Pat and Bill’s St. Charles kitchen remodel

When reader Pat and her husband Bill initially moved into their 1951 ranch home, they weren’t fans of the original St. Charles steel kitchen cabinets, which were in rough shape after years of use. Pat priced out how much a complete gut remodel would cost and realized it wasn’t in her budget. After pondering her situation for a few years and discovering Retro Renovation’s stories about readers who had successfully refinished their steel kitchen cabinets, Pat knew that she could do it too. Now Pat says, “I’m so glad I lived with the “old” kitchen long enough to appreciate the quality of these vintage cabinets, they have as many pull-outs as the fancy new cabinets!”

Pat writes:

Hi Pam,

I wanted to share some pictures of our (finally!) completed kitchen remodel. We kept the basic floor plan, opened up a wall which allowed us to add in some additional St. Charles cabinets. It’s been a process, but I’m so glad I lived with the “old” kitchen long enough to appreciate the quality of these vintage cabinets, they have as many pull-outs as the fancy new cabinets!

We bought this 1951 ranch about 4 years ago, from the owner that had lived here since 1956. The house had “good bones,”and is in a great location close to downtown. It has been an ongoing project, we have pretty much restored/remodeled most of the house. The great part of waiting on the kitchen remodel, is it allowed me to see the possibilities of reusing the original St. Charles cabinets. Yes, that process definitely took 2+ years! To be honest, when we first bought the house, I had lived in new construction homes, and I couldn’t wait to rip out the old kitchen. The bid to gut it and put in new was out of our budget, so I lived with it long enough to appreciate the quality & uniqueness of a steel kitchen. I have also grown to love the paneled wall in the living room I originally wanted to paint over or rip out. I’m not slave-ish to restoring to 50’s materials, but like to respect the original aesthetic of the home and make it work for our needs.

These cabinets are full of slide-outs, dividers, etc, I even have a vegetable cabinet, it has wire mesh baskets and slits in the door so your produce gets air circulation. (It’s the one closest to the sink.) The cabinets were still white, but had been brush painted over the years, and had some rust. If not for your website showcasing metal cabinets, I would not have had the vision to redo the kitchen with them.

I had them powder-coated at Liquid & Powdercoat Finishes in KC, MO. (Thanks to a previous Retro Renovation post on a KC kitchen remodel, I found out about this great local resource.) I kept the same galley layout, but was able to incorporate an additional 4 cabinets by removing a corner wall & relocating the stove. It took awhile to find St. Charles cabinets, we ended up driving to St. Louis to buy some off Craig’s List. We did all the work ourselves, except for the drywall.

Luckily my hubby is super handy and willing to go along with my creative visions. I loved the little bits of history we uncovered – there was a 70’s & 80’s color palette hiding under all the layers.

I am attaching my vision board, it was my little go-to guide, although it didn’t turn out exactly like the vision board.

Inspiration for the color pallet was the starburst clock. I must admit it isn’t a George Nelson – just an old brass one I spray-painted in like colors.

Another funny discovery – I did have to give up my swinging kitchen door, and when he removed it we noticed the original carpenter had noted it’s designation on the framing in pencil: “Baby-Slapper.” Removing the door from the basement stairs made a huge difference in visually opening up the space. Things I like best about the new kitchen: having 1 type of flooring throughout (did have 3 different floors) and the open stairs to the basement.

A few touches I kept are: the shelf by the stove with the salt & pepper is an original to the kitchen (with Green Linen Formica), and the original “confetti” tile on the windowsill over the sink. I really loved the color of the green linen, but the newer “linens” were just the wrong hue. And – I gotta be honest – I was tired of cleaning the stainless rim around the counter-top – I just wanted to be able to sweep everything into the sink, which is why I went with the quartz counter-top. It was fun to color match the “suede” color swatch from the 1950’s St. Charles color samples on your site.

I used a combination of tile (in the wet/cooking areas) and wood in the kitchen because the tile was so darn expensive, but ended up liking the warmth the wood brought to the kitchen.

I included a few shots of the rooms adjoining the kitchen (darn project creep!) since we ended up working on them also.

I added the little cut-outs in the dining room to add more natural light to the room.

The office/booth room got a major scrub – we replaced the dropped ceiling tiles with sheetrock, replaced the jalousie windows and the birch paneling that was stained from water/condensation dripping from the jalousie windows… you know how it goes… where do you stop! We were lucky the original owner was a woodworker, and the built-in office furniture works great for us. I stained the birch paneling in the kitchen blacksplash the same dark color I used when I refinished the office furniture to tie it together.

Resources:

• Flooring: Mannington Paradigm -Par209 (Commercial flooring)
• Stove: Samsung Electric
• Range Hood: KBC Collection (Amazon)
• Tile: Tile Shop: Glass Water Napier
• Cabinet over fridge: Ikea (did you spot that?), white wall shelf, and stainless cabinet toe kick
• Light Fixture over stairs: West Elm Mid Century Glass Pendant
• Sink: Blanco
• Countertops: MSI Quartz in Iced White
• Cabinet finish: KC Liquid & Powdercoat Finishes
• Faucet: Moen
• Booth & ceiling fixture: Habitat for Humanity ReStore
• Light fixture over sofa: eBay
• Light fixture over booth: Ikea

Way to “Love the Kitchen You’re In!” Pat! Thanks so much for sharing your story, all the resources — and of course, your gorgeous kitchen — with us.