The kitchen in Steven and John’s Palm Springs house — designed by midcentury architect Herbert W. Burns — had been pretty nicely updated, albeit, admittedly “tastefully bland.” Once in the house, there was no question that this creative couple — Steven Keylon is a landscape historian, and John De La Rosa, a metal sculptor — would revive the deserving space with a period kitchen remodel befitting its provenance. Very interesting to me: Steven and John also have been restoring the original colors used inside the house, which drove their choices for the kitchen cabinetry. This level of attention to detail is not something I have seen very often — a true restoration mindset — I’m extremely impressed!
Steven wrote:
We bought our Herbert W. Burns designed house in the Deepwell Estates neighborhood of Palm Springs two years ago. We actually moved to Palm Springs from Los Angeles for the house!
We had long loved Herbert Burns’ Late Moderne style, and it fit our collection of Gilbert Rohde for Herman Miller furniture perfectly.
The house was pretty much a blank slate. It had been a wreck 10 years before, but our friend Jacques Caussin, one of the co-founders of Palm Springs Modernism Week, had bought the house to save it from flippers who didn’t know what they were doing.
Because the kitchen had been badly redone in the 1970s, and that later kitchen was in deplorable shape, he quickly put in an Ikea kitchen with granite countertops, to keep it “tastefully bland,” since he was planning on quickly restoring the original features to flip the house himself.
In the last two years, we’ve been restoring the house, including returning the paint palette to the original colors Herbert Burns chose for the house. One of the primary colors is a wonderful muted pinkish-tan color, he used to harmonize with the Arizona sandstone chimney.
When we bought it, we knew we wanted vintage steel cabinets, but it took two years of searching to find a set nearby. John found a set of pink General Electric cabinets in Beverly Hills, so we rented a big truck and grabbed it all.
We were up against the clock, as our house was scheduled to be on a big tour for a weekend celebrating the work of Herbert Burns, which the Palm Springs Preservation Foundation (PSPF) planned a few weeks ago. I’m on the Board of PSPF, and wrote Burns’ biography for the event.
Sink:
We worked like mad to get the kitchen done in time, and did it, with minutes to spare! We seriously were hanging cabinets an hour before people were going to arrive.
The kitchen was originally GE’s “petal pink,” but had been repainted at some point in the past in a color that was almost identical to Herbert Burns’ pinkish-tan. So we sprayed them in the same color, polished the hardware…
…and had Formica Skylark countertops in gray, with stainless steel trim installed.
Formica boomerang laminate in charcoal, so thrifty too, and in various sizes:
Your blog was a wealth of information, so we thank you! That’s also how we sourced the kitchen faucet. I painted the stainless steel dishwasher to match the cabinets.
Kohler Delafied sink with metal (hudee) ring:
Central Brass kitchen faucet:
Our 1948 Tappan DeLuxe stove was in storage, as was our 1950 Hotpoint refrigerator, so we are happy to have them back again. We’ve still got to work out the vent exhaust situation…
Thank you, Steven — what a great project. Your research also is making me fell the pinky-beige love. I don’t think pinky-beige gets much love. This is literally a “Pinky Beige” in our first-and-best Sherwin Williams Suburban Modern paint color collection. Pinky beige is a fine color!
Nicely played.
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Patti and Darin’s yabba dabba DIY kitchen makeover — more thumbs up for Wilsonart Betty laminate
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Wow, what a great job! What year is the house?
The inside of my parents 1959 mid century modest was all painted a Rosie/pink beige. Also, glad to know that GE color was actually called petal pink – we always just called GE pink, LOL. I’ve been trying to figure out what color flooring to put with my GE pink kitchen. The original floor is tired but it is a mosaic of pink yellow turquoise and beige that I love, but chartreuse may actually do the trick.
Thank you so much for the inspiration!
Thanks for the great job you did on the kitchen, Steven and John! I had to laugh when you said you were installing cabinets an hour before your vintage house tour. That is so typical of retro-renovators. Love the gray with the pink; it’s my favorite mid-century color combo.
Marvelous job.
That level of love, investment, and commitment to authenticity is rare to see. What a fabulous job – i’d love to see the rest of the house as you restore it. Glad you are “in the business” too, helping educate and save other pieces of this marvelous era of history!
Fantastic! Was the sink original? If not, what was the source?
Susanne, that is surely a Kohler Delafield with metal hudee ring: https://amzn.to/2K1t4U9
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First , that’s a fantastic picture . You two look so happy . Second , I love what you did! Especially painting the dishwasher. Great move👍🏻.
Where’d you get the stainless steel trim? Beautiful touch.
see: https://retrorenovation.com/2011/02/01/3-places-to-buy-metal-edging-for-kitchen-countertops/
The pictures are beautiful, but in real life this whole place is a thing of beauty
Love!
Wonderful job of blending retro into modern bones. Congratulations! And I am drooling over that stove!
Amazing job! Another kitchen re-restored!
That took nerves of steel! Amazing job.
Love it! Love It! LOVE IT! I wish it were mine – Congrats in a job very well done! Beautiful!
I love how the pink brings out the floor. I didn’t even notice the floor before. Also the countertops are perfect.
We had a petal pink GE refrigerator in the 60’s. My mom made matching pink gingham curtains. Love!
Beautiful!
I love seeing this terrific transformation. I grew up in the ’50’s and ’60’s with a Petal Pink GE kitchen (including a Petal Pink GE fridge) in a 1952 ranch house in Indian Hill, a suburb of Cincinnati. My husband and I salvaged the entire kitchen, including the barely used original dishwasher…and built-in oven and stove (all of which was in nearly new condition because my mom didn’t cook) before the house was sold and demolished five years ago. We kept a few of the pink cabinets for our own ’50’s ranch basement. Everything else was donated to Building Value here in Cincinnati. The entire kitchen is now installed in an artist’s house in an old Cincinnati neighborhood.
I like the before and after. The after is much more wow I must admit. Well done!