile.
Awesome house! I wouldn’t change anything which is not broken, but if you must make functional changes I would try to stay true to the original materials and finishes.
Some discontinued Boomerang Formica is floating around, so call a supply house in a larger market and let them do the sleuthing for you.
Agree! We are going to try to stay as true to the house as possible. We are a large family and have lots of kitchen stuff tho. I’ve been hunting at Habitat for Humanities’s re-store for similar cabinets to fill in a large closet area on the other side of the kitchen where a washer and dryer used to be. There is tons of space over there for cabinetry and storage, we just need to find the appropriate cabinets.
What a delightful kitchen, Bonnie! Love the appliances – now you need a dishwasher to match!
Thanks Jan! We did install this dishwasher…large family, AT LEAST 1 load a day because we love to cook and my kids are eating lots and growing like weeds. We wanted energy efficient and something that would last a long time…
Pam! Thanks so much for featuring my home! This is so much fun! It’s my house’s 15 minutes of fame! Awesome!!! X
Also, I should credit the art in the iron work photo:
http://victorygardenoftomorrow.com/growfood1.html
They are a wonderful company out of Portland, Oregon.
Your oven and stove arrangement is absurdly awesome!
Thanks so much!!!
Awesome kitchen Bonnie! I hope you are enjoying all those fabulous vintage appliances, I’m sure they were cutting edge for their time!
Who knew? I swear there is an association for everything, including tile cleaning, LOL.
I found a lot of good info re: removing and/or re-grouting on the North American Tile Cleaning Organization website:
T3, your link didn’t work so I took it out. wanna try it again?
http://www.tilecleaning.org/index.htm
I just ordered what they recommend for ceramic tile and grout. I’ll let you know how it works!
What a charmer! I covet the french-door oven and it is on my list…whenever my original 1958 G.E. gives out…darn thing just keeps on ticking!
I did a wee bit of work on our original bathroom tile grout. Yes, for dingy-ness, Zep is a miracle…just be reeaaal careful with it and ventilate the room. However, for cracked or missing grout, patience and time is in order. Make sure you get a grout that is intended to be used with your shiny tiles, otherwise your grout will scratch the surface. And stay clear of using the Dremel…I did that and it skipped and jumped all over the place. I moved to a manual tool to remove the old broken grout and left the solid grout still in place.
I am learning that to maintain this time capsule treasure, it requires patience and longer hours of personal labor – which is probably why so many folks just gut them and move on. But for those of us who must preserve our mid-century wonders, we invest OURSELVES into them and make ourselves part of their history.
Thanks for sharing the story of your home and the great photos!
Thanks so much for the suggestions! I will find something not abrasive for our shiny tile. I hadn’t thought of that!!
I have a set of the fold down burners that I picked up at an estate sale. They were in good working order when I bought them but how to re-install is what has me stumped. Any suggestions would be most appreciated! Thanx from Ms. Retro
Hi Ms. Retro, get to know the categories, we have a story on Parts Service Advice here: http://retrorenovation.com/category/kitchen/other-stuff-such-as-appliances-accessories/ Good luck.
Two words,
Epoxy grout
Costs more, harder to work with but it doesn’t stain!
You will have to get the old grout out, hard work but worth it!
Need to do it soon, the less water behind the tile the better.
Great house!
This home is a dream come true! Wow! I would not change a thing about that kitchen.
With respect to the black tile, I have a 1960s tile bathroom that I needed to replace the vanity in. When they were taking out the old vanity, they chipped one of the original (perfect!) 4×4 bone-colored tiles. Because we’ve been unable to find any that match the exact shade of bone, the contractor who built the custom vanity brought in someone to “repair” the existing tile. She basically filled the crack, sanded it smooth, and then painted it with matching high-gloss paint. You cannot tell it was ever chipped. Might want to see if you can find someone who can just fill it and paint it to match, rather than removing the entire tile.
I love it all! I also went nuts when I saw the illustration propped against the coral iron work. With the magic of google image, I found the link to purchase it! They have others too!
http://www.victorygardenoftomorrow.com/posters.html
I LOVE LOVE Victory Garden. They are out of Portland, OR my old stomping grounds!
Oh it is fabulous to see a picture of the fold down range again! My grandmother had this same range until about 2000 when they repairman said he couldn’t fix it anymore. I was devastated when they removed them and put in a counter top range. Oh to have them again would be wonderful!
Thanks Pam for showing Bonnie’s “new” kitchen. I grew up in a 1950s Pacific NW Contemporary home in a suburb of Seattle. Our beautiful, architect designed, wood paneled, large windows with deep overhangs, home has the same flip-down stove and the “dual chamber” oven- current owners still use them. The bottom half of the oven originally had 2 metal doors that could close it off and you could set 2 separate temperatures… great on the holidays. On the right stove section, the smaller, left side burner is a “speed burner,” so that is where we quickly boiled water, cooked the pan of steamed vegetables, etc. I have described the flip-stove to many friends but they always have trouble picturing them… now you have shared Bonnie’s pictures. So fun and nostalgic to see… thanks for posting. I learned to cook in that kitchen and still love to cook but miss that stove!
PS The Boeing engineer family men were all building their PNW contemporaries during the 1950s and many of them ordered these “state of the art” ovens and stoves… they assessed them as the top of the line in quality and of course, great modern look with brushed stainless steel! They were expensive but the guys knew they would last a life time of cooking- and these guys’ families were on tight budgets- employed yes but rich no.
I had the same fold down burners and the same oven here in Sarasota, FL…house was built in 1958. Worked like a dream! Sold my house in 2010 and one day, about a week after closing, I drove by and in the dumpster were the burners and the oven, as well as a vintage light fixture they threatened to walk from the deal if I didn’t leave them. Drove by about 6 months ago and it’s been transformed into a Home Depot Hell House….
: (
What a shame!!!! At the very least, sell it on ebay and give us all a chance at it!!!
Hello! I saw your kitchen and was researching where to sell our vintage General Motor Fidgeaire items. The house my husbands grandparents lived in will be torn down, and the fold down burners are similar to yours, but are “single” units that fold down. There are 4 of them. The oven is identical to yours. Where would I go to sell them?
craiglist or ebay
Bonnie, I love your fold-up range and the oven with the double doors. I grew up with these wonderful fixtures in my home which my parents built in 1956. I would LOVE to have them in my home. Such a wonderful space-saver. I don’t understand why they weren’t more widely-used. When my father remodeled the kitchen, I asked for these wonderful fixtures in hopes of using them in a future home. Unfortunately, I stored them in my grandfather’s workshop and, after his death, these great old fixtures disappeared during the process of cleaning out the workshop. Treasure these wonderful fixtures!