Kitchen design and decorating ideas for a vintage black and white kitchen — Melissa asks our help

In this week’s Retro Design Dilemma, reader Melissa wants our help with ideas to lightly update her 1954 kitchen. She and her husband have just purchased a 1954 mid century modest ranch — which they love. However — the kitchen is in need of some TLC. Although Melissa and her husband don’t mind the current flooring, she says that it is in poor shape and must be replaced. Struggling to decide on a floor replacement — as well as what to do with the walls and counter tops — Melissa contacted us for ideas.

Continue for Melissa’s story –>

Melissa writes:

Hi Pam & Kate,

We just purchased a MCModest home. A ranch built in 1954. We fell in love with the house immediately, mostly for the flat roof, the large kitchen,and  the huge basement (with a built-in “love couch nook”!)  I’m looking for some help with the kitchen! (I don’t have to stay in the ’50s era, I just want it to be kind of retro.)

We will be keeping the cabinets white with the black hinges and pulls. Our appliances are black (I’m saving for the black Big Chill fridge). We have a stainless steel topped kitchen table (wooden legs) with white chairs.

1. The floor is in horrible shape and must be replaced. My husband likes the black and white checkered look, but for me its a bit too harsh. Even if we did that we would be better off without a solid color tile because we have 3 big dogs (2 black and 1 white that shed like crazy.) We also would like ceramic tile so the floor won’t be ruined by their combined 275lbs running through the house.  Ideas on floor?

2. The countertops are black with gold flecks. Since we have the stainless steel Nutone range hood, and a stainless steel table — I don’t think the gold flecks really go all that well. I was thinking of replacing with stainless steel counter tops. Good idea? or keep the black and gold?

3. What the heck do I do with the walls? My husband says a bright dark blue. I have no idea.

4. Do you have any idea what those things are above the kitchen window? Built in speakers? They have been painted over, so we can’t tell until we get in there to paint and unscrew them from the wall.

If you and your readers have any ideas: I’m all ears. Also I know I sent more pics than suggested, the kitchen is so large and interesting with its different level counter tops, I wanted to show you the whole thing.

I also couldn’t pass up showing you the built in love couch nook!

Thanks sooo much!

-Melissa

After Melissa’s initial email,  further research of her own — and moving into the house to live alongside the laminate — Melissa began to rethink replacing the counter tops.

In a subsequent email, Melissa wrote:

Hi Pam and Kate,

I wanted to update you on the fact that now that we have moved in, I have fallen in love with the black laminate with gold flecks and don’t want to change to stainless steel counter tops (#2 on my list). I wish they still made the flecked laminate — as the section next to the sink is very faded (probably from the previous owners leaving a wet towel there when drying dishes). I have searched a bit on the laminate and all everyone talks about is white with gold flecks — is my black with gold flecks rare? Or maybe not from the original owner and put in in the 70’s or 80’s?

Pam confirmed that she believes Melissa’s black laminate with gold flecks is indeed rare — even more so than the coveted white laminate with gold flecks. We also applaud Melissa’s choice to live with the laminate for a while before just ripping it out to avoid any remodeling regrets.

This leaves us to solve the following dilemmas in Melissa’s vintage black and white kitchen.

Let’s help Melissa… Readers, what are your ideas for:

• What material/color to use on the floor which will stand up to large dogs and hide footprints and fur?
• What should be done with the walls?
• What are the things in the soffit above the sink?

Pam’s design and decorating ideas for Melissa’s 1950s kitchen:

Melissa, I love the Azrock Cortina Autumn Haze VCT floor in my kitchen. Several other readers have used it as well – see their kitchens here. Good news, in 2012 Azrock introduced an additional 15 colors. This expanded line is called TexTile — and from looking at the website, I though the “Raw Silk” color would work well in your kitchen. It looks like it has dark charcoal streakies — good to coordinate with your counter tops. Of course, you’ll want to get a sample first.  I find this streaky floor great at hiding dirt. But, it does require maintenance — regular stripping and re-polishing, which I pay to have someone else do. My little dog — Astro, 20 pounds — slips and slides a bit, on occasion. I’m guessing bigger dogs wouldn’t slip and slide as much due to their weight — but I am NO expert on this question. Isn’t ANY kind of floor — except carpet — going to be slip and slide, to some degree, for a dog?

I am also a wallpaper lover. In my three mood boards (fun!) I found both reproduction and vintage wallpapers that had enough “value” — strength of color — to hold their own in our kitchen, considering the graphic boldness of your striking black counter tops — which I LOVE.

Finally, I went to the uploader full of readers’ dinettes to find dinettes that pull the entire look together.

Mixing and matching these ideas — one versatile flooring with an infinite possibility of wallpaper and dinettes — you can achieve quite a wide variety of retro looks.

Above: Mood Board #1 Atomic Doodle:

• Wallpaper — turquoise Atomic Doodle from Bradbury & Bradbury
• Flooring — Azrock TexTile in Raw Silk
• Vintage dinette — readers Tim and Stephanie’s dinette from uploader — 217 vintage dinette sets in reader kitchens

Above: Mood Board #2, Oh So Charming Red:

• Wallpaper — 1940’s vintage wallpaper from Hannah’s Treasures
• Flooring — Azrock TexTile in Raw Silk
• Vintage dinette — reader dinette from uploader — 217 vintage dinette sets in reader kitchens

Above: Mood Board #3, Inviting Blue and Brown:

• Wallpaper — vintage wallpaper from Hannah’s Treasures
• Flooring — Azrock TexTile in Raw Silk
• Vintage dinette — reader dinette from uploader — 217 vintage dinette sets in reader kitchens

Kate’s design and decorating ideas for Melissa’s 1950s kitchen:

The vintage Sears kitchen catalog that we featured had one illustration that instantly reminded me of Melissa’s great vintage kitchen — which is what inspired me to create my mood board.

Above: Mood Board #4, Cheery Cherry Red, Brilliant Blue and Sunny Yellow:

Melissa’s husband had suggested using bright blue on the walls — which Melissa wasn’t sure about. Instead of putting the blue on the walls — this blue Armstrong linoleum flooring (Update: Armstrong no longer carries —see this list for other possible suppliers) would be durable for the dogs as well as hide fur and footprints. Instead of painting the kitchen deep red like the inspiration kitchen — a light buttery yellow lightens the space — while working nicely with the blue floors. To add more color to the room — Melissa could paint some small areas of deep red as shown. Since Melissa’s kitchen has a large window and eat in area similar to the inspiration — these vintage yellow 1950s curtains from ebay seller 954kathys (link now gone) or something similar would work well in that area — as well as pick up some of the other colors in the room. To finish it off a retro dinette set — like reader Jamie_abe’s new, vintage looking red dinette which was featured in our story 23 red dinette sets — vintage kitchen treasures would look retro-tastic and would be easy to track down if Melissa can’t locate a vintage dinette set.