When I originally discussed using knotty pine in kitchens, there were comments expressing concern about the wood’s appropriateness in the relatively humid kitchen environment. When I was at the Southern Spring Home & Garden Show last week, I ran into this company, Union Church Millworks of Covington, Virginia. They had some really gorgeous woods on display including “vintage knotty pine,” so I asked Kim Bennett Powers, the sales and consulting manager on hand, the knotty knotty pine question. Heck yeah there is more →

A reader recently wrote to ask, “Would these cabinets be considered retro for my 1965 mid-century modern style kitchen?” Drats, I cannot find the email with his name, but my answer was: “Yes, I think they could work just fine.” These Merillat Essential Northport cabinets  are laminate-on-melamine and actually, quite similar in feel to the circa-1975 cabinets that I took out of my 1951 kitchen. I’d say that they have a 70s look – but remember, the 70s really started in the mid-60s… well, the periods, they all mush together. I quite like the look of these cabinets — the full overlay door, with its tone-on-tone trim, and the fact that it needs no pulls, all convey a late mid mod feel.

Here’s my mood board for a late 1960s early 1970s groove kitchen. It includes the MerillatM Northport cabinets, Armstrong’s Saguaro vinyl sheet flooring, Bradbury’s Mod Generation Daisy wallpaper in Sunshine, and currently on ebay: rust-colored Club Aluminum, a Burke dinette and mod globe pendant lights. What do you think? Are we ready to bring back all the best of the 70s?

Just about the time Rebecca asked me for some suggestions for renovating her 1964 Ann Arbor kitchen, I ran across these mod 60s 70s style cabinets online. These doors have a baked-on thermofoil finish, which enables durable, high-gloss colors. The orange looks very pleasing indeed … the  “olive” by any other name would be called “avocado”… and their red looks pretty authentic 60s 70s. In fact, neighbors of mine — who updated their kitchen in the mid-60s in a very high fashion, high-end style — have red cabinets just like this. I declare this style and these colors: Smokin’ hot! Heck yeah there is more →

Continuing to build our portfolio of choices for retro style kitchen cabinets, I spotted this Jamestown plank door style from Holiday Kitchens. Holiday offers this in hickory, and I think that with the right finish it reads “knotty pine.” A few years ago, I also saw a kitchen with this door style in an ivory painted, antiqued and waxed finish. The kitchen was in what I’d call a mid-century coolonial home in Stockbridge, Mass. Yes, another new term I think I just invented: “Cool-onial”. Hip colonial, and in the Stockbridge case,  a rambling ranchy country house but one that very very clearly had a colonial pedigree. The kitchen was much like the coolonial kitchen below — one of my all-time favorites. Finally, I think that this style also could look very nice tinted — another option with mid-century precendents.

Several readers have asked where to get cabinets faced with laminate, a style very appropriate for mid-century kitchens and bathrooms. I checked my notes from Cindy — who used laminate cabinets in both her kitchen and her bathroom renovations to very good result. She reports that her cabinets were made by Holiday Kitchens, which turns out to be a relatively large national brand with production in the U.S. Their doorstyle for laminate kitchen and bathroom cabinets is called “Geneva” (you will have to scroll through the door styles to get to it.) I am presuming that you can specify any particular laminate you like. Check out my Fast & Easy Product Guides page for Countertops for my list of laminate manufacturers.