Modern-ish Kitchen Amid Original Detail
Hello everyone, My wife and I are considering a kitchen reno in our apartment. The current kitchen was done in 1980 and is heavy on formica; we’d like something a bit more modern looking. Trick is, our apartment has a lot of terrific original detailing, most of it in lightly finished cherry, including an cherry-framed…
Hello everyone,
My wife and I are considering a kitchen reno in our apartment. The current kitchen was done in 1980 and is heavy on formica; we’d like something a bit more modern looking. Trick is, our apartment has a lot of terrific original detailing, most of it in lightly finished cherry, including an cherry-framed archway that connects the kitchen to the living room.
We’ve considered buying cabinets to match the cherry (or get as close as possible), but doing so will make for a very dark and heavy-looking kitchen. What we’re lacking is inspiration for how to pull off a lighter, brighter approach against a traditional backdrop.
If any one has any suggestions (blogs to check out, books worth reviewing, photos of your own kitchen), we’d really appreciate it.
Ditto the comments about not using flat panel cabinets. We have flat ones (were preexisting in a cherry and we painted them off white) and painted, they look much too modern. I wish I’d just replaced them. If you’re neat and have some pretty things to show off, the glass uppers as per brokelin look great, in my opinion, and make a kitchen feel so much lighter. But if you’re messy or don’t have lovely things to stack in them, bad choice.
I learned this: sone of the most important decisions are actually in choosing the hardware–cabinet pulls, faucet, light fixtures. These can really be the bridges between the old and new elements, and will pull the design in either direction depending on what you choose. Look at Waterworks faucets, for example, and you’ll see the kind of design that, in my experience, makes the bridge pretty effectively… It’s worth an extra few hundred bucks for a quality faucet, as it can really effect the overall effect.
Totally agree with slopefarm on the need for the use of simple shaker/mission cabinet style – these look best – v. flat (too modern in contrast to old woodwork for me, though some like it) or those home depot type ones with arches and columns, etc. (too suburban house.) I also like the use of some glass in uppers (for dishes, not for groceries), though some don’t.
You are right, BHS, that Gardenweb is not the best source for historical references. By all means, the OP should check out some of the period design sources that you and others have mentioned. However, what GW is especially good at is helping you put the kitchen together, once you’ve figured out what style of kitchen you want. IOW, when it comes to questions about layout, materials, vendors, construction and design issues, contracts, etc, I can think of no better forum source for the real life of kitchen building than the Garden Web’s Kitchen Forum. For the low-down on appliances, I also recommend the Garden Web’s Appliance Forum.
One way I describe our kitchen is as “period-modern”. That is, it has a farmhouse sink, soapstone counters, adjustable ceiling pendant, original moldings and trim, original hardwood floor, etc.. But it also has contemporary infrastructure — vent hood, modern appliances (including an Aga 6-4 dual fuel range),rewiring, replumbing, runtal rads, etc. In short, the kitchen looks like it belongs in the turn-of-the century house it’s located in but it doesn’t try to be a turn-of-the- century model with respect to function. Works for us!
I like a kitchen that looks original, so it won’t look dated in ten years. But if you do go for modern, contrast and simplicity are both good.
We did a Mission style cabinetry in oak in our Mission/transitional Ditmas Park Home. To lighten the look, we went with marble countertops and a white hex tile floor. Also white subway tile back splash. I loved it. Looked great with the house and I don’t think it will “date” any time soon.
For examples of a period kitchen with non-painted woodwork, check out the photos of the kitchen in the Jan 27, 2011 house of the day, 621 3rd St. This is a fairly original 1910 era kitchen. There are additional photos in the NYTimes or Wall Street Journal, I forget which.
In the book Mopar recommends, Restoring a House in the City, there is one house that is described as French, which has a small vintage style kitchen at the end of a parlor that is done quite nicely.
I find that ApartmentTherapy and Garden Web, while fun to read and great for design ideas, aren’t the best for historical info and figuring out what works with specific period elements.
We faced this as well. I’m the last person anyone should be taking real design advice from, but based on how ours turned out, a few thoughts:
1. Plain glass panels for some of the upper cabinets can lighten the wood heavy feeling.
2. Painted cabinets (light, not white) may really work, though we didn’t do it.
3. We used a very simple mission/shaker-ish design for the front panel. Plain slab is too modern, but too much decorative trim just looks machine cut and contrary to anything period, including the period it is trying to mimic. Simple panels won’t fight with your old or modern elements.
But regardless of what you do I agree with brokelin and others here: look into painted cabinetry.
We just installed painted creamy-white kitchen cabinetry abutting a dining room with dark wood trim. What pulls it all together/anchors the white I think are a dark brown kitchen floor and dark green-gray soapstone counters. I’m biased, to be sure, but I think it all works quite nicely.