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jerzeegirl_gw

Mid Century Modern style kitchen - suggestions?

jerzeegirl
11 years ago

I really like Mid-Century Modern style and would like to use it as the inspiration for my kitchen. Not the avocado appliances look but more like the Knoll and/or Danish look. I am going to use my Breuer Cesca chairs (which are currently waiting patiently in the attic) for the eat-in area so there's a start!

I am thinking slab veneer doors and drawers on the lower cabinets and white shaker or slab doors on the uppers. Maybe a white countertop in a honed material. Not sure about the floors - I would like terrazzo but don't have a Swiss bank account.

Have any of you used Mid-century as your inspiration. I would love to see your pictures if you did. Also would love to hear any suggestions you might have for a Mid-Century look.

Comments (19)

  • pawa
    11 years ago

    Hi Jerzeegirl -
    This one is my all-time fave:

    Please go to the link below for more pics.
    I came across this kitchen while googling "dish knobs" because originally, that's what I wanted in my kitchen.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Robyn Rigby Fisher

  • annkathryn
    11 years ago

    There was another thread recently with some examples of more Modern styles. See the link in my post about halfway down for more inspiration pictures.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Modern Kitchens

  • gsciencechick
    11 years ago

    Definitely check out jakabedy's kitchen in the Modern thread posted above.

    We have a Heywood-Wakefield dining set, but the other end of the kitchen is not Danish-modern.

    From Christmas:

    The other end of the kitchen:

  • jessicaml
    11 years ago

    Check out the Design Around This: 1960s Tract House thread. I miss Sochi's design (she must have deleted it from her pic account), but there are others still visible that are good, too. The idea was to create kitchens that would fit in a 60's tract home but be appealing to folks today.
    Design Around #12--1960s tract house.

    I also love sixtyohno's kitchen in the Modern Kitchens thread annkathryn posted.

    And though not officially devoted to modern/mcm, I think you'll also find inspiration on this thread:

    Here is a link that might be useful: Did you put in a kitchen that wasn't white?

  • francoise47
    11 years ago

    Hi jerzeegirl,

    Sounds like you are already moving in a great direction for your streamlined MCM kitchen. I think you are considering IKEA cabinets? If so, that would be a great way of achieving the modern look.
    The chairs and lighting will make a big impact in creating the MCM look. I love your idea of the Breuer Cesca chair (1928!) for a modern look. Are yours caned? If so, you may want to focus on other natural/organic decorative elements in your kitchen, especially with the lighting and backsplash.

    Even in a smallish kitchen, I'd try to have one open or floating shelf to emphasis horizontal planes for a MCD feel.

    Horizontal floating shelf inspiration from Viola Park:
    {{!gwi}}

    Interesting, textural backsplash, although the scale of these tiles may be too large for your kitchen:

    {{!gwi}}

    {{!gwi}}

    On a related topic:

    A favorite inspiration picture showing an eclectic blend of midcentury chairs and pendant in an older home:

  • francoise47
    11 years ago

    A few images of Cesca chairs in kithchens.
    (Not all are Mid Century Modern kitchens.)

    [Contemporary Kitchen design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/contemporary-kitchen-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_709~s_2103) by Toronto Photographer Peter A. Sellar - Architectural Photographer

    {{!gwi}}
    {{!gwi}}

  • rosie
    11 years ago

    Definitely slab doors, Ikea if you like any of theirs, in a wood finish on the base cabinets for classic Danish Modern, wood or ? on the uppers.

    Since many currently popular materials are, of course, so strongly associated with right now, I'd stay away from them as practically guaranteed saboteurs, including the Shaker panels so ubiquitous to our TKO era. Very, very plain counters with right-angle edges. No stone pattern or patterned stone for floor or counter.

    Polished aggregate, though! Do you like that? It was often gorgeous and very elegant, but only seen in better homes. You could put floor heating coils in the kitchen and run aggregate tile right on outside...

    Of course, simple smooth-finished hardwood floors, often in honey tones, were classic. I personally love well cushioned, good quality sheet vinyl with no or subtle (and sometimes far from!) abstract pattern. After all these years, the good stuff was so good, and so elegant, that I've never forgotten. (As opposed to the far more common fake tile and brick patterns and the rest of that genre that gives it such a bad name.)

  • joyce_6333
    11 years ago

    I hope MCMesprit doesn't mind me re-posting her kitchen for you to enjoy. It is stunning. I've seen it in person, and it looks even better than the pictures show. Fabulous kitchen!

    Here is a link that might be useful: MCMesprit's kitchen

  • jessicaml
    11 years ago

    It wouldn't let me post this last night, but you know about Retro Renovation, right?

