Retro Renovation

Remodel & decorate in Mid Century Style

Home / Decorating ideas / decorating misc.

The kitchen reno starts!

pam kueber - Updated: May 21, 2012

Retro Renovation stopped publishing in 2021; these stories remain for historical information, as potential continued resources, and for archival purposes.

I’ve been offline for a while, involved in all the details of my kitchen renovation. Here’s the first set of photos: The “befores.” My circa 1975 kitchen. Mary Jane Gable put it in – it was really well done but, well, a ’70s kitchen in a 50s house.

Some of the defining features of the ‘inherited’ kitchen: Dark wood-melamine cabinets. Falling apart after years of hard use. 24″ soffits that, while very functional with their included recessed can lights, made the kitchen feel smaller. A long wall of pantry cabinets, again, while useful, made the room feel smaller. And a small window. The original kitchen was smaller, and in ’75 the Gables expanded it to enclose an adjacent mudroom.

Reader Interactions

Comments are closed. 

9 comments

Comments

  1. JustanotherPam says

    I’ve been watching endless reno shows of late and saw someone take a sledge hammer to metal kitchen cabinets, it was awful. It’s such a pity that all these reno people know so little about the history of homes from the middle of the century.

  2. PJ Chartrand says

    I’ve been watching endless reno shows of late and saw someone take a sledge hammer to metal kitchen cabinets, it was awful. It’s such a pity that all these reno people know so little about the history of homes from the middle of the century.

  3. Monique says

    Hi Pam,
    I’ve just bought my first home: 1954 ranch style! I’m looking for counter top tile patterns of that era. My colors are Tart Orange and Summer Wave ( a lovely shade of soft turquoise!) Can you point me to a site that has counter top patterns? I’ve been on pinterest and most of what they have are old ad pics. The detail is just not visible. I’d be very grateful for any direction you can give and will gladly share pics of before, during and afters!!
    Another MCM fan,
    Monique

  5. Pam from Nashville says

    did you move Pam? What did you do with the most awesome metal aqua cabinet kitchen ever? I think I’ve missed something along the way, LOL!