It had been on my list from the beginning, but it is such a dreaded project, that I put it off for five years – the kitchen rehab. I wanted to update the kitchen (there was no dishwasher, for instance), but I wanted to do it in a period-appropriate way. And although I love all the beautiful rich-stained Craftsman kitchens I saw in my research, my kitchen is really small, and I felt that dark cabinets would make it look smaller. So I chose white-painted cabinets, which would have been very common in a 1928 kitchen. But I also incorporated many Arts and Crafts details, such as natural materials, period-appropriate hardware, and furniture-look cabinets.

My kitchen is approximately 11’ x 11’. It had no discernible style. Light wood cabinets mounted below a soffit wasted a lot of useable space. A blue laminate countertop had seen better days, as had the rusted stainless steel sink and nondescript faucet. The floor was white 8x8 ceramic tiles, some of which were cracked.

There are windows on the east and south sides, which is in keeping with the philosophy of the times. Not only do they provide good ventilation but they also help to bring nature indoors. Unfortunately, this also means that I have two fewer walls on which to locate fixtures or cabinets. A stairway leads to the basement and the backyard in the southwest corner, and an opening to the living room breaks up the north wall. There is really only one useable corner, which is where everything was already located. So redesigning wasn't really much of an issue. One major thing that had to go, though, was the large side-by-side refrigerator that was right beside the opening to the dining room. It was far too large for my little kitchen, and the placement of the fridge made me feel like I was walking into a tunnel.

Here are the updates my kitchen badly needed:

I have a good relationship with an architect (Antonio Craparotta) who offered to help me with the design and manage my project. That enabled me to get the cabinets I really wanted from Crown Pointe Cabinetry, instead of going to a kitchen and bath place. But because Crown Pointe sells directly to the consumer, I was a little apprehensive of making it work. I actually asked two local companies to quote the project, and even though I had pointed out the Crown Pointe cabinets I wanted from an advertisement, they both quoted me about the same price that I ended up paying, but for lower-end cabinets. When Antonio agreed to work with me, I became comfortable that the measurements would be correct.

The demo started with quite a surprise. Upon taking off the beadboard on the sink wall, we found an interesting electrical arrangement, apparently the handiwork of some prior owner. Now I knew why I could never get one of the outlets to work (it wasn't wired) and why the circuit was always tripping on the other outlet. I'm surprised the house hadn't burnt down! We also found some cool vintage wallpaper, which unfortunately disintegrated whenever we touched it.

Surveying the HVAC arrangement in the basement lead us to believe that I did, indeed, have heat/air conditioning to the kitchen, but it had been walled off with beadboard and then additionally hidden by the giganto refrigerator! So, all we had to do was rip off the paneling and that was opened up. Locating a vent under the cabinet saved a little money versus re-routing the vents under the sink.

According to Jane Powell's Bungalow Kitchens, in the 1920's, sanitary kitchens were all the rage. This generally meant a lot of white. So I chose white subway tile for the sink and stove walls. All this white tends to make my kitchen look a little larger. In addition, linoleum was very common during this period, and I knew I wanted a linoleum floor. Although this choice was not met with a lot of enthusiasm from Antonio or friends, I had my heart set on it. First of all, as I mentioned before, it was common during the 1920's when the house was built. Secondly, it's a green product. Third, it's soft underfoot. Fourth, it's a little "out there," and that appeals to me. When we pulled up the ceramic tile floor, we actually discovered an old linoleum layer – so I felt vindicated. And I'm very glad I stuck to my guns on this because I LOVE my linoleum floor.

The range hood I selected is very low profile. It pulls out to activate the fan and light, and retracts completely when not in use. A soapstone counter, period lighting, wall-mounted faucet, and a Big Chill refrigerator round out the cool details.

We left the beadboard wainscot on the walls that were not tiled. The wainscot was painted white, while the wall above was painted a wonderful, yummy butter yellow. I chose Swiss dot curtains for the windows and a Coles Phillips "Fade-away Girl" print from 1912 for some final decorative elements.

It took about 2 months to get this all done, which was twice as long as I had hoped, and I'm definitely ready to call it a day on the home renovations. I realized I had been under construction for almost five years, what with one project or another. Time to take a break. However, when I showed a friend my new kitchen, she said, "You might as well bring a futon in here and just live in this room, it's so beautiful!" I couldn't agree more!

A final word about the Big Chill fridge. It's a great refrigerator. The company takes a new Whirlpool refrigerator (a Michigan company, although sadly, they are not manufactured here any more) and puts on a new "skin". Since the placement of the fridge makes it visible from the dining room (and even from the living room) I wanted to make sure it was unique. And it has proven to be quite the conversation starter. However, the delivery experience was not the best. The delivery guys left a packing bolt on the bottom of the unit, sort of behind the left-front wheel, which is not visible unless you have your face on the floor looking straight on. In my case, the fridge was brought in (carried in – not rolled) and set down on some thick cardboard in the dining room to wait until the kitchen rehab was complete. Because none of us had any idea that there was an extraneous bolt under the unit, when the contractor set the fridge down near its final spot in the southeast corner, then tried to roll it back, that bolt ripped my brand new linoleum floor. A claim filed with Big Chill's delivery company was denied, because they said the damage wasn't noticed upon delivery (duh! The damage didn't occur upon delivery!) A subsequent e-mail to both Big Chill and the shipper to appeal this decision was not answered. Although I inspected the fridge for damage at the time of delivery, I didn't think to get on the floor to ensure all the packing material was removed (I didn't even know they put packing bolts into the thing. And anyway, would this have been considered a defect to the fridge?). I feel they should have been willing to do the right thing and pay to fix my floor. As it was, I had to shell out an additional $523. So don't let this happen to you.