Ooooh. Look at this – a St. Charles kitchen with wood fronts! As longtime readers know, part of the history of steel kitchen cabinets was their fight vs. wood cabinets. Toward the end … as steel started to lose out… you started to see the mash up of wood and steel. In particular – wood doors, with their painting and repair flexibiity, onto the strong steel bases.
Click thru to read on, and see 12 photos in all —>
In this kitchen, note the cool Railite countertops – Jennifer, I would be forever indebted if you could send us a clearer photo, we are all diagnosed vintage voyeurs — and the Revco refrigerator-freezer looks quite terrific as well. All for sale now, retro renovators.
Pam,
I’ve attached a PDF of the cabinet documentation, which was done in 1956. Basically the kitchen has:
– a built in Tappan EoLV-10 oven (stainless steel) – it’s the first thing that caught my eye! That’s cool – very retro… someone would like that… I said…
– a built in Tappan ERF cooktop (SS)
– a Revco fridge/freezer – like a soft brown colorCountertops – Railite – white with like a gold pattern on it
Stainless steel sink – fan above stovetop.
Cabinets – see the attached for the actual count of units. The fronts are wood, the inside is like a harvest gold color. The lady had covered each shelf with contact paper, so it came off and the insides are in really good condition. The outsides of most of the cabinets look really good. There are a few cabinet fronts with some wear.
I suppose I could try ebay or craigs list, but then I came across your site. You have great taste. I’m not retro, but am artsy and appreciate good style – you’ve got it!!
This 92 year lady kept everything. It’s like walking back into time…. Her daughter who sold it to us said that her mother got this state of the art kitchen in the 50’s… It’s held up well.
Jennifer Whiteford
Rockford, IL – about 90 miles northwest of ChicagoThank you so much!
If any readers are interested, contact Jennifer directly at cjjwhiteford@mac.com. Good luck and thanks for working with us to find this kitchen a happy retro home, Jennifer.
St. Charles steel kitchen cabinets: A look at their line circa 1957 
Oh so groovy St. Charles kitchen cabinets – for sale on the Forum 
Erika’s metal kitchen cabinets with wood doors 
St. Charles steel kitchen cabinets are restored to Frank Sinatra’s Palm Springs home, Twin Palms 
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John Ghastin says
I do home inspections and ran into a kitchen much like this.Exact type of wood.White countertops with gold specks and the tappan oven.It had metal roll out half shelves.All pretty cool and it was in excellent condition.
John
Bill Sisti says
I have the same kitchen in a late 50’s ranch in New jersey. The only thing i have had done to them was to remove each panel and have them refinished. They came out wonderful
Doug Hotek says
I have a set much like this with cherry fronts. Did you sell these? If so, what are they worth? Thanks.
Bill Sisti says
I still have them in the original kitchen. The refinishing has held up very well as well as the metal framework and moving draws and pull outs. If anyone wants pics or has any questions, let me know and I could post or email them to you.
pam kueber says
Doug, it sounds like you are trying to get a valuation. We don’t do valuations here. If you want to sell, try craigslist, that’s likely your best bet.
Note: No buying/selling here on the blog or it would be chaos.
Good luck.
Lisa Love says
Did you have any luck selling these? We are getting ready to remodel our original 1947 kitchen to better suit our needs. We have St. Charles cabinetry and would like for to sell it. Any advice would be appreciated.
Lisa