Laura writes in to ask a perennial question: Is it all right to mix and match mid century eras? Readers — What do you think?
Laura writes:
Pam – I’m at my wits end re: what to do in my kitchen. Over the last 18 months, I’ve collected all the fabulous Morton cabinets I need.
I LOVE the curves on both the uppers and lowers – to me, they really evoke the cozy 50’s look that resonates with me. I also acquired a great ’54 GE combination two-door refrigerator/freezer in beautiful condition, but unfortunately it does not cool and I can’t find a repair service inside 1,000 miles. These cabinets and this fridge are a perfect combination, but with the fridge not working I had to keep looking for something comparable.
Just last weekend I snapped up a great 1957 GE brown fridge with the revolving shelves I love, but it is a much sleeker design with very straight edges. After a little more research I realized that it is one of those that blends right in with the cabinets – it’s only 24 inches deep. It works great and the features are amazing – pull out bottom freezer drawer, rotating fruit & veggie bins, butter keeper, etc…..but the style doesn’t fit with my cabinets!!! I’m really torn, because I love them both, but combining them just feels very awkward.
I’m using the brown fridge now and sold the (non-functioning) white 1954-55 GE Combination to a fellow vintage-lover with a good friend in the refrigeration business. I love the features of the mid–mod brown fridge (1957) but feel it just doesn’t fit the early- to mid-50’s era look that I long to recreate. And mostly, both the cabinets and the fridge make great individual “statements”, but combining them sort of diminishes both, if you get my drift. To really do justice to that fridge, though, I would need to trade in my Mortons and get a set with flat fronts and go for the built-in look with soffits and everything. If the Retro Gods would bring me a left-hinged early-50’s fridge with lazy-susan shelves, I’d snap it up and sell the brown fridge, but it seems those left-hinged ones are about one in a hundred, or thousands of miles away….no luck so far.
I suppose I’ll have to choose between them, but which to give up (and find more appropriate versions of), and which to keep?!?! So, the question is….is it possible to live in two different eras in the same kitchen??? If you have time to consider my conundrum, I’d really appreciate your advice…. and I’d LOVE for you to post it and draw on all that creative energy from your readers. I drool over the photos of the gorgeous vintage COORDINATED kitchens on this site. I don’t want my own kitchen to fall short if I can help it.
“I’m at my wit’s end…” Yup. That’s where Retro Renovating gets us all, at one point or another, Laura. So happy you wrote in. I love your question, because it underscores that there were numerous waves of “mid century” and “mid century modern.” Not one look, but a variety of looks that evolved over the “mid century era,” which most historians bookend from 1946-1963. In fact, your Mortons, I’d say, are quintessentially late-1940s… while your fridge is quintessential early 60s (the GE experts on this site — Patrick? — will know right away.) So, your question neatly juxtaposes “the beginning” and “the end”. Oh and Laura: 18 months to collect your cabinets? A vintage stove (Chambers?) in the pickup truck? YOU GO, GIRL!
Readers: What do you think?
Matchy matchy mid mod? Or mix and match mid mod mad? I’ll pipe in tomorrow after reading your comments — which always give me new things to think about!
Tut says
Don’t paint that fridge. You don’t see that color very often. Painting over it would be a sin. It’d be like some dope buying an Ed Roth custom car and painting it white so it matched his other cars. Mixing eras is fine. You shouldn’t decorate according to the rules that some goof made up. Do what makes you happy. If that fridge makes you happy, use it.
Kate Ford says
I absolutely love the fridge that doesn’t work with the cabinets. Keep looking. That brown fridge just doesn’t have the same personality as the cabinets. The cabinets are rounded just like the white fridge and flow together perfectly. If all else fails, at least keep to white.
James O says
I love it.
I think if it were mine I would paint the fridge.
Either white to match the base of the cabinets or if they are feeling crazy a bright red to match the counter top.
I personally dig the red idea.
