Comments on: Grandma’s 50’s Kitchen Redux!

By: elaine cantrell

elaine cantrell — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 03:10:26 +0000

Loved your kitchen! I especially like the acrylic in the cabinet doors. Your floor is great too. My aunt had one in her house when I was a child, and I always thought it was so cool. Thanks for sharing.

By: barclay

barclay — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:20:03 +0000

Hi Anita,

We used Armstrong Vinyl Composition Tile. Thick, tough stuff. They use it at Safeway!

I’m jealous of your youngstown steel cabinets; those should look great!

I love our b/w checker, but gray/white can look really nice too; especially if you have softer tones in the rest of the kitchen (we have black counters and b/w backsplash and white cabinets so b/w works in our setting). You might consider even less contrast; I’ve seen some great checker patterns that are a combo of light and darker gray. Make sure to get the tiles with the variagated flecking in them; it hides dirt and scuffs SO well! Good luck and give us a link if you post pics of the kitchen!

By: Anita

Anita — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:30:43 +0000

What great improvements and good inspiration for me….we are going for a 1940’s look (probably more early ’40’s colors…red, white, jadeite green) and have a small set of Youngstown steel cabinets to include. The black toe kick is something I never noticed altho I have a bunch of inspiration pictures from the period. What brand of floor tile did you use? I’m torn between the black/white combo and gray/white combo. Thanks!

By: Maureen

Maureen — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:02:51 +0000

Here’s how our kitchen/dining room looks: http://mjsputtering.blogspot.com/2009/02/misc-stuff.html

By: Maureen

Maureen — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:01:30 +0000

Thanks for posting these photos and your comments! I popped over from Pam’s as we are readying to do a major kitchen reno for our 1949 bungalow in 2010 and I’m looking for ideas! I never noticed that the toe-kick was black in the vintage photos! I’ll have to keep that in mind!

By: Maria Stahl

Maria Stahl — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:57:37 +0000

Your kitchen feels like home! The colors make me happy. :o)

I’m glad Pam sent us over here to look..

By: Mid Mod Pam

Mid Mod Pam — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 00:15:30 +0000

hi. pam again. can you guys email me?

By: Mid Mod Pam

Mid Mod Pam — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 23:44:54 +0000

Very nicely done! Congratulations! I really really like the glass (acrylic) inserts, they look great. And your colors are really delightful. And the floor! And the tile.

Your dogs are even cuter, though, I have to say!

By: barclay

barclay — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 16:17:55 +0000

Thanks! And yup, when we were shopping for lights I burned myself on the super hot halogen lights on display at Ikea; that was enough for me, but I also did more research at home later about bulbs to find out how much better fluorescent is. I think halogen became popular because for so long fluorescent gave off such ugly light; thankfully there are now warm-color fluorescents in all sizes.

I was really opposed to how CA is really pushing fluorescent for all home lighting because of the light quality, but now I’m all for it; they really do save a lot of energy (read: Green as in environmental AND money savings).

Ours are just attached under the cabinet, hidden by the cabinet lip, and plugged into the counter outlet; meaning they’re not built-in and they’d be easy to change….just in case!

By: Mary-Frances Main

Mary-Frances Main — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:17:39 +0000

Awesome! I just love it! (I bet you do too!).
We had our kitchen redone with Halogens and YUCK! They’re hot, they burn out, NOT a good idea. I just wish we could swap them now.