Retro Renovation

click to enlarge photos especially the first one!

How about this fabulous 1966 St. Charles metal and wood kitchen?

Cool how it combines wood with metal. And French Provincial wood, no less.
This was part of the transition to kitchens that looked like furniture - like the rest of the house, which was now encroaching as ‘open concept’ [...]

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I don’t tend to do too much on high-end design of the 50s, but I do have a fascination with Philip Johnson’s Glass House in New Canaan, CT — and will be planning a visit for this summer! This is great story about his St. Charles Kitchen.
Remembering A Kitchen Unlike Any Other
Staff Reports - New [...]

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Spotted these pink St. Charles’ on craigslist, and have invited the seller to post to the Postwar Steel cabinet Forum. These photos are pretty bad, but I wanted to show them in particular to spotlight the use of glass block as backsplash. If your architecture is amenable, how terrific! I like the look of that [...]

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These are fabulous. And there are 40+ to sell — including a ton of bases and walls — pantries with locks and lined shelves — some refrigerators — all St. Charles’. The groovy wall cabinets with the lime trim are all steel, the seller in Mt. Kisco, NY, assures. And though I don’t want [...]

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I feel like a giddy archeologist every time a new brand of metal kitchen cabinets surfaces.
I did some cleanup and additions to the Forum this long holiday weekend. Updated count: 45 distinct brands of steel kitchen cabinets from the 1930s through the 1980s! Admiral brand is the latest, with a lone cabinet just [...]

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Some new steel kitchen cabinet action on the Postwar Steel Forum. Be sure to see the new St. Charles kitchen over in Cape Cod — great photos of a fantastic original 50s kitchen, I’ll do a full post soon. And, to welcome another new St. Charles owner Esti. If you want to check daily for [...]

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Any St. Charles cabinet doors for Darius in Chicago area? He only needs a few!
Also, correction to post on Scathing Jane: She’s in Atlanta (not Chicago) and is on the hunt for some additional St. Charles’ there. She will come get ‘em basically anywhere along the east coast - she has a big kitchen to [...]

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Scathing Jane in Atlanta is looking for some more St. Charles metal cabinets to build out her set. She’ll send her sons to get them as far as Chicago or anywhere along the east cost, she has a big  kitchen to fill. Please take a look at her post on the Postwar Steel Forum, and [...]

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I don’t have a date for this kitchen, but it is clearly later, even 80s perhaps. Intense, huh?
I am told that St. Charles was the very last of the major steel cabinet manufacturers to go out of business, around 1985. They were based in St. Charles, Ill. Now, the company’s headquarters will be Greenwood, Mississippi
Hey, [...]

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I’ve been working hard on the Postwar Steel kitchen cabinet forum - loading it up so when people go to search - they find this one first. If you register (sorry - required - or spammers destroy your site), then you can simply to to “View Today’s Posts” along the “Welcome” bar just above Salesman [...]

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