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Greek Revival Kitchen
Tags: Greek, Revival, cabinetry, design, kitchen
Views: 660
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Leah Acosta on -
Maybe consider doing an un-fitted kitchen? I found a gorgeous one in a recent kitchen & bath magazine which I currently can't find to cite the issue date, but I found this online:
http://www.kitchenbathideas.com/kitchen-design/storage/unfitted-kit...
and there are a bunch of cool pictures to look at if you google: unfitted kitchen. I like unfitted kitchens in these really old houses because it's more period appropriate. You can score some amazing, perfectly MISmatched pieces at a local auction house, and then either use them as-is or at some point in future hire a cabinet guy to make pieces deeper, taller, shorter, etc., as necessary to make the useful flow more to your liking.
As for flooring...I'm the nutbag that insists on ripping all new flooring off, and just dealing with whatever I find underneath. I'd rather have a mangled but original wood floor, than anything else. Enough sanding, filling, staining or even painting, and you'll have something amazing, even in it's imperfection. Rotted? Take back all I said. :D
Good Luck!! --Leah
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Permalink Reply by Donald Shore on -
I am with you on the working with what you have. There are some patches in my 1920's school house flooor but you can still see where the desks were screwed down. I salvaged wood from under the cabinets to make repairs in other parts of the floor.
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Permalink Reply by Carrie Cobill on -
I am in the same situation now with my 1892 Victorian, only the cabinets had already been ripped out before we bought the place. The floor, though, is in the same shape as yours. Are you planning to put new cabinetry in, or re-use what you have? Since I have to do the entire kitchen in my house, I'll just share with you what my plans are. First of all, I went under the house and inspected the origional tongue and groove floor from beneath. I didn't see any spots where there was rot or any patched up spots, so I plan on removing the old flooring and seeing what I have to work with. Remember to take the proper precations when removing that old asbestos. If the wood floor is suitable, then I'll be using a belt sander to take off the old finish and to smooth it out. Then I'll restain it. In the end, if you're lucky and you don't mind doing some grunt work, this route might only cost you what you'll spend on your stain and some sand paper. Keep in mind that you will need to find out what the city you live in will require for the proper disposal of your old flooring (you might have to pay to have it disposed of).
If the origional flooring is un-usable, consider snap together flooring. You can often put it over your old flooring, and it is easily removed if you ever change your mind and want something different or want to try to fix your old floor.
When it comes to the cabinetry, you have many choices. If you are really tight for cash, consider buying unfinished cabinets. They are available from several different sources, even Lowes, and if you look around, you might see a style you like. You can sand and stain them yourself for a fraction of the cost of finished cabinets. Since there are many colors avilable when it comes to stains, you should be able to find one that will be similar to what you might already have in your historic home. You'll save a bunch of money putting them in yourself. It's not that hard, so don't let a big job intimidate you. There are lots of tutorials online that will show you how to do it if you don't already know how. For a backsplash, I plan to use thin tongue and groove boards (easily available from Lowes or Home Depot) and I'll be staining them the same color as the cabinets. I'm probably going to have to use laminate counter tops due to their low cost, but that is something I can change in the future when funds are better. Besides, with the many styles available, you might find one that goes well with your new kitchen.
If you really want to go vintage whan it comes to your appliances, I find e-bay as a great place to look for hard to find items.
In the end, there's all sorts of little touches that you can do to make your new kitchen look "old". Search around on the internet, find pictures of kitchens you like, and try to figure out how to bring that look to your own kitchen. With a little inginuity, you can make your kitchen perfect for you.
Good luck with your remodel!!
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Permalink Reply by Mark Goff on -
Hi Jan
We are currently in the midst of a complete top to bottom restoration/renovation on a Victorian built 1870. No Kitchen was in existence (to speak of) when we bought the ol' girl. We think the original Kitchen was an outbuilding, later moved to the basement as their was the remnants of a dumb waiter, and then put into a tiny room on the ground floor. We are doing most of the work on this home ourselves including installing and finishing the new kitchen cabinets. This way we can put the money into custom construction and save about 50% of the cost. We have laid out our Kitchen to a modern sense but we are adding moments of Victorian to create the proper feel. Mix it up is our Motto, but in a very carefully dance of modern and old.
touches to create the old...
-cabinets go all the way to the ceiling, 10 feet, with a wide entablature and crown moldings. The moldings being subdued in comparison to their contemporary counter parts.
-Base board bottoms... instead of a recessed tow kick, or legs, our cabinets are wrapped with a 9" baseboard. This helps to draw in the tall decorative baseboards of the rest of the home.
-Brackets... the addition of just a couple of brackets will add a victorian flair.
-No Island... in place of an Island we are building a farm house table. Black walnut with slide through drawers. 3 feet by 7 feet, toped with honed white marble, and sitting on 5inch walnut casters. basically we get an island with out the modern island blockiness. The best part of it is that it is moblie.
-Paint and marble... our cabinets will all be hand painted in pale contrasting tones (lowers versus uppers). The counters will be honed white marble... classic and yet contemporary.
-Appliance mix up... Our stove is a restored 1923 monster. Gleaming pipes and valves, and multitudes of ovens, which will contrast with stainless steel, glass door refrigerator, stainless dishwasher, and a white fire clay under mount sink. We chose not to use a farmhouse sink as to our eye it begins to be too much. Microwave is hidden behind a cabinet door.
-floors... our house had original redwood floors that were beat to hell. We went over the top with hand nailed black walnut, wide plank, ship lap, all through the house including the kitchen, and yes we laid them ourselves. we bought them from a mill direct and compared to the wide plank material estimates I was getting from floor companies, we saved from 50 to 80%, depending on the company.