Kate Ford says
I also like the paint red idea – as an alternative.
lady brett says
it seems to me that if you could create a smoother transition from the cabinets to the fridge it would look great. to me the main thing that makes it look out of place is not the color or style, but the way it juts out from the cabinets. my suggestion would be to kind of “build in” the fridge, perhaps with a white divider between it and the cabinets. or, depending on your kitchen, perhaps you could move it so that it is not right next to the cabinets – it would look great a little set apart, if that’s an option.
Nancy EC says
Use the brown for now, but keep looking. As another reader commented, save your pennies for a modern retro model or wait until you come across another vintage fridge in the correct style. It will pop up!
P. H. Magee says
By the look of your windows behind the cabinet, you appear to live in something “cratsman-ish.” While getting the paint back to the original white would be best (possibly undoing an “updating” done around 1972?); do you have a large pantry that could take the fridge?
My grandmother had a typical 1920 foursquare, and had to keep her fridge in the pantry simply because of floorplan issues. Putting your brown fridge in the pantry would give the visual separation you need.
Gavin Hastings says
My general rule is that different dates mix nicely…so long as you keep a cut-off date. The folks with those original cabinets might well have replaced the fridge in 1960…but by 1985…the cabinets would have been in the scrapheap. You have to create some sense of time…or else it might look like a collection of cast-offs
I say aim the room to 1964…and you will end up with a cohesive look.
(a new GE Monogram bottom freezer is curved and has a pseudo-retro look…)
Trouble says
Nicely said. That’s what I meant – you have to have a cutoff date or it will look like Sanford and Son.
Eartha Kitsch says
I’m wondering where the refrigerator will actually be in the kitchen as it looks like in the picture, it’s just placed there for now? I think that if the brown fridge goes back to it’s original white, it could look awesome in there. Like BungalowBill said, homes go through progressions through the decades so lots of kitchens will have items from different eras. Lots of times, cabinets and fixtures will stay for many decades where appliances will be replaced more often.
I really think that you can make it work if you truly love that fridge. In our kitchen right now, we have a white vintage stove next to a modern stainless refrigerator and dishwasher and for some reason, it works just fine. I say that you should use the brown (stripped white since it sounds like you’ve started the process) and if you happen upon something later on that matches the era that you’re going for perfectly, be ready to move on it if you’re not happy. Both the cabinets and the fridge are SO cool! Good luck!
Melanie says
I say mix and match.
If that frig is white under the brown paint, so much the better. In reality, nobody ever has kitchens that are all one year and style of cabinets and appliances(well unless they’ve recently spent BIG bucks remodeling). Things wear out and you replace them with something else. That’s life.
Are you looking for a real kitchen or a magazine picture? Too much matchy-matchy is boring.
Janice says
I agree completely with Melanie. I love your cabinets and I love your fridge. If you can get the brown paint off, I think you will be much happier with it. Not everything has to match. In reality, only model kitchens in magazines are completely in sync. What is it that Pam is always teaching us??? Love the house you’re in and the stuff that’s in it! You have a lot to be in love with, that’s for sure!
Trouble says
If you are just collecting antiques and enjoying them – do what you like! Try to make it look good tho LOL
If you are doing a restoration like me….I approach it as fixtures in the house, like cabinets, etc, need to match the age of the house. Typically, appliances are more fluid and don’t necessarily need to. I have the correct post-’53 Y-K cabinets for my house, but will be using a ’49 Maytag stove, and currently have a ’48 Hotpoint fridge. I’m trying to keep everything the same age, or older.
Trouble says
Also I have a ca. ’58 Frigidaire on the back porch for the same reason – it’s too “late ’50s” looking, and wouldn’t go. Although my 5 year old Kenmore fridge is a POS and the door is about to fall off. Again! I’ve never seen that happen, esp on a young fridge.
So, I might be using the Frigidaire as a stand-in, because I can’t afford a Big Chill!