I love this photo posted on our vintage steel kitchen cabinet Forum…and I fussed with it to make it look like an old polaroid. These are 1957 yellow GE cabinets, for sale in St. Louis. How many readers have steel kitchen cabinets — are installing them — or on the hunt?

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Reader Jeff spotted these St. Charles cabinets just like Erika’s for sale at Construction Junction in Pittsburgh. They are spectacular. And a terrific price: $600 for this set, and a second set available for $500. That is A LOT of cabinets to work with, with makes it easier to fit into your kitchen — a rare find. Woah, I love these. Love love love love love. Thanks, Jeff!!! You get exclamation points for this one.

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Vintage steel cabinets that have wood doors are starting to surface quite a bit lately. Erika recently purchased these vintage St. Charles’. Yowza, look at the brushed door steel trim and integrated cabinet pulls, these are absolutely gorgeous. Erika is in the midst of her kitchen renovation, but she pulled some cabinets out of the garage and into the house to take some photos to tantalize us.

Erika writes:

Hi Pam,

I recently purchased St Charles 1950s era cabinets to use in my kitchen. I have found the most information regarding this era via your website/blog which by the way is FABULOUS ! …

They are aquamarine all over (interior, exteriors, etc) except for the faces of the upper cabinets. The upper cabinets faces are a dark reddish brown wood with a metal rectangular detail that ties into the knob.

Only the top cabs and the tall broom cabinet have the wooden faces like shown.  I was inspired by you aqua kitchen ! Before I saw yours I was considering having them painted !!

Thoughts ??… We hope to have them installed by Mid September so I will keep you updated. I would love to share more pics once they are in b/c the one cabinet has glass doors and shelves with lighting and another has a cute stainless bread drawer built in , etc.

- erika

My thoughts: As I’ve discussed before on the blog, throughout the 50s the steel kitchen cabinets manufacturers were duking it out with the wood cabinet manufacturers for primacy. There’s also a larger design story going on — as the wall between the kitchen and family living areas began to come down, literally, there was a drive to make kitchen cabinets more “furniture like” so that the kitchen meshed with the adjacent living areas. So one of the things you saw happening was that steel cabinet makers started adding wood doors.  Kind of the “best of both worlds” – durable steel box, warm and cozy wood doors.  See this St. Charles photo at the left – you can see what I mean.  This harvest gold kitchen is from ‘66. I tend to think your cabinets are from around the same time. Why – I am skeptical that aquamarine really lasted through the 70s; at the same time, your red wood doors look a lot like those at the left. Finally, I will say, I am not academically equipped to date the St. Charles — I make these guesses based on triangulation from all the stuff I’ve stared at for the past 7 years or so. I don’t have comprehensive catalogs or anything close. St. Charles, by the way, was the longest lasting steel kitchen cabinet company, surviving through the early 2000’s. It also seems to have been considered the highest quality. Although I’ll tell you – my Geneva’s are fantastic. The brand name is now owned by the Viking Range company. They launched all-steel cabinets last year. They cost a bloody fortune. Our cabinets are worth a lot of dough re mi, and I predict prices for vintage metal cabinets will continue to go up up up as the retro renovation movement continues to strengthen.

Many thanks, Erika. We can’t wait to see the finished product. And to all the other readers who have sent me photos: Hang in there, it takes me a while to get to them as my fulltime job also calls for attention!

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READERS GARTH AND MARTHA from Dallas recently went through the process of having their vintage Crosley metal kitchen cabinets repainted. In this post, Garth recounts the saga. And like most major retro renovation projects – it is indeed a saga…. It includes a drive from Dallas to Ohio and back to get the cabinets…schlepping to nearly half a dozen places to understand the best approach…and doing a lot of the moving and prep work. One thing that’s immediately clear about this kitchen, is that it’s not an exacting “period” re-creation. Garth and Martha have taken very vintage style cabinets and reworked them into a contemporary design — note the stainless steel counters, backsplash and appliances — and yowza, I want an orange Marmoleum floor! Not to mention is that a huge chocolate mousse cake in the corner? A wonderful kitchen, a beautiful job — that really suits the house. Garth and Martha, thanks so much for sharing your experience!

Garth writes:

Metal Cabinet Refinishing

My wife and I bought a house with a kitchen that was partially furnished with Crosley metal cabinets.  I found someone thru the RetroRenovation forum that had some additional Crosley cabinets of the same style that he had removed from his kitchen in Ohio and we drove up from Dallas to buy them.  We brought them back down to Dallas and figured a layout to the kitchen that would use most of the cabinets.  Both the Ohio cabinets and the ones originally in the house had a number of layers of paint on them and needed to be stripped and re-painted.

