by pam kueber on November 21, 2009
Those of you in modern homes, remember to consider a Mondrian-style kitchen if you need to renovate. This one – from Steven’s 1957 Alcoa Aluminum house in Rochester, N.Y. — is original. Well, the part in the foreground is. He needed to replace the cabinets and backsplash along the back wall, and did so in complementary style. The original Mondrians are laminate-over-wood. In the back, Steven combined black-painted wood base cabinets, and blue-painted vintage steel wall cabinets. If you have trouble choosing a color — hey, what a solution. Click on the photo above to see Steven’s entire house, on his flickr photo stream. And click here to see my other posts showing Mondrian kitchens.
by pam kueber on November 20, 2009
Steven, Michael and the pup is Bobby.
Rochester Steven has completed some drop dead gorgeous updates to his 1957 Alcoa Aluminum house, and shares the details and images. This is the third story on these late-1950s “demonstration” houses. We first featured a time capsule for sale in Wisconsin. I think that’s how Steven found this blog, and we featured his house in New York state, along with the home’s original brochure, just a few weeks later. There were only 23 of these houses built — and Steven, Michael and Bobby are amazing caretakers. This house will knock you off your chair — it’s worthy of Architectural Digest. Heck yeah there is more…
by pam kueber on January 5, 2009
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, above. Grace wrote back pronto:
Douse them with COUNTERTOP MAGIC. DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT USE WAX. Plastics do not like wax, they like oil. In the Wilson house I used almonst an entire can of countertop magic for each 4 x 8 panel. Let it soak overnight and then polish with a clean cloth in the a.m.
Grace Jeffers
Thanks, Grace! And reader – oopsy, I lost your email, thanks for your question!
by pam kueber on September 15, 2008
During last week’s laminate ramblings, I stumbled on this incredible 1959 house in Texas – it’s the original home of the founder of Wilsonart laminates, and it’s now owned by the company, serving as their archives and a space for corporate events.
All photos: Courtesy Wilsonart – who were fabulous, very responsive! Thank you, Diana Z.!
The story of the Wilson House’s salvation is right out of a retro renovation suspense novel. 10 years ago, when there was little appreciation for this type of mid century modern design and certainly not for something as pedestrian as laminates, the company decided to sell the house. But, it needed to gut it first due to the “problem” interior. The house had been built as a showcase for the use of laminates – so the stuff is everywhere but the ceilings and floors. It’s truly incredible. Heck yeah there is more…
by Pam Kueber on August 4, 2008
Today’s time capsule voyeurism – an Alcoa Aluminum showcase – found by Keith – in the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Thanks, Keith! If I had a contemporary home, I’d for sure have a Mondrian kitchen like this:
Pam, I found an interesting house listing at Sotheby’s website .. a 1958 prefab built by Alcoa. Cool.
-Keith Heck yeah there is more…
by Pam Kueber on April 5, 2008
So sad. The last day for all of our pink kitchens. I hope that you have enjoyed them, and that they have provided many new ideas for your own kitchen retro renovation — or as Uncle Jack calls it, ‘down-dating’.
51. One of my favorite pink kitchens EVER, created by the ingenious interior designers selling Armstrong floors:
Heck yeah there is more…
by Pam Kueber on January 30, 2008
Anne and Gary’s 1959 ranch home in Oregon is a wonderful work in progress and I love checking in with their blog as they settle into their new old classic and continue to make it their own. Currently, they are planning a kitchen update. When I saw their existing kitchen and its layout, I thought immediately that it had “Mondrian” potential. Mondrian = color blocks, like the famous artist. This style had a following from about 1955-1965. Heck yeah there is more…
by Pam Kueber on January 15, 2008
It’s been a while since I did a Tuesday flashback kitchen design – only because I had so many other posts lined up. But I’m reviving them, because they are so much fun.
Holey moley, look at this pink Formica kitchen. I have to admit, I wanted a pink kitchen, not aquamarine. My husband won, and anyway, it was meant to be, because that’s the kitchen that found us. Even so, there is a super soft spot in my heart for this kitchen and others like this. Here are some flashback observations, starting at 10 o’clock:
Heck yeah there is more…
by Pam Kueber on January 7, 2008
<–The birch kitchen in a recent post was so very typical of the 50s and 60s.
Today, you can still get birch doors – although they will be a little thicker. Order them with a ‘radius,’ or slightly rounded edge profile. Traditional (3/4) overlay would be typical, but you can go with full overlay as well, you certainly did see that especially moving into the 60s. The photo above is 1963.
The dark tone door featured on the left is from Omega, I also think Cabico makes a good product. As you can see from the photos above, there are a number of ways to approach the color/finish – “classic” as in the thumbnail, and for a more modern look, darker and/or colored stains.
In this latter approach, once you are mixing and matching 3 or more door colors you are creating a “Mondrian” style kitchen – certainly a trend you saw in the 1955-1965 period.
Isn’t the floor great, too?… The whole kitchen provides a lot of ideas… it’s one of the greatest, one of my husband’s very favorites.
