The Kitchen - It Started So Innocently

Well, this post has been a long time coming….. We have actually been working on the kitchen for quite some time. Unfortunately, such things, as life, do get in the way.

Anyway, as I said, it started so innocently. The original kitchen cabinets in our house where removed some time ago. Not sure when it happened, but we have found clues to the fact that our kitchen has gone through three incarnations. The first, of course, is when the house was built. We have in fact found bits and pieces of the original house scattered here and there about the buildings on the property. The second incarnation took place sometime in the late 20s. We have been able to determine this through a wall cabinet we found in he basemen. He style, and color scheme point to the late 20s. The last incarnation is in our kitchen right now. During the late 50s the kitchen was redone using white metal cabinets, as well as the instillation of hideous, warm grey and orange linoleum tile. At the same time, a large, built-in cabinet was installed where the original wooden stove had stood. The inside of this cabinet had even been painted the same color of Orange as the tile floor. We are not sure if the paint color scheme was applied at this time, or perhaps in the 70s. We have found evidence that the wood work had been painted a dark cream color and a light taupe. The taupe was probably done in the 20s and the cream in the 50s. At some point the woodwork was repainted an interesting color of mint green. At the same time, the walls, as well as the built in cabinet, were painted a pastel mint green.

When we first bought the house we painted the metal cabinets in an attempt to ‘spruce’ them up. We even used an appropriate paint. Unfortunately, this paint attracted dirt and stains and we just could not keep them clean. So we decided enough was enough and stripped the cabinets to bare metal and repainted them with an almond colored appliance paint. We were hoping this would tide us over until we were really ready to completely redo the kitchen back to a somewhat original state.

Ah…but this was not to be. Once the work on the cabinets began we started picking at the ‘little’ things in the kitchen. Then, one thing just started to lead to another. The next the we knew we were starting the kitchen rehabilitation. With this in mind, I should tell you that this is just phase one of the kitchen rehab. The major work will be done, but we are hoping to replace the cabinets with custom made ones based on the remains found of the originals. These were more ‘furniture like’ with solid wood tops (yes, we have part of the original counter top and it is solid wood and over one inch thick). At this time we also plan to install a tin ceiling and period correct lights – more on this later.

One last piece of macabre info before moving on to the pictures. The kitchen is where the wife of the previous owner died while making toast in the morning. Now – on to the pics!!!!