After reading posts on the RetroRenovation website, I began by taking a test cabinet to a powder coater in the area.  He took it to his sand blaster to have it taken down to bare metal.  Unfortunately, his sand blaster thought that the metal on the cabinet was too thin, and that it was likely the cabinet would get many small dents from the sand blasting process.  The powder coater recommended that I try and find someone who might be able to chemically strip the cabinets and then bring them back.  He also warned me that some of the doors might warp when the cabinets were in the kiln as part of his process.

I took the cabinets to a local chemical stripping business, and he test stripped one of them and found that they were not going to be a good candidate for chemical stripping because the base coat of paint was too tough for his stripper.  He took a cabinet by a sand blaster that he worked with frequently, and this sand blaster had the same opinion as the first about likely denting during his blasting.

I then took the cabinets out to a soda blaster in Justin, Texas.  Soda blasting is like sand blasting, but the blast media is soda instead of sand.  It is a much softer media and can be used on more delicate materials.  This blaster also had a couple of other blasting media that he could use, such as nut shells and corn which were also able to be used with a more delicate materials.  In talking with powder coaters prior to having the cabinets soda blasted, they had shared their concern that the soda would affect the metal of the cabinets in such a way that their powder coat would not adhere properly and would eventually flake off.  Some thought that it had to do with the alkaline properties of the soda and some seemed to think that it had to do with the smoother surface that the soda left the material with.  I found a couple of places online that recommend that after the metal is soda blasted, you clean it with power washer and a product called Hold Tight.  My soda blaster didn’t think that the Hold Tight was necessary, but that thoroughly washing them down with water through either a power washer or a garden hose with a spray nozzle was necessary.  He said they should have a light sanding prior to being finished.  I decided that the Hold Tight was fairly cheap insurance so sprayed them thoroughly with a nozzle on the garden hose, and wiped them down with a diluted (1:50) bucket of Hold Tight.  At the very least, I thought that the Hold Tight would keep them from flash rusting prior to finishing.  It took him about 12 hours to blast them all (roughly about an hour each cabinet).  He charged by the hour for his work so it cost around $1,400 to have them soda blasted.  I took the cabinets to him so it would have cost a bit more if he either had to come and get the cabinets or do them on my property.  It took me most of a day to wash all 13 of the cabinets down.

Since I was concerned about the doors warping, and the powder coaters were generally not excited about the soda blasting process, I decided that I would look into having them painted instead of having them powder coated.  I spoke with a local auto body shop about painting them and they seemed interested, but said all of the paints that they used had lead* in them.  They felt that the clear coat on the cabinets would protect the lead in the paint from the kitchen utensils, but that it could be a concern.  I wasn’t that bothered by the lead, since there was the clear coat, and my wife and I don’t have any children, but the body shop was a little slow in getting a rough estimate of the cost to paint the cabinets, so in the meantime I found a local business that does electro-static painting.  This is a process where they give the metal a charge and then spray it with a paint that has the opposite charge, which makes most of the paint go to the cabinet instead of elsewhere in the room.  It is used mostly in situations where the cabinets are not going to be removed from the house or business and you don’t want overspray on the floor or wall around where they are painted in place.  I took the cabinets to the painter’s warehouse, hoping that it would save me a little money.  He painted them with a urethane based paint, since he thought it was a tougher finish than his epoxy based paint.  I chose a basic white color (he called it GE White, I think), but I believe that I could have had him match any color that I wanted.  It took about 2 weeks to get the cabinets painted and back at the house, but that was because of his schedule.  I think that once he was able to get to my job, it only took 3 or 4 days to prep them and paint them.  It cost a little over $2,000 for him to paint the 13 cabinets.  I was very happy with how they came out.

If I were to do this again I might change a couple of things.  First of all, I was really pleased with the soda blasting.  If I had thought of it prior to arranging to have the cabinets electro-static painted, I would have asked the soda blaster about powder coaters that he regularly works with.  They presumably, are aware of how to prep the cabinets for powder coating when they have been soda blasted.  While I am happy with the electro-static painting, I think that the powder coating might hold up a little bit better over time, and I don’t think that it would be any more expensive than the painting would be.  Additionally, since the soda blaster and the powder coater have a relationship, they would probably transfer the cabinets between their shops and do all of the cabinet prep, saving me both of those duties.  There were not many dents in the cabinets, but there were a few small ones.  I decided to just ignore them, but after the painter finished, he told me that he could have filled in the small dents during his prep work had I requested it of him, and I probably would have done that, although it might be an option if the cabinets were powder coated instead of painted.  Overall, though, we think that there isn’t anything better than these 60 year old cabinets!