    Here is a link that might be useful: Retro Renovation: Pam's Kitchen (a good place to start)

  • jerzeegirl
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Thanks for all your ideas and suggestions! I have read everything once and will read it again to make sure that I don't miss anything.

    rosie: my name is a bit deception since I don't live in nj. I live in Florida and terrazzo is very common in my area. There was a company that has been in business for a long time and they did the terrazzo in many area homes especially the older ones, so that's kind of cool. I couldn't afford it but look at the great floor in photograph #3!

    Right now I am visualizing darkish cherry slab for the base and either white painted uppers or very light wood like maple or beech. The problem I am encountering is that while it's easy to find painted wood shaker, it's kind of hard to find painted wood slab, at least in the companies I am looking at.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Slide #3

  • sochi
    11 years ago

    Hi jerzeegirl - have you thought about walnut or teak for your lower cabinets? Both seem a bit more MCM to me than cherry. My kitchen is loosely inspired on MCM, you can find it in the modern thread posted above. I have walnut lower cabinets plus white uppers (although I don't have many uppers).

    Have you considered custom cabinets? They aren't always that much more (if any more) than some kitchen companies, and you get exactly what you want.

  • jerzeegirl
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Sochi, I LOVE your kitchen. It's actually one of my inspiration kitchens for this remodel. I am also considering walnut and teak and might actually be able to find it since I want veneer and not solid.

    The only thing that really worries me is that my kitchen is relatively small and I wonder if two-tone would be too much for such a small space. I don't know, but I just love the look.

  • sochi
    11 years ago

    Thanks jerzeegirl! I think keeping the uppers light (white or any other light paint colour) would help keep a small kitchen seem less 'heavy'.

    You don't typically see slab doors with solid wood, veneer seems to be the way to go.

  • rosie
    11 years ago

    I agree with Sochi that light uppers would have an enlarging effect, and especially so if they were the same or similar in value to the walls. Since you like the look, I can't see any reason not to go that way. Disclaimer: I'm biased. I like it too.

    I WAS thinking you were in Jersey, Jerzee. My own experience is originally Southern California, where polished aggregate/terrazzo wasn't so common, even back then. Well, happily a classic mid century wood floor's nicely affordable at least.

    Regarding finding painted uppers, that nice Shaker you're thinking of would look good, or you could what the decorators on TV like to do with Ikea doors--drop them off at a paint shop on the way home to give them a whole new look.

  • aokat15
    11 years ago

    A while back someone posted a link to this house and I thought it was really cool. There is pic of the kitchen in the link attached. Good luck with your planning!

    Here is a link that might be useful: NYT house

  • mjsee
    11 years ago

    I'm in the process of doing this very thing. Doing Bridgewood Skandia (full overlay)cabs in maple with wheat finish...black counter of some nature (granite? Quartz? Still to be determined) and, goddess help me, stainless appliances. The Husband likes the look of ss and he so seldom has an opinion and when he does, I usually let him have his way. (Unless I'm totally opposed.) My sister SWEARS that there's a new stainless finish that isn't a fingerprint nightmare. I hope she's correct.

    Here are the tiles we are leaning toward for the backsplash...(tiny samples...I've ordered larger ones but they've not arrived yet):

    From Tile samples

    So far I'm leaning to the micro-mosaic on the left. Colors are JUST what I'm looking for. I set everything on The Dreaded Black Shelves so that I could get a feel for how the tiles would work with a black counter. Propped my cabinet sample above...and that is what I have for a "style board" to date.

    Floor will be marmoleum...I've included a link to my pinterest board for my kitchen. I've found pinterest to be a great way to add/edit ideas.

    Here is a link that might be useful: mjsee's kitchen pinterest board

  • karen_belle
    11 years ago

    About terrazo floors - we had to fill in some gaps when we remodeled - our original terrazo from 1956 couldn't be replicated, but we used a product called Nurazzo and we were able to get a pretty good match. Nurazzo comes in tiles and should be pretty easy to install. Full disclosure - our friend owns the company and we used it because of that connection. But I'm really happy with the product independent of our friendship and wouldn't recommend it otherwise.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Nurazzo

  • rosie
    11 years ago

    Nice, Karen Belle. 24x24s set diagonally anyone?

    The "Seashell" reminds me of a wonderfully sophisticated remodeled rambler on top of a mountain in L.A.--the house I thought of immediately when the book "The Barefoot House" came out. Wish I were in the market. Our Florida place is a 50-year-old mobile on a canal close off Tampa Bay. Nothing goes in that we can't watch wash away philosophically.

  • jerzeegirl
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Well I won't be getting terrazzo anytime soon! I just got the estimate and it will cost around $25 a square foot and that's for a simple floor. They also have to remove 18" of sheetrock from the floor up. I guess because the floor needs to sit under the sheetrock.

    So if I want terrazzo it's going to be Nurazzo! I love Seashell also. I wish I could get my DH to feel the same way as I do!

    rosie - sounds like we are in the same neck of the woods.