Envy My Cooking: Envy my Kitchen

Hello envy my cooking ladies.. My name is Lindy and welcome to my kitchen..

This nineteen-forty-something kitchen was a total gut job.

I hated that, but a fire in the late sixties destroyed every single

original aspect of the kitchen and repairs to the kitchen were just plain

(there’s just no nice way to say this) hideous!

I was not feeling the love for the plastic coated paneling, the swirly gold celotex ceiling, the “out of the closet” hot water heater or the lovely faux (plastic) wood accordion door

I LOVE the 1940’s…I WANTED a 1940’s kitchen. But in the end I think it might have turned out for the best. The kitchen was the only room in the house that I made major floor plan changes. I don't think I would have torn up a vintage kitchen to do that. The new plan works so much better and think I was still able to get that forties feelin’.

THE FLOOR

Gosh, this was probably the hardest project I’ve ever done. We found a huge number of odds and ends brick covered up by overgrown grass and weeds. They were scattered all over the backyard -- We’re still looking for the body. We had the bricks sliced in thirds and I laid it. Because each brick was so different this was very slow going but I love the finished look.

I was asked if the floors were hard on my feet. You know, I’m not sure how to answer that. They don’t really bother me. I wouldn’t think they would be any different from tile or even wood if it were installed over a concrete slab. Only a floating type floor would “give” any at all.
I say go for it!

THE CEILING
This is by far my favorite ceiling ever. And it was really easy. Easier than sheetrock if you ask me. I pre-stained and clear coated pine 1x6’s that were long enough to span the room so there were no seams. I left the celotex for extra insulation (and because there would be some shrinkage in the wood) but marked the ceiling joist so we would know where to nail. We just nailed them up with a brad nailer getting them as close together as possible. Awkward, but not hard.

The beam is fake. We removed a load bearing wall here and had to have some sort of support. What was required was ugly, so I covered it with pine and beat the heck out of it to make it look old. Yes, it felt pretty good.

DETAILS

The cabinets were unfinished oak with simple flat panels. The finish (not as white as they look in the pictures) is three coats of half oil paint and half paint thinner. This gives you a very durable, translucent paint look -- not the same as stained. I brought the crown molding on around the upper cabinets. I made a 4-square diamond shaped cutout template for the upper cabinet doors and very carefully cut them out with a Dremel. This is the second time I’ve used that cutout in a kitchen and I never get tired of it.