Wow, thanks, Garth! And didn’t I tell you this was a saga, readers?

*I also want to note that in his saga, Garth mentions that one painting crew said their paint would have lead in it. Note that the paint in original vintage steel cabinets also may contain lead, like other original painted surfaces in your vintage home. Know what you are working with and take precautions accordingly.

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VINTAGE EYE CANDY today — a complete catalog of steel kitchen cabinets from Montgomery Ward, circa 1941. You can see from this brochure, how much simpler kitchens were in the pre-war era. Of course, we were still in recovery from the Great Depression. Even a kitchen like this — which would seem so basic today — would have been immensely luxurious in 1941.

Here we see again, how an average housewife of the era may only have been able to afford and purchase the  sink cabinet alone, with its porcelain-enamel-on-cast-iron drainboard sink-top… While the catalog is presumably about the full range of cabinets, it is principally marketing the “Modern Cabinet Sink.”  This would be the first piece a homemaker would buy — she would then integrate this into her farmhouse kitchen – which may have had homemade wood cabinets or not, or into her apartment kitchen to replace the old wall-hung kitchen sink. She could buy the rest of the pieces later. What a move forward: Built-ins, made in a material, steel, that was “vermin-free.”  Oh, also notice the stainless steel drainboard sink on p. 4 – a look you can replicate with Elkay aluminum drainboard sinks today.

 

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WHAT IS THE VALUE of a set of vintage steel kitchen cabinets? What price should you ask? This is one of the top questions that I receive on the blog. The answer is not definitive — but there are a number of factors to consider, including: Condition, Size of Set, Brand, and Location.

Read on for more, plus some pricing guidelines. And also see my post on how and where to seel your cabinets.

I have been watching the market for vintage metal kitchen cabinets on ebay since 2002. And, I began hosting the buy-sell forum for metal kitchen cabinets here on RetroRenovation.com in Dec. 2007. These are my “credentials” to answer the question, but even so, the answer will depend on a number of factors - including luck. So make your own decision about how much to charge. So, now that the disclaimer is in place, here are my thoughts on value:

1. Condition — The number-one determinant of value, I’d say, is condition. If the cabinets are are in excellent shape — with their original finish – and don’t need repainting, that will add to their value. Repainting cabinets can get expensive and is a hassle. Also I tend to think that a ’so-so’ original finish is better than cabinets that have been repainted poorly. Nothing compares with that original enamal finish! Rust on the sink cabinet also is not good. And a serious ding will pretty much bring a cabinet’s value to zero. My advice to buyers is: Hold out for cabinets in excellent condition, they are out there.

2. Number of pieces available…size of your set — It can also be quite a hassle to retrofit someone else’s kitchen into your kitchen space. I bought 67 cabinets to get the right fit into my 15′x15′ space. And I made it work by the skin of my teeth. I know several readers who are in the process of collecting 2 or more sets just to get the right pieces. So in general I’d say that the larger your set, the better luck you will have finding a buyer.

3. Brand — I tend to believe that the larger-name brands are going to find a home sooner because of the issue above, that is, people collecting multiple sets. From my research I’d say that the big name brands were and are: Youngstown, Geneva, St. Charles. There are some folks who say that St. Charles was the cream of the crop…but I have 1963 Geneva’s and I think their quality is terrific. If you have a less-common brand – like Crosley, Tracy, American brand — you still may find a buyer, especially if there is a collector watching far and wide to find just the cabinets they like.

4. Location — I tend to believe that the market for cabinets is very local or tight regionally. Buyers are most likely going to want to come pick up the cabinets personally as shipping is costly. They also are likely to want to see them. So, the closer you are to a large city the better you chances may be of finding a buyer close enough to work with.

The last factor is: How much time do you have? If you need your cabinets out of the garage next week… well, don’t be thinking you’ll get the top possible dollar. While interest in these cabinets is growing, it’s still a collector’s market. If you plan for some time to connect with the right buyer you may get a better price.

Okay. All that said, how much?

$5,000?
Early on in the forum’s life, a large set of cabinets (sorry, I forget the brand) in a great shape, from a church kitchen in Iowa, sold for $5,000. That’s the most I ever heard a set sell for.

