The minute we saw this 1940s-style kitchen remodel in our recent uploader, we suspected that there was someone with serious design skills involved. Indeed: Margie Grace — an internationally-renowned landscape designer based in Santa Barbara, Calif. — designed this slice of kitchen perfection for her 1948 home along with her partner, Dawn Close, and a little help from their friend, interior designer Kathy Bush. Accustomed to rolling up her sleeves and digging in, Grace even installed the show-stopping kitchen tile “rug” by herself! [All the beautiful photos: By Holly Lepere Photography.]
Grace and Close own and operate their own successful design and build firm, Grace Design Associates — and the outdoor spaces they create are exquisite. In 2009, The Association of Professional Landscape Designers named Grace International Designer of the Year — the top honor in the field!
Even though Grace now works on projects in one of the highest-value real estate markets in the U.S., her own 1948 home is of its era, modest in size and materials. Over her 30-year career, she’s lived in and renovated many historic homes, so with this home she took the same route: Respect the original architectural style. She also lived in the kitchen not one — but 20 years — before changing the kitchen.
Grace’s kitchen originally held knotty pine cabinets — but it was time for a change. “I was ready for some color!!!!” she told me in an email follow up. “I’ve decided that everything around me that’s ‘stuff’ needs to bring me joy… While there were a few knotty pine cupboards from the original kitchen, half were from the 70’s and weren’t of the same quality of the originals. I refurbished them once (by me, 20 years ago), but they were getting tatty again and it was time for a face lift — I kept the cupboard boxes and used the best of/original doors in the pantry…”
After lots of research — including consulting the stories here on Retro Renovation — Grace designed the kitchen herself — with Bush holding her hand — and engaged local contractors to help with most of the work. The rug is composed of 12″ VCT tiles. Grace would have loved to have done inlaid linoleum, she told me, but these days it’s immensely difficult to find someone who can do it. A lost art. Sans the Big Chill refrigerator and vintage Magic Chef stove, which she already owned, the entire project cost $15,000.
“Just one bride”
Why do we love this kitchen so? Art-major Kate set up this story, and before I took over she analyzed the design: There are so many great design elements working together in this kitchen starting with the showpiece: the patterned VCT flooring. Laid out to look like an area rug, the floor pattern picks up the colors of the pottery collection, tile and countertop and gives the otherwise calm space a little bit of zing. Because the kitchen is fairly neutral and plain otherwise — white cabinets, that awesome vintage stove, a white Big Chill refrigerator, pale creamy yellow walls and light yellow countertops — the floor pattern doesn’t compete with anything else in the room, which really allows it to take center stage. We also love the way that Margie Grace has peppered her vintage pottery collection around the kitchen — especially the way it has been displayed on the corner shelf and the specially made lighted “soffit shelf” over the sink.
Yes, Kate and I both loved the floor — and even more so, because recognizing what a strong design element it is, the rest of the kitchen was “dialed back” accordingly.
Talking to Grace on the phone, I gave her this compliment. She knew exactly what we were talking about and quickly piped in: “There can be only one bride — the rest are bridesmaids.”
- Hey, that also sounds sort of like Grace’s advice on designing a container garden: “Thriller, spiller, filler.”
YES: Editing what you put into a room is so very important. Try to put in everything, and unless you really know what you’re doing, the design can quickly get “discordant.”
Resources for Margie Grace’s 1940s-style kitchen:
- Flooring: Armstrong Standard Excelon Imperial Texture in multiple colors: Classic White; Classic Black; Lunar Blue; Sea Green; Buttercream Yellow; Doeskin Peach. Grace also had some 1” black liner left over from another project that she used… she is not sure who the maker of that was. Want more ideas for patterns: Here’s our story on 30 floor designs from VCT, from 1955.
- Countertop: The same one Maile used in her sunny 1940s kitchen— Wilsonart 4916-60 Sweet Corn.
- Countertop edging: Aluminum tee molding New York Metals — if you want to make curves, you want tee molding. [We did not ask re the backsplash edging, presuming she also got that from NY Metals.]
- Paint color: Custom-mixed to match a chip of plaster Grace found at a job site.
- Refrigerator: Big Chill
- Stove: A vintage Wedgewood – refurbished by Pacific Stove Works
- Stove vent hood: VentAHood Excalibur Under Cabinet Hood
Thank you, Margie, you rock our world!
Link love:
- Grace Design Associates
- Grace’s blog, The Art of Outdoor Living
- Lepere Studio photography
Maile Lakely says
WELL DONE! Congratulations on such a great job! When I first saw the pix, it really grabbed my eye as it had a look of familiarity to it. I loved reading your process and especially love the floor. My mother used to do inlay flooring like that, and it is indeed a lost art. Imagine my surprise when I was reading your supplies list and see my name mentioned! Isn’t it just a gorgeous counter color!
Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!
Margie Grace says
Maile: it is a small world indeed! Such a giant globe, but somehow the like-minded find one another amongst the 7 billion plus souls. Retro-babe to retro-babe: awesome job!
Mary Elizabeth says
Oh, THAT Margie Grace. Love her “Thriller, spiller, filler” concept, and can see how that applies to interior design of small spaces as well. The Thriller is definitely the floor “rug.” The “spiller” is the pottery collection strewn over the room, seeming to spill out from corners. And the “filler” is the cabinetry and countertop. Wonderful, wonder job and an inspiration to us all.
Margie Grace says
Ms. Mary Elizabeth: it is so good to hear you apply the filler, thriller, spiller bit to my kitchen — you’re right! That’s awesome — thanks!
Inky says
This is just gorgeous.
I have procrastinated for decades about repainting my 40s kitchen cabinets since they’re painted with alkyd oil and I want a quality finished product. I would love to know what kind of paint you used.
Margie Grace says
I agree that paint has really dropped in quality given all of the reformulation for environmental reasons — price we pay for clean air…
RE: what paint was used — honestly, I’m embarrassed to say I don’t know. Use a good painter and follow his/her advice.
Nancy Essenpreis says
Love it! I need a redo of my 1948 kitchen and this is a dream to shoot for. Cupboards? Custom or stock?
Margie Grace says
We kept the cabinet boxes. We changed the doors and added some flourishes to them. Feel free to copy it!
Laurie Louise says
Lovely. Simply lovely.
Margie Grace says
Thanks Laurie Louise!
Carol says
This kitchen is very much like the 1947 kitchen my grandmother had. To me, it is visually perfect and makes me HAPPY! Thanks for the story on my favorite uploader pic.
Margie Grace says
Awwwwww… Happy, happy, happy it is. I’m now going to only have things around me that bring me JOY!
kkmk says
I love this kitchen! It manages to look both modern and vintage at the same time.
Margie Grace says
Thanks! The kitchen functions really well too!
Laura's Last Ditch Vintage Kitchenwares says
I shouldn’t even look at this. This kitchen is evil, because it fills me with jealousy. We’ve lived with the kitchen in our 1949 house for 13 years, and I am paralyzed by indecision and my dislike for planning. I wish someone would just come over and do this to our kitchen.
Birgitte says
What color did she use on her walls? I think that color would be perfect in our tiny kitchen with white wood and steel cabinets.
My takeaway from this is: Find one object or design you really, really love and go from there.
pam kueber says
It’s a custom color matched from a piece of old plaster.
Margie Grace says
Laura: don’t despair — you have a fabulous resource right at your fingertips for your dream kitchen… RetroRenovation is the bomb! If you’re decision-averse, here’s my suggestion: flip through photos of kitchens – on RR, on line (houzz, pinterest, etc.). Find a kitchen that you love that looks like it would fit into the footprint of the kitchen you already have — then copy it, making adjustments to fit your space. Try to keep the big-ticket items in the same location where they are now to save yourself a bit of coin. That’s it!
tammyCA says
Love this cheerful kitchen! It’s like how I envision mine someday..and I have fiesta ware, too (found mostly at good ole goodwill) 🙂 Santa Barbara is one of my favorite places..the old charming houses turned B&Bs..haven’t been there in so long.
I love how this designer respected the original architecture..letting the house speak & not just gutting it right away & forcing something “trending now” that looks all out of place.
Also loving her friend’s Santa Barbara Eco friendly house..wow, I want to hug those railroad trestle fir floors & more!
Margie Grace says
Hi Tammy – thanks for your comments above.
RE: Fiestaware. With Fiestaware to brighten the room, you don’t have to have a very fancy room! I think it’s the “little black dress” theory — simple and timeless foundation with smashing accessories.
RE: Santa Barbara. (Sigh) What is there to say? We are most definitely in love with S! Been here for 36 years, raised two little ones here. Traveled a lot, but this is HOME! It is gorgeous, the architectural heritage is rich – and treasured – and it’s a horticultural mecca (what a place to garden!) Sometimes I just gotta shout out: “It’s good to be me, baby!”
oh Holland says
One of the most beautiful, inviting rooms ever! Had to pay tribute to the owner/designer with a comment before I even read the copy. Simply lovely and joyous. Now I need to stop drooling, go back and read how it came about.
Margie Grace says
Awesome — I’m honored to have earned kudos before the article is even read!