Before & After: The Good Old Days Just Got Better – A Retro Reinvention Renovation

When faced with an outdated kitchen, it’s a natural reaction to want to go for the gut and simply start with a clean slate. It takes a a good eye and plenty of design confidence to recognize a situation where not everything has to go and instead, successfully build on the old, seen-better-days bones of the room. In this case, Rebecca and her mom went for a retro reinterpretation of the past and created charm that wasn’t there to begin with – it’s the good old days, only better!

Here’s the story from Rebecca:

This was such a fun project that was done at my mom’s house. She purchased a house that had its original 50’s cabinetry. However it has poorly done brown tile countertops, faux brick vinyl flooring, and overall just felt dated. Instead of doing a full kitchen gut, we decided to do a “Retro Kitchen Restoration.”

The 4 layers of old flooring (including asbestos flooring) were properly removed and the new 50’s remake vinyl sheet flooring called Spatterdash in confetti was installed. The cabinetry got sanded down and received a fresh coat of white paint. The original vintage hardware was kept.

To add a modern convenience, a small dishwasher was retrofitted into the original cabinetry.

Overall we couldn’t be happier with the outcome. It’s a different approach to a full kitchen gut, but something about this kitchen’s original vintage charm just makes everyone smile.

Thanks, Rebecca! See more of Rebecca’s style at Design by Numbers.

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Re-edited from a post originally published 9.4.14-NT