This is a huge work in progress and we begin installing the kitchen next week, and hope that all of visual dreaming pays off.
My best
Mark
227northstreet.com
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Permalink Reply by cblehmann on -
Thanks for the pix! and your how-to descriptions! It looks wonderful - I love the lowered sink and your bold lighting!
All the discussions are inspiring. I hope more people will post their work-in-progress and finished rooms.
Did you have the flooring planks milled wiht a tongue and groove or nail them down plain?
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Permalink Reply by Charles J on -
Hi. Un-fitted is definitely the way to go. You do not want the look of fitted cabinetry in an 1847 house. Have you tried checking out some period restoration house museums to get a "feel" for the ambience you want to capture? We have an 1880 home, but instead of kitchen cabinetry, we bought the inside of a period store and used that as the basis for our kitchen. We were able to use some units as they were (but refinished) and others we removed doors and molding from and re-made them to fit. It would have cost us at least $10,000 more to go with new cabinets. Our refrigerator is hidden behind panels that look like an ice box. And the microwave will go behind a pull down roll top. the dishwasher is also built into a cabinet base unit near the sink.
For 1847, though, I would think open shelving would be more authentic instead of upper cabinetry, and maybe look for items like a pie safe and open- hutch-topped cupboard, or corner unit, as other options. Be creative and have fun. You can retrofit a lot of existing pieces with pull-outs and other modern cabinetry conveniences without having a modern looking kitchen. And consider having at least one wall in brick or stone (real or real-looking antique stone or brick veneer) - whether there's a fireplace (which would be great if you have one and the room) or not. Can you get to the original floors? If possible, salvage them, if not you can get re-milled old recycled wide pine plank floors at places like Pioneer Millworks that will like they were there for over 150 years and which would be as easy to install as a modern wood floor. Best of luck with your project.
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Permalink Reply by Jan on
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Thanks so much, Charles. You have given me some ideas. I already have 2 pie safes in the kitchen---1 is original and the other a fairly good repro. The cabinets are oak. I had a bit of a brainstorm the other day. Finding cabinets such as you have would be difficult and money is an issue since I'm retired, BUT I was thinking of the differences between fitted and unfitted cabinets---of course there is the bottom of the cabinet that touches the floor that makes it obvious that it is NOT fitted. Why not strip the cabinets, sandpaper the edges, distress them, paint them, then remove doors, and make a front that would give the idea that it is furniture and put that from the floor to cabinet to make it look like feet. Paint the remaining wood, then take tobacco cloth coverings over the openings of the cabinets. You could add some crown moulding around the top of the cabinets to further give the idea of furniture.
The floor is a difficult one to decide---the layers include the random width pine floor with some termite damage, glued (I would assume) on asbestos tiles, luan, then the old vinyl. I am concerned about removing the tile. My thoughts (best case scenerio. . ) is rip off everything but thr old flooring and lay new old wood---paint it in a checkerboard. All of the floors in the house were originally painted. Only one is now.
I'd be anxious to hear what you think.
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Permalink Reply by cblehmann on
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I have a similar situation. This kitchen currently (we aren't in the house yet) has a farmhouse freestanding sink wiht double drainboard on legs on one wall, a modern range and fridge on another, a hoosier cupbaord between two windows on another and a table in the center of the room. Actually it's pretty much what I want (as there is a pantry,) because modern countertops don't offer enough working space and I like to sit down and want an eating place. and there are windows (quite tall and low) on two walls and only doors on the other.
Old wall-hung farm sinks come in all sizes and have an integral drainboard and aren't too hard to find. I'm looking into reglazing an old sink now. A counter is good at the cooking area though one can manage wihtout. You can do well with the unfitted kitchen and you'll have lots of options for using those mismatched finds, even an old dresser chest. There are neat period brackets of all types in restoration catalogues and home stores for shelving, You can put gliders or casters wiht a locking devise under a base unit from open stock (Home Depot's are best) and have a movable work surface with a countertop surface of your choise (I used a nice grade plywood, finished wiht butcherblock sealer - got the idea from Handyman magazine)
It will be fun to follow your replies!
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Permalink Reply by Cate on
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Very easy to reproduce an 1847 kitchen on a limited budget! See the Merchant's House museum in NYC for a good example of what a kitchen would have looked like at this time. Basically, it's a fireplace, a table, a little sink, and not much else. I forget exactly what kind of sink it had -- maybe a dry sink? Or maybe with a pump? Some little thing made of zinc or something like that and not much else. The floor was probably just boards. Linoleum was invented later in the century.
I think if you stick with an unfitted kitchen, it will be very much in the spirit. Even vinyl flooring is pretty good. Avoid tile, built-in cupboards, islands, and granite counters -- what a savings!
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Permalink Reply by Karan Andrea on -
My house isn't as old - it's 1924 - but if you are going to do new cabinets - fitted or unfitted, my vote is unfinished. You can use milk paint to antique them, and they will look like 'the real deal'. Here's a link to my blog about how/what I did in my kitchen. http://www.myoldhouseonline.com/profiles/blogs/econokitchen-sweat-e... There might be an idea or two you could steal, or combine with some of the other awesome ideas already offered up! I love this site - everyone is so creative and happy to share ideas. The only caveat I would offer is don't sacrifice your own way of cooking to have a 'vintage' look. If you have to choose between form and function, go with the function. You will figure out a way to blend it all together. You don't want a kitchen that looks like a magazine page but you can't boil an egg in!! Have fun and good luck.
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