Tuesday Flashback Design: Sunny coral, green & yellow 50s kitchen

Isn’t this a happy Dream Kitchen?

READ THIS ENTIRE POST at my new site:

RetroRenovation.com

Illustrator Al Parker helped define 1950s domestic ideal

Yesterday my husband David and I went to see “Ephemeral Beauty: Al Parker and the American Women's Magazine, 1940-1960” ...

READ THIS ENTIRE POST at my new site:

RetroRenovation.com

Watch soon for a new url: RetroRenovation.com

After several months of very active blogging - and learning more about how to do it effectively, I will soon be changing my url to RetroRenovation.com.

I'm getting help from local experts, the Berkshire Web Wizards. Our #1 goal is to ensure that people who really want to know about this topic can find the site and hopefully, tap into information that will help them in their 50s and 60s style retro renovations.

I have a long long list of topics yet to cover. It seems like every day, I come up with 5 more! Stay tuned and look for my weekly updates on this and other topics every Sunday morning.

Tuesday Kitchen “Flashback Design Tips”

I’ve always loved this St. Charles kitchen taken from a 50s magazine ad. There are at least 11 ideas you can take from it, first up: Noting the mix of cabinet styles – pink steel coordinated with wood-toned. This works really well to break up what otherwise could be an excessive amount of pink. BTW it’s interesting that today’s kitchen designers think THEY invented the idea of mixing cabinet materials!

Ten more tips:

1. Countertop materials also are mixed. This appears to be the basic laminate color (also spotlighted in 9.) but without the steel edging. It’s used in what appears to be a decorative buffet spot.

2. The wall bumps out here to differentiate the stove top area. Doing these kinds of drywall bumpouts is a great solution if you’ve run out of cabinets and need to introduce a new element.

3. Stainless steel countertop on stove top area. SS gets scratched – but it’s a nice patina and you can’t beat the functionality.

4. Really great use of laminate to define a backsplash for the stove top area and to add visual interest.

5. Awesome custom stove-top exhaust fan, and in general, design element. Adding copper or coppertone elements works really well in retro kitchens – warms up all the steel.

6. Soffit ends before it hits the window – allowing window to be even taller.

7. Ceiling beams create visual interest in what appears to be a pretty big kitchen.

8. Very interesting window treatments. I’m not sure how functional this really is – would seem to block the view. But certainly cool! For stability, I think these would need to be made out of metal. Wood would to0 flimsy?

9. Here we see the “traditional” countertop set up – laminate edged in three places with stainless steel. Be sure to see my posting on Dave Sanders company for last place in America to get this great edging material.

10. Floors are awesome. At the far left bottom of the photo you can just barely see that these are regular VCT tiles, with diamond pieces cut into them. I can definitely see this totally glossed up to a high shine!

Okay, another item: Note the patio furniture used for a dinette. Seems kind of uncomfortable to me, and glass topped tables are a bear to keep clean – but the look is great.

And finally: Note in the wall cabinets – how even one glass-fronted cabinet can add visual interest and break up the wall of pink. If you don’t have a corner cabinet, you can replicate this look easily, by constructing a corner shelf – make it in ¾” MDF and use your ¾” stainless steel edging.

My first: 'Flashback design tips'!

As a regular new feature, I'll be deconstructing vintage kitchens - usually from vintage ads. I think there's a lot to learn about design from these 50s examples -- given the era, people were obsessed with design so incredible thought went into it!

This kitchen is a favorite, and led to some of my kitchen's features. Let's get to it, starting from the left:

1. Notice how the stainless steel storage cube is built into the wall. You can see it to the right of the curtained window as well. Great use of recessed wall space, but don't overdo it or you could end up with a very cluttered feel.

2. The soffit comes out just a tad beyond the wall cabinet. This is helpful, too, if your room is not square. If you're wallpapering, the pattern should run level on the bottom of the soffit, not the top.

3. Really cool how they raised the soffit above the sink. It creates a nice cozy 'nook' feeling in this much-used work area and moreover, allows for maximum picture window space.

4. Classic window treatments: Pinch pleats over a blind. Embrace your inner traverse rod! Also notice how they've mixed patterns - the fabric drapes are a vertical stripe, contrasted with the geometric wallpaper. Fabric really softens the coldness of steel cabinets BTW.

5. Picture window sets as low as possible. You'll get water on it from the sink, but light reins.

6. Super cool windows below the wall cabinets - if you can do it!

7. Warning: These cabinets hang too low, given the cooking surface below.

8. Warning: Put your HVAC at ground level, not in the soffit.

9. Very nice how the soffit comes out with the oven unit. You can do this above a fridge, too, if you don't have cabinets that work. I did this above my Sub-Zero and it looks great.

10. And of course: The wallpaper treatment. You can see how this clearly adds a sense of height to what appears to be an 8.5' ceiling.