• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Kitchens
  • Bathrooms
  • Blog
  • Exterior
  • Other Rooms
  • Decorate
  • The “Museum”
  • Be Safe/Renovate Safe
Retro Renovation
Retro Renovation

Retro Renovation

Remodel & decorate in Mid Century Style

  • Home
  • Kitchens
  • Bathrooms
  • Blog
  • Exterior
  • Other Rooms
  • Decorate
  • The “Museum”
  • Be Safe/Renovate Safe
Home / Kitchen / Countertops

“Cusheen” vinyl counter tops — a 1950s option for Youngstown Kitchens

pam kueber - November 11, 2013, Updated: August 22, 2020

retro counter tops cusheenPoking around my vintage marketing materials last week, I bumped into yet another counter top material used in post-World-War II kitchens. I have a complete Youngstown Kitchen salesman set, and in the presentation binder, Mrs. America got a look at “Cusheen” vinyl counter tops, available in 10 colors. 

cusheen retro kitchen counter topsThere are no dates on my sample set or the presentation flip board that goes with it, but I will estimate this material is circa-1950. When I research vintage counter tops from the 1940s and 1950s, I mostly see reference to linoleum (used in the 1940s and earlier) and then, laminates, which began to grow in popularity after World War II. But vinyl? That’s pretty rare, I believe.

cusheenIn a different 1952 catalog from archive.org, shown above, “Cusheen” is presented as an alternative linoleum. The text says that Cusheen is a “vinyl cabinet-top material, six laminated layers, bonded to sturdy steel subtops. Available in sizes for all Youngstown Kitchens units.” Warning, dear readers: Who knows what was baked into this stuff? Vintage nastiness such as lead and asbestos can be in the layers of our vintage houses — so be sure to engage with your own properly licensed professional(s) to assess what you have so that you can make informed decisions.

youngstown kitchenInterestingly, there is no mention of laminate in these Youngstown materials. By ’52, laminate would have been coming on strong. I surmise: Youngstown wanted to maximize their profits. They could make money on the counter top only when a homeowner bought their factory-produced counter top — which appears to have been designed specifically to hold the thickness of linoleum or Cusheen. Indeed, Youngstown’s counter tops were beautiful creations — note how the shiny front edge flows right into the counter top and then into the shiny metal backsplash; it appears to me that the counter top steel base could be all one piece?

Youngstown kitchenThese Youngstown Kitchens counter tops also were designed to be modular. You could add to your kitchen piece-by-piece, base cabinet and matching counter top included. Click on the photo above — it will enlarge — and you can better see the metal connector strips joining the different pieces of counter top. This connectibility concept enabled Youngstown to sell cabinets one at a time to thrifty homeowners wary of taking on credit.

Youngstown Cusheen counter top
Above: Readers Brian and Keri restored their vintage Youngstown Kitchen cabinets — they had these old-style counter tops. I wonder if the original material was Cusheen?
retro kitchen counter tops
Brian replaced the old counter top material with Formica boomerang laminate in aquamarine (before it was discontinued).

Now that I know about Cusheen, I think I have it — or something like it — on a vintage dinette I recently bought at the Re-Store. The top of the dinette has a softer, somewhat cushier feel than laminate… it is not as “tappy”, either. I always wondered about the surface of the dinette. I like it. It is… buttery.

I wonder why Cusheen — and other vinyl counter tops — never made it in the market place.

CATEGORIES:
Countertops Kitchen

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE

  • naugahyde from c. f. stinson
    Where to find vinyl upholstery fabric, with the vintage naugahyde look
  • ribbed metal counter edge in a retro kitchen
    Metal counter edges -- 9 places to buy them + more tips
  • vintage vinyl upholstery
    Vintage vinyl upholstery fabric for your vintage trailer, kitchen chairs, tiki bar, patio set, or dollhouse
  • 26 companies that make flooring -- cork, linoleum and vinyl -- suitable for a midcentury house
  • raymond loewy kitchen 1951
    Raymond Loewy, designer of American Kitchens brand steel kitchen cabinets

Reader Interactions

Comments are closed. 

35 comments

Comments

  1. Kurt says

    September 19, 2019 at 10:55 am

    I have this material in the red-ish, orange-ish color. Shiny backsplash and all. Stamped 1951 underneath.

  2. Tara says

    October 6, 2017 at 10:08 pm

    Does anybody have a suggestion on how to replace the material but leave the stainless steel parts? What can we switch it out to?

    • Pam Kueber says

      October 9, 2017 at 11:54 am

      Hi Tara, I don’t know the answer to this specifically. I do want to to repeat: Be aware of the potential for hazardous materials — for more info see our Be Safe/Renovate Safe page https://retrorenovation.com/renovate-safe/

  3. Lisa C. says

    September 2, 2015 at 2:00 pm

    I can’t decide it that’s the daughter or the mother.

    My question: Why is the under-sink cabinet door open in both of the ads? To show off the available garbage disposal?

    • pam kueber says

      September 2, 2015 at 2:14 pm

      Good questions! I think that in the first photo, it’s surely to show off that handsome garbage disposal. The second on, me no know.

      Certainly the young woman flirting the the young delivery man must be the teenaged daughter!

      • Joe Felice says

        September 25, 2015 at 1:56 am

        I do remember now: You had to open the cabinet under the sink to turn on the garbage disposer. (If you were lucky enough to have one.) Like dishwashers, those were an optional luxury.

  4. Bart says

    December 30, 2014 at 7:57 pm

    Forgot to mention the youngstown cabinets, skeleton keyed locks(interior & exterior), glass door knobs, & eskimo ice chest. Super cool !

  5. Bart says

    December 30, 2014 at 7:50 pm

    I have the exact cusheen tops shown in ad. Home built in ’56. Date stamped on bottom of them are 1956, along with an inspection stamp.

« Older Comments

Primary Sidebar


Footer

Follow Along

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • RENOVATE SAFE
  • About
  • Blog
  • The “Museum”
  • Kitchens
  • Bathrooms
  • Exterior
  • Other Rooms
  • Terms of Service
  • Privacy Notice
  • Disclosures
  • Contact

© 2023 Retro Renovation® • All Rights Reserved • Website by Anchored Design
Please do not use any materials without prior permission. Portrait by Keith Talley Photography