The closest photo I have ever been able to find of what my kitchen may have looked like originally is something like stylist Aaron Hom‘s at left. It’s a simple small white space, with a layout not too different from mine, not fancy – note the inexpensive old fashioned white refrigerator – but it has something I absolutely love – original kitchen cabinets with old glass doors. The counter is just wood and there is not a drop of stainless steel in sight. It just looks right in terms of time and place and if you scrolled yesterday’s photos I think you’d agree. Had the base color of my appliances and kitchen been white, I think I could have turned it into something approaching this, but the almond and the knowledge of the hidden wood floor and original beadboard under the sheet rock on the back wall (which I forgot to mention in the previous post) leaves me hungry for something more.
I still can’t help fantasizing about original cupboards – I just love them – in particular as so many of today’s fancy kitchens look all the same and just don’t suit my humble cottage space.
It’s an obsession I’ve had for years and it crushes me when I watch people rip out lovely old butlers pantries to make modern giant kitchens.
Even cobbling together old doors looks great.
If the house couldn’t come with any original cabinets, why couldn’t it have had an old cast iron sink with an integral drainboard? Here one is set into some original cabinetry…
…and here done in a more-for-looks-than-function newly installed old style. I just don’t think I can cook for 20 – and often we are that many – with a room that looks like this, however pretty!
I also love original wooden counter tops and drainboards and they are authentically found in houses here along the shore.
Look past the cute girl playing dress up (which is hard to do cause she’s so cute!) and you can see one in my friend’s house nearby.
But other than that aforementioned wall of beadboard and the pair of pretty windows, there is not much else old or original in my kitchen. The truth is I have been looking for four years, since we bought the house, hoping that some nearby late 19th or early 20th century house with original fittings will decide to remodel and somehow I will find out and be able to buy their stuff and magically make it fit. A bit of a pipe dream I know! My local contractor laughs every time I remind him to be on the lookout. For a while, I was tracking antique kitchen cupboards like this one on eBay, hoping to adapt them to my space. The problem with this idea is that I can wait forever and as I have so little space, it might not be possible to make something logical and efficient.
So I know I haven’t really moved forward in my kitchen story by delivering a whole post on the fantasy of what the house doesn’t have, but it certainly gives you a sense of my mindset.
Related Posts:
Beach House Kitchen Diary Part 1…Before and Currently
Photo links can be found on my Beach House Kitchen Inspiration Pinterest page.
Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! I thought I was the only one and now I know I’m not alone. I love your vision! You have some of the same images as I have been pining over. The glass front pantry cobbled together with old glass doors has had me on the hunt for doors like that for a long time. And Andy Newcom’s kitchen with the oval window is a big favorite.
All you can do is keep up the search. One day you’ll find the right pieces. The heavens will open. Angels will sing.
Easy for you to say, Mr. Steve with an amazing 11 foot Danish pine shop counter in hand!!! I want you to post about it so I can write my own post called “Beach House Kitchen Diary…Jealous of Steve from Urban Cottage”!!!! But I know we are on the same wavelength, so I am very interested to hear what you have to say at the end of this week!
Hi Loi!!!
I have some ideas! Although it would be ideal to find what you are looking for; I would hate for you to wait until you are old and gray! And feel frustrated and discouraged all that time!
I don’t think you will believe me; but I have seen some really great wood counter tops from Ikea! (real wood….. butcher block and mahogany; and they look great!!) (I have also had beautiful mahogany counters made by my carpenter. (No one would ever know they were’t old. They just have to make them in the old style…..and use the right stain and finish!!) Also; I have had some beautiful old botanicals (Gould and Audubon, no less) framed with hand blown glass. You can get those (not that overdone fake-looking “seedy glass) just real hand done glass that looks exactly (I swear, exactly) like the old windows and glass cabinet doors in old houses! It is made the identical way!!
I have had to deal with impatient clients (and my own self…….I am getting too old to be “patient”! I wasn’t even very “patient” when I was young!) I am after the “look”! (not the faux or fake look!!) but the “look” is more important to me than the provenance!! there is more than one way to “skin a cat”!(a dreadful expression! have to think of a better one!)
You might consider!!!
With great admiration of your taste and style!!
Penelope
Penelope, I take anything you say seriously and in the posts over the next few days (which include the “cheap and cheeful” option as well as the full gut) you’ll see that I am not really willing to wait and I have a few ideas along those lines coming. I agree with you – not having it there to start doesn’t mean I can’t figure out a way to create it! Thanks for stopping by – I love hearing from you!
P.S . My daughter bought a house in Montecito 15 years ago. Lordy! Under layers of linoleum; wood floors; even under plywood gorgeous white oak paneling! Astonishing! What fun it is to discover stuff! It reminded me of a “suprise ball”!!
I’ve been loving what you have been doing with her house – I have been following closely on your blog!
Ha! Different daughter!
thanks! I have an update on that daughter! (Monterey Colonial)!
Aren’t we lucky?? we now have 2 out of 3 daughters living here! (less than a mile away!!)
The one with the “surprise ball” house was here! The “Monterey Colonial” daughter was here for 3 years with her 3 children; (then little); then moved to Switzerland for 8 years………(Lordy) and now has moved back to the Monterey Colonial! Update very soon!!!
Penelope
oops! “surprise ball”!!
Oh, I hear you, I hear you. I love the original cabinets too. I’ve had my eye on real estate recently, and so many of the old houses with old cabinets have some kind of “Kitchen need to be gutted” comment. What?
Funny, I suppose I’ve looked at so many pictures of your kitchen that when I saw that first photo, I thought you’d done a complete overhaul!
Camille
P.S. If you decide to do nothing else, I think you would be so pleased if you took a few hours to paint the wooden trim on your cabinets. I bet it would make everything seem so much fresher.
Now, that is a GREAT idea!!! “Paint magic”!! (The Vintage Object”)!!!!