Kitchen Renovation: Mini Series Part 2

The design style of our kitchen could have gone a few different ways, and there were a lot of factors I considered when designing them.  First, I knew I wanted wood cabinets.  Since the kitchen is visible from the main living space, I wanted it to feel like it really went with the house, and while painted cabinets would have been period-appropriate, stained wood had been a mainstay in Minnesota no matter the decade. 

I also knew immediately that the cabinets needed to go all the way to the ceiling. I had a hard time thinking of a pre-war kitchen cabinet that didn't run all the way up.  I also knew that the practicality of full-height cabinets would give us more practical storage and a lot less dusting.  I never once questioned that.  I also quickly landed on douglas fir as my wood-of-choice since -in 2019- I could easily source what I needed, and both the salvaged doors and existing original kitchen millwork were all fir.  Like many bungalows, our fancy rooms have oak. 

When we planned our kitchen, there were a lot of things that helped me to make the final design.  Beyond the salvaged pieces and original woodwork in our house, there are many available source documents through the national archives, Pinterest searches, and the old house community on Instagram.  But I really leaned in to a few kitchens that were near and dear to my own experiences (and I wish I had more photos!).
For more on where we started with the kitchen, check out Part 1 of the mini series.

Inspiration

I really was inspired by four houses and a conversation: The first kitchen was my uncle's old house.  Built in 1914, it still had half its original kitchen when he bought the house: the built in cupboard.  The second kitchen was similar: my neighbor's kitchen that gave me the glass doors.  Those two kitchens both had the style I was going for with my cabinet design, but not necessarily the function, for different reasons.  Neither had work triangles that made functional sense, and eventually both changed to make them work.  But those floor to ceiling cabinets!  Those are etched in my memory.

My uncle went on to do an addition for a new kitchen: a true chef's space in the corner off the dining room and the sun room: the kind of addition that old-house-Instagram would raise an eyebrow at, but the Secretary of Interior would approve in a historic renovation.  The cabinet stayed as new mudroom storage, and the evolution of the house was apparent.  One of my favorite things from the new kitchen (other than fancy-pants appliances) were the lower cabinets were all drawers.  It was incredible to see how much more functional that configuration could be, and how much easier accessing cabinet depths was.  

The other kitchens that really stayed with me were my kitchen when we rented in Minneapolis and my in-laws kitchen nearby.  Both late-30s, early 40s kitchens, these were truly fitted kitchens.  Mine had a cabinet -L configuration that almost mirrors mine now and the refrigerator was surrounded by the pantry along the stairs.  My in-laws had fir cabinets and a kitchen I could still access.

My in-laws still lived in the house when we renovated, so I remember examining the construction of their cabinets, even down to the scallop details on the upper cabinets where it fit around the sink.  I wanted the proportions to feel right, even with our ceilings running a little higher, and our square footage being a little larger.  The insights from the drawer runners, the backless upper cabinets, and the slotted doors for airlfow under the sink are all details mirrored in my kitchen.

I also remember in the fall of 2018: I had just started the reno and finished out my kitchen ceiling, and we had gathered at my grandparent's house.  My grandpa, who always wanted to know what we were up to and what projects we were working on, started chatting with me about the kitchen: our plans, what things we already had, and a little about his old lights that we were adding. He was a true DIYer: the one who got me my first power tool (my jig saw) and never doubted that I could do what I set my mind to. 

I distinctly remember telling him about the sink I salvaged for the kitchen: a double-drainboard enamel sink that at some point was on a 1940s steel cabinet when it was first made.  He shared that when he renovated a kitchen for the local nuns, they didn't care that they were getting a dishwasher: their double drainboard enamel sink was staying.  We looked at a few of the drawings and the models I had on my phone, and talked about how when he'd be there to help, it was just to tell me what to do.

That Christmas, we talked again, and I got to show him pictures of his lights up on our beadboard ceiling.  His health continued to decline after that, and he died the following February.  Those conversations are as etched into my memory as he is in this kitchen.  From using his tools to the knowledge and love that he passed on to me,  we both knew I could do what I'd set out to do.