Kitchen Renovation

I've been collecting for a 50's kitchen for years. What does that mean? Well, it means that I am constantly on the lookout for cool little hoodads and thingymajigs from the 50's. I search thrift stores, Restore, craigslist, ebay and garage sales for anything and everything nifty.

When we rented a home in Brady Lake, things were easy. The mid-century shell was there already. So I just focused on appliances, towls, dishes, salt and pepper shakers and various thingamabobs to make my kitchen complete. Then... when we bought our home in Ravenna, everything changed. I remember the first time we came into the house to look at it. I took one look at the brand new cabinets and said, "Oh, those have to go!"

The search was on, but there were many other renovation projects to complete before we tackled the kitchen. We've taken on a room a year, and now -- at last -- the kitchen project is underway! Needing a whole house re-plumb and finding two kitchen worth of cabinets on ebay were how it all started. We gutted the kitchen on 4th of July weekend, invited 5 plumbers into our home, then took the truck to mechanicsburg PA to pick up the cabinets.

Since then, life has been just a little bit crazy. We've been stripping cabinets to bare metal and experimenting with different painting techniques and colors (sooo many shades of pink!). Gaylen's been rewiring a bit at a time as I insulate and drywall behind him. We've moved things around a zillion times, but now we have it just the way we want it. One problem: I still need a corner base cabinet with a lazy susan. If I don't find it before the rest of the project shapes up, Gaylen will build one out of wood, and we'll have to bribe our friend Cory into fashioning a metal door for it. So that's the plan... for now.

I thought about painting my uppers pink and my base cabinets aqua, leaving the appliances white. I also have some sparkly pink tile for a backsplash and some vintage wallpaper to work in somewhere. This is a "dream as you go" sort of project, so even I don't know exactly how it will all end up, but it's exciting and frightening all at once. Can someone pass me a Xanax?

Stay tuned for updates and details, and feel free to leave some feedback!