Remodeling, decor and home improvement for old homes
Longtime readers will recall my fixation with 50s and 60s electric plug-in devices to organize all the wonderful wife-saving appliances on the top of your kitchen countertop. Remember these previous posts?:
This time around — a whole cabinet! Yummy! Anyone have one of these, I wanna see it live! Image: Vintage Sunbeam.
Source: American Home, April 1959.
Yes – if you love Betty’s knotty pine, 50s kitchen – you can recreate one for your own home. And if you’re not into scouting for vintage items – don’t worry, you can do it with all-new products and materials available today.
The keys to this kitchen are the knotty pine cabinets, of course…the laminate countertop with metal edging…the cabinet hardware…and the wallpaper. Pull them together with new or vintage appliances – and a goodly number of knick knacks — and you’re in business. Supply your own lechery, heartache, intrigue and backstabbing. Here is the checklist:
Here are links to previous posts with more detailed information about a number of these resources:
Zeinab found this really cool off-the-floor dishwasher about Sleeping Bee Alice’s retro dream. From looking at the Fagor website, I think the d/w also can be installed as part of this neat $1,199 cooking center.
And there’s a cool cooktop center, too. Not sure whether it really fits my retro rubric, but I like the concept.
Zeinab writes:
Dear Pam,
First of all let me thank you on your wonderful blog. Second ,I saw your post from couple of weeks about the wall-mounted dishwasher , I found this and I though that your reader can be interested. Please keep it up.
Zeinab
Thanks, Zeinab! This company actually has some cool stuff, including a 24″ fridge that can be turned into a nice big side by side as well.
Speaking of Sleeping Bee Alice, she sent along this comment and photo recently:
“I wanted to pass along this graphic that is the bane of my kitchen decorating planning… I love this dishwasher and want one!!”
Sleeping Bee Alice writes:
Hello, I am a novice retrorenovator…and am loving your website.
My husband and I are leaving our modern, brand-spanking new customized kitchen for a charming 1950′s yellow Geneva kitchen in a home that we have fallen in love with. I’m having trouble thinking through the “enhancement” of the kitchen…the cabinets are in great shape and we really like the look…we have to replace the outdated wallpaper, bad flooring and yellow countertops. The fridge was gone.
I really enjoyed all the pink kitchens pictures…any such resources for yellow kitchens? (Pale, maize yellow.)
For future thought, we are also inheriting three fabulous tiled bathrooms…one pink, one blue, one aqua…will be looking here for complimentary design ideas for those as well…no gutting going on here!
Thanks!
No — thank you, Alice! For all the wonderful photos — and for letting us know, another sweetheart of a middle class mid-century home is being saved. Hallelujah!
Since this is already a long post, what with all the photos, you’ll get some suggestions tomorrow!
OMG gorgeous – look at all these pink Beauty Queen metal kitchen cabinets! In Missouri, now on the Postwar Steel Forum – top nav bar. Also see the great Hoffman’s – new brand! – from Toronto.
In working with one reader to solve some kitchen issues, I came across this company — Summit, out of New York metro – that makes several appliances that have a real retro feel, at prices that are not so horrific as most “specialty” items like this.
For example, their 36″ range has that second storage drawer to the left that mimics the 40″ stove so common during the 50s and 60s. The wall ovens are pretty simple, too, not all stainless steel commercial. Maybe they’d even give you chrome handles from the wall oven – to put onto the range, much better than those white plastic ones.
This company seems to specialize in smallish appliances. Take a look at their narrow refrigerators, and dishwashers. And, they have those cool all-in-one kitchen units like Dwyer, too. Sorry, I can’t vouch for the quality. When I’m next down near the city I will try to go visit. summitappliances.com 
Hot item! You know how much I love these!
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