While having a "green" kitchen is a desirable trait these days, it had a whole different meaning in the 1940's. A green floor, green walls and even a green ceiling is what Linn and her husband faced when they purchased their bungalow last year. But after a month of hard work the only green they'll have to live with now is the envious kind.
While Linn admits the green kitchen was kind of charming in its own way, she wanted a much brighter, cleaner and more efficient use of space. She achieved it in spades with the addition of a stainless steel counter, freshly painted cabinets with new hardware and white subway tile from floor to ceiling. The real stunner is the marble and granite floor tiles laid out in a diamond pattern, drawing the eye effortlessly down the room.
To allow for better work flow and more natural light they moved the location of the stove and refrigerator. One detail that we found particularly interesting is their use of a separate fridge and freezer, meaning the unit you see in the pictures is all fridge, no freezer, and the full-sized freezer lives in an adjacent laundry room. We are not sure if this arrangement is for everyone but it certainly allows for a lot of flexibility in food storage.
There are many details to drool over in this remodel so head over to The Home Project and commence ogling.
(Images: The Home Project. Via: DIY Del Ray)
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I like the re-do. Much better than the lino floor and mint green walls. But I think it's funny (cute, funny, not snarkily funny) that they went from a 1940s look to an early 1930s look.
As someone who has subway tile in my own kitchen, I can say that I think it's a great choice because even super-cheap tiles look great in that rectangular shape and you can keep it clean very easily.
Surfjack- i agree! It think it's funny the update went retro. Looks fresh and inviting. But where's the kitchen range now?
like it! good makeover !
It looks like the range is hiding behind the new butcher block island, next to the window.
I love it, looks great.
But I would have the fridge open the other direction me thinks.
Very Good! Classic elements made affordable!
Have a great day!
Luciane at HomeBunch.com
How much did the tile for the walls end up costing?
lovely!
Love the floor (although I'd do a kitchen floor that I had to stand on in vinyl or linoleum tiles, not anything as hard as stone). All the other layout upgrades are sweet, and having lived with a chest freezer in my parent's home, they are excellent if you stockpile produce in season or get quantities of meat or other perishables at a discount. (That it's not part of the fridge is insignificant. The laundry room can't be THAT far away, and you generally need to thaw frozen non-ice cream things before using them, anyhow.)
I didn't mind the green for the end wall, though. (Not the ceiling, but a bit of color in that space seemed pleasant.)
Lovely redo! We need more pictures to properly go green with more envy ;-).
Are the counter tops stainless?
I heard you can get them done in local areas. Where would one go?
Looks great! The wonderful thing about white subway tiles is that they can be purchased so cheaply - big statement, little budget.
We ourselves went with the all-fridge option: most of the things we kept in the freezer weren't all that healthy for us, so I don't mind having to run down and up stairs to visit the deep freeze. :) Can definitely see how it's not for everyone, though!
i really like the new look. i'm curious about how they like the separate fridge/freezer...i've toyed with the idea myself (or getting a small chest freezer and putting it in another room) but not sure how it would work.
I love it, especially the tile on the walls, the floors and the hardware. I agree about switching the direction the fridge door opens. That was one of the first things I changed in my condo when I bought it!
ok, granite counter tops. and the link for more info is *really* worth the time!
does anyone have any good alternatives for window coverings in the kitchen? i noticed there was not one anymore. i have had roman shades from ikea (not washable...now junk) and stainless steel blinds from ikea as well (look great, but hard to clean because they get bent). looking for a low cost high style alternative.
Hi guys, this is Linn from The Home Project I'm so happy you like me new kitchen! Actually, we don't have a chest freezer but a full size freezer (which looks about the same as the fridge) in the utility room which is literally a few feet away. We loved this option as this enabled us to fit full sized sheet pans in the freezer when baking, and store lots of frozen fruits and breads as I tend to bake a lot.
I agree we do have to change the position of the door of the fridge though! Just one of those things we haven't gotten around to yet!
Yes, we have stainless steel counters which we put in ourselves, and tile all the way up to the ceiling. I also love subway tile, so cheap and timeless, not to mention practical!
For more pictures and a detailed budget check out: Small Kitchen Remodel Before & After
Thanks so much for all your kind words! I couldn't be happier with the way the kitchen turned out myself!
Beautiful remodel. I actually think it was pretty cute before.
Nice job! Where do you get an all-fridge unit? This would be great for our family- we hardly ever use the freezer and a little one in the basement would be fine.
The tile on the back wall is beautiful.
I actually like that linoleum flooring. If that was original and in good condition I think you might have blundered there.
All the other updates are terrific.
I love the look! I struggle with lighting in my kitchen and have similar lights to these but feel like they don't properly illuminate the work areas. Anyone have ideas on kitchen lighting?
I'll never tire of subway tiling (we're going to use them in our kitchen) and I'm really loving the granite floor tiles.
Really loving what you did there ! It's fresh and modern. I still miss some color, but I know all white kitchen are all the rage right now. It's just that black and white feels cold to me at 7 in the morning, so I'll stick to my soft green walls and butcher block countertops. But I know color is not for everybody in the kitchen, and since it's not for you, you've done a terrific job !
@ The Home Project - Love your kitchen reno, and the rest of the house on your website! Beautiful.