$3,000?
I bought my 67 cabinets — 100+ linear feet in great shape, great color - for $3,000. The reason I got them so cheap  (in my estimation) is that the seller would not break up the set, and she was in the heart of Gotham.  And just so you have an idea of what a buyer might have to go through: I took a day off work and paid my hauler to go with me to NYC to check out the cabinets and viability of moving them, BEFORE I made my decision. I then had to pay another $3,000 to the hauling company  for the cabinets’ Escape from New York. Then for 4 months I had to rent a Pod to house them in my front yard while the kitchen renovation got underway. Then we had to clean them up, which was disgusting. During this entire time, I also had to endure my husband’s beady-eyed stare, he did not believe the grungy cabinets would be worth the effort. (Fortunately, all the NYC grime protected their finish, they are gorgeous and all is well here in Pam’s Retro Paradise once again.) After I installed all I could (in mudroom and garage, too), I sold the remaining 28 cabinets (pictured above) for $2,500 minus commissions to ebay and paypal. One bidder, at the last second. So that’s the saga of one buyer. Honestly, the seller in NYC probably should have paid me to take them off her hands – I am sure she would have had to pay some dough-re-mi to cart them off to a dump. But it was a non-profit… I didn’t even dicker.

$2,000?
A really beautiful, large set of St. Charles’ sold out of a Detroit-area home for $2,000. I think the buyer (a reader) got some nice vintage appliances, too. Had to drive 3 hours.

$300-$1,000?
Smaller sets… in great condition: $300? $500? 1,000?-maybe

$100-$300?
Smaller sets… in bad condition: Less.

A note on sink cabinets with porcelain-on-cast-iron drainboard sinks.
If these are in terrific shape – if the drainboard sink is in pristine condition — they can be worth…$250 on the open market? If you have a name brand – especially a Youngstown, I think — you may have good chances of finding a buyer looking for this important piece. Places like historichouseparts.com sell them for more, but remember they are dealers so have underlying fixed costs.

Why don’t the cabinets sell for more? They are expensive to repaint. They are a hassle to hunt down, pick up, store and then try to retrofit into an existing kitchen. To that right person it can be very gratifying, but retro renovation takes a lot of energy physically and creatively – it’s hard work and time consuming.

READERS: Please add your thoughts! Believe it or not – together we are the go-to place for expertise on steel kitchen cabinets now!

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Several readers have asked me how to install the stainless steel countertop edging from New York Metals. In this post, I’ll take you step-by-step through the process that we used to install the metal edging in my kitchen.

I had my countertops laminated by an outfit recommended by by contractor. They made all the countertops and backsplashes separately, ahead of time, and then, when they came to install them in my kitchen, they put everything together.

To review…The edging is comprised of three different pieces.

This is the little cove molding piece you use to mask where the countertop attaches to the backsplash. The part that “shows” is the 5/16″ part. You shove the 15/16″ part back down behind the main countertop:

This next piece, the 1-5/8″ snap-on molding, goes along the edge of the main countertop.

The question I have been receiving is, how to you handle the corners.

Answers: On the OUTSIDE corners, you snip the the metal lip that sit on top of the countertop and along the underside and miter it; the fat 1.5″ part of the metal bends easily to make the turn:

On INSIDE corners, you cut the whole piece, also making miters on the lip that sit on the counter and underside.

Now, somewhere in my stash I saw 50s DIY instructions on how to then weld… spotweld?… sauter? the mitered edges for a clean finish.  Who knows which word? Lord knows which of 400 magazines this little article in. But I’ll keep an eye out. In any case, we did NOT weld anything and honestly, it’s fine. It kind of looks worse in the photo above than it is in real life. The miters are just real tight. Hey, if anyone is out on retro recon, with a camera and sees welded corners – grab the shot and send it in.

Finally – the 1″ backsplash…corners, miters…are handled the same way. In spots where the backsplash edges are visible vertically as in the photo below – back by the wallpaper – we made the bend then just secured them with a bead of glue. No screws were used.

Contractor Kevin, along with the countertop guys, were quite trepidatious about the whole thing coming in. This was the first time any of them had done this, their dads had done it 50 years ago! It really was a breeze, though. And as with the rest of my darling beloved kitchen – all the naysayers who thought I was nutso – were totally won over in the end and LOVED IT!

Above – Reader Amy asked you to “end” the countertop against a well. Here’s Option #1 – you run the backsplash all the way around.

Above – Option #1 e.g., where the countertop ends against a fridge, we wrapped the countertop in 1-5/8″ molding there – no backsplash.

Hope this all makes sense. This techy stuff is not my forte.

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