Scathing Jane spotted this big, pretty set of yellow Geneva steel kitchen cabinets for sale in Pittsburgh on craigslist. $500. Isn’t yellow a delightful color for kitchen cabinets? Thanks, Jane, and 52PostnBeam, too, for all the volunteer work you do posting kitchen cabinets and vintage plumbing items onto the Retro Renovation Forum.

Dave and Frances bought a wonderful single-owner 1938 home last year, and have just finished up some modest yet gorgeous updates to their kitchen. The most dramatic improvement: Marmoleum linoleum for both the floor and countertop, edged in stainless steel. Dave writes:

Hi Pam,

Just thought I’d drop you a note. Thanks to inspiration from your site, we just recently, i.e. in the last 24 hours, finished rejuvenating the kitchen in our 1938 house. It didn’t take much, the cabinets were in great shape and the 1958 GE range looks brand new (we’re only the second owners of the house), but the very neutral vinyl floors and formica had to go. We replaced the floor with a medium blue Marmoleum with a dark blue stripe and did the countertops with the same dark blue Marmoleum and the same stainless steel edging you did your countertops with. We finished off with a new Kohler sink with hudee ring. Heck yeah there is more →

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?

I rarely feature products from Ikea, mostly because I do not live near one but also because so many other blogs seem to spotlight their stuff a lot. However, these two kitchen sinks recently came onto my radar. I will add them to the Product Guide for renovators to consider for their kitchen updates, and hunt and peck their site more diligently for appropriate and affordable choices for mid-century homes. Heck yeah there is more →