Whew! When I first saw this I was nervous that the after was going to be completely updated and lose the vintage charm..I am so glad to see you've kept the vintage charm and still updated it to be absolutely beautiful! Great! :) LOVE the new floors!
That looks awesome. We've been trying to get stainless steel counters for our Midcentury Modern house for about 6 months now, but keep running into issues with fabricators.
ek76, Both the all-fridge unit as well as the all-freezer unit comes from Sears. They were both very affordable if you compare them to many other appliances on the market (I think each one was around $500.) Love, love them both! So much space for food and not any space taken up by an ice machine.
Loora, I agree that sometimes an all white kitchen can be boring, however we have quite a bit of color in the rest of the house, so the kitchen is really the only room that's white, a nice break in other words.
Tulsa_Retro, we worked with a local sheet metal place that constructed the stainless steel, however we provided them with a model of our counter in plywood. All in all it worked out good and was VERY affordable. more info here: Installing Stainless Steel Counters
Thanks again for all these awesome comments!
we are renters and we have this kitchen, it is currently blue - although i like blue i feel like i'm standing in an empty swimming pool. i wanted to re-paint the cupboards white just like this reno - cheap and effective. when i went to the hardware store, i was gobsmacked at how many 'white' to choose from. i'm sorry, but i'm not going to take home 30 samples of 'white' to test how the light hits my kitchen cupboards three times a day and if i feel cool or warm in it's presence! i gave up and came home happy to have a blue kitchen.
i like this reno it's renewed my interest in a weekend paint job. next time i'll ask the store clerk to choose the 'white' for me.
We also went with a separate fridge/freezer when we redid the kitchen in our 1907 home. There was no good place to put a stand-up fridge, so we went with a drawer-fridge model that also gives us an island/worktop. Most of them were way, way out of our price range, but we scored an awesome commercial version on Ebay for about $800. The stainless steel worktop that came with it is an added bonus and one of the most-used places in the kitchen. Our freezer is in the basement and to be honest, I don't miss having it in the kitchen at all.
Beautiful job on your update! We also went from mint green to bright white and I love it.
Hahaha! This cracks me up. My kitchen is the same green with the same floor. Guests love it and think it's retro but I can understand how living in it is something completely different. Great job!
It's pretty... But the greenest option is to use what is already there...
I would've been happy just to have the original kitchen, but the makeover is just WOW :)
I love that style of drawer pull, and find the mix of stainless steel counter and stained butcherblock gorgeous. Makes me want to stain the top of my chopping block cart
DELIGHTED to see someone reuse/refurbish cabinets rather than--a la HGTV--rip all out, dump in rubbish, and call the remodel "green."
The knives on the wall make me nervous. Seem too easy to bump into and accidentally dislodge from the magnetic strip.
Beautiful job!! I have a question for Linn - in keeping the original cabinets, do you have problems with the drawers raining sawdust down on everything in the cabinets beneath? I have a cute 1930's kitchen with original cabinets exactly like these, but all the drawers stick and I get tired of having to wash every pan before I use it. Any suggestions?
Hi Artjunk, I know what you mean with the drawers raining sawdust down on everything in the cabinet beneath. We did a pretty good job sanding the drawers and even giving the interior structure a light sanding before priming and painting (this is after first just painting and realizing, oops the paint starts peeling if you don't do a really good prep job!) So no, we haven't had an issue with this, and I think it's due to the fact that we did a good job sanding before painting.
If your drawers stick, perhaps you should take them out and give them a light sanding on the bottom as well as on the rails, then wash everything before putting it back together.
@Debra Lee - I use magnetic knife strips in my kitchen, you're not accidentally bumping anything off them they are very strong.
I could totally live with a freezer only in another room EXCEPT for my fridge's in-door ice cube maker. That I can't live without. But otherwise, the only thing in my freezer is chicken stock, steaks, and chicken carcasses waiting to be turned into stock. Oh and a bottle of jager of course.
Lovely makeover and lovely neighbors! That floor is amazing!
I like what they've done! My parents have a separate chest freezer that is currently in our garage and the standard fridge/freezer in the kitchen. The chest freezer is more long-term storage of meats, but also where the dog's food (or our birds' food) hangs out before use to kill any random bugs. We started using the freezer when we used to make our own stocks/bread.
debralee - your comment reminded me of an episode (or two) of 'criminal minds'. where the serial killer sneaks through the kitchen and quietly slides out a knife sitting pretty on the kitchen counter.
all my knives are in a drawer and it makes alot of noise when opening.
Yay! I am also happy that this renovation went from retro to retro - I was afraid I was going to be looking at a sleek, modern, IKEA "after."
Clearly, replacing the appliances, countertops, and even the sink means that this reno was definitely not done on the cheap, but my favorite parts are the brushed chrome drawer pulls and the dark wood topped kitchen cart. Not sure how I feel about the stainless countertops. With the chrome hardware and the white walls and cupboards and black and white floor it makes the sink area feel kind of cold. A little color, even that same mint green, or some more dark wood accents would warm up that space a little more.
I would love to see some under-cabinet lighting in here, and I'm not sure how I feel about the refrigerator door blocking the door way... but over all a huge improvement. Well done.
so cute ! i'm glad they kept a lot of the charm :)
wow~ putting the range near the window was an excellent idea! get the smell out quick!
I would have painted the ceiling and crown molding white, and let the kitchen be.