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.
Yes, stark white against reddish stained woodwork doesn’t look great. That’s why you need to look into colors.
Whether your woodwork is cherry or some other wood, I’m assuming it is some kind of red, since you call it cherry. There is a lot on color theory about what colors complement each other. Read up on them.
I suggested medium tone blues and greens go well with natural cherry (the lighter to mid-tone, non-stained stuff.) By cherry you may mean actual cherry that has aged over 100 years to get that dark red color we call dark cherry (I was surprised to learn that natural cherry left unstained will, over decades and decades, become that dark color naturally with no stain – I’m hoping my natural cherry furniture doesn’t get that dark in my lifetime, as I like it lighter), or some other wood that has been stained to look like very aged cherry. I wouldn’t suggest blues and greens for very aged dark cherry, just the lighter stuff we call “natural” cherry.
You will find, by reading about color theory, or consulting someone versed in color theory, what tones will match complement your exact woodwork color, whatever color it is. If you want lighter tones, you can find off whites and tans and beiges in an almost infinite number, with backing tones of every color in the rainbow, such that you will find something that will look good with your wood. Because color is so infinite, I would think that issue would be the least of your problems in designing a kitchen – color complementarity is always solvable.
Your biggest decision (and the correct one, I think) is to go with a painted finish rather than another wood stain that won’t look good with your arch. After that, finding the right colors is doable.
I did a modern kitchen in my house though the house had no original wood detail (I added moldings of my own design). I could send you some photos if you like. Email me at HDLBklyn at gmail dot com
Check out remodelista.com.
I design lots of kitchens in brownstones and apartments in brownstone Brooklyn. I love vintage and 50’s, but kitchens are inherently “modern”. Most of us want them to be easy and convenient as well as look good. Living in an older home always means blending the original details with current technology and appliances or furniture. I agree that painted wood,is a nice way to go, but I also think really clean and modern looks great, especially if you have other modern furniture. The contrast does not hurt the original detail,, but makes it stand out.Please contact me at pjazz1@earthlink.net if you would like some pictures.
The real key is figuring out what you like and then working w/ what you have.
In terms of general inspiration, I’d highly recommend This Old House magazine, as well as their website, which has tons of slideshows, etc. They feature lots of homes and kitchens that I think do a really nice job of blending traditional with modern.
Agree w BHS: “Bungalow Kitchens” is the best book. “Restoring a House in the City” also has some wackier and more unusual ideas. A big look right now is white subway tile, farmhouse sink, freestanding table, and old-fashioned dish cupboard with flush inset doors. That is also the look of any kitchen 1880 to 1920, so it fits in well in an old house. You can paint the cabinets if you don’t want to clash w the woodwork.
You sure you have cherry? Oak, walnut, and pine stained to look like mahogany were more typical.
You really need to familiarize yourself with the most all-around informative and friendly kitchen reno blog on the net:
http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/kitchbath/
Countless numbers of people, including ourselves and many other Brownstoner subscribers, have come to rely on that site in order to do exactly the kind of kitchen reno you are contemplating in an old house. Check it out and good luck!
Apartment therapy just had a post about this. You might dig into their archive for more inspiration, but this post might get you going picture-wise (look at bottom row of photos, not top one)
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/dc/dining-room/merging-a-modern-kitchen-with-traditional-dining-room-138967
Thanks, everyone. The comments and links are tremendously helpful. We’re in a 10-unit limestone coop that was built in 1928. The top three floors have 2 units each (each running the length of the building) and the ground floor consists of 4 one-bedrooms (each approximately half the size of the apartments upstairs). I’m fairly sure that the kitchen in our apartment is not where the original kitchen was; it’s now located in half of what was likely a double parlor. It spills right into the living space. As such, though I love the idea of a very purely utilitarian space, it is nice to have an island (as we do now) that divides the space slightly (and also give us some much-needed under-counter storage space, which is in short supply).
What I’m most curious about are instances where painted wood cabinetry almost directly abuts natural wood finishes. I like a lot of the white-painted 1920s cabinets on shorpy, but I have a hard time visualizing what that would look like almost right against the fairly detailed cherry arch (which we don’t want to paint) that currently separates the kitchen and living room visually (it’s a very wide arch, so it feels almost like one room). What I’m having a hard time imagining is something like this http://www.shorpy.com/node/4848 if the door frame and window were wood-toned instead of painted.
“I’d do a combination of vintage and new cabinetry”
That’s what we did 36 years ago. we kept the original built-in dish cabinet and stripped it. For additional storage we bought two ’20s oak Hooser cabinets, with pull-out aluminum covered counters. The only new cabinet was the one that holds the sink and dishwasher and I ordered that unfinished so I could stain and finish it to match the way I finished the original cabinet. A few years later we were given an identical cabinet that out next door neighbors had taken out.We had a cabinet maker add that to the original and extend the bottoms of both, with a new countertop to match the sink cabinet.He also rebuilt the drawers, using the original fronts.
Within the next couple of years we intend to replace the ’70s formica we had put on the “new” sink cabinet and re-built original cabinets (probably with stainless steel, which would look similar to the Hooser’s aluminum). The present floors are the original pinesubfloor, which we had sanded and finished. We’ll have a new floor put down, probably oak,but possibly cork.