Kitchen Design Inspiration

Before we found our 1929 vintage farmhouse sink on Craigslist I tried not to think too much about our kitchen renovation. We were perfectly content with our “temporary kitchen.” While I knew that a kitchen remodel would happen someday, I didn’t want to focus too much time and energy planning out all the details because I wanted to be grateful for what we already had. The thought of tackling a kitchen renovation made me exhausted. I had no desire to pack up our entire kitchen and live in the chaos that comes from trying to cook within a construction zone. Plus, kitchens are expensive, and we were getting more bang for our remodeling buck working on other areas of the house. I just didn’t have the vision, but I knew at some point inspiration would strike, and I was willing to wait until it did to plan any big changes.

When I stumbled upon our vintage kitchen sink on Craigslist, I was suddenly VERY motivated to redo our kitchen! It was love at first sight, and I was bursting with inspiration! That’s the wonderful thing about taking our time on our home improvement projects. If I had insisted on building my “dream kitchen” when we first bought our house, I’d have missed out on some really beautiful design options. Sometimes it’s best to live in a space to see how you use it before making any big, expensive changes. I’m so excited about the ideas that we have for our restoration project. The nice thing about having the sink as my inspiration piece is that now I can take my time as we continue to research, plan, and save, so I know when we do renovate our kitchen it will be exactly what we want.

Friends, I’m having so much fun researching 1920’s kitchens! While we’re not planning to create an exact replica of a 1920’s era kitchen, there are certain vintage elements that I’m very excited to incorporate into our design. My hope is to create a kitchen that is classic enough to fit the style of the house and sturdy enough to last at least another hundred years! Our goal when we first bought our house and installed our “temporary kitchen” was to create a space that was functional while spending as little money as possible, since we knew we would be remodeling the kitchen down the road. That’s why our cabinets don’t exactly fit the space and our metal sink is the cheapest one I could find at the home improvement store. This time around quality is my top priority!

Below are some images that have inspired me in one aspect or another while dreaming up our future kitchen!

Glass upper cabinets are so pretty and I love the look of built in cabinetry. The Butler’s Pantry at the Biltmore Estate is one of my main inspirations. Isn’t this piece absolutely gorgeous?

I also LOVE the tile in the Biltmore kitchen, swimming pool, and courtyard. While that house was completed right before the turn of the century (roughly 30 years before our little castle was built), the design has such a classic look and obviously the materials have held up remarkably well.

This image by Wit and Delight was one of the very first Instagram pictures that I ever liked, and it’s stayed in my mind as a source of inspiration. There is something about the dark wood tones with the blueish-green fabric, the exposed brick, the crystal chandeliers, and the marble counters that thrills my very soul! I can easily imagine all those elements in our future kitchen! We have an area of beautiful old brick behind a wall of paneling in our kitchen that we plan to expose, I have several vintage crystal chandeliers, and the wood cabinets and marble counters are beautiful.

Image via Wit and Delight

Just last week I saw another picture as I was scrolling through Instagram and it reminded me of that inspirational image above. I clicked on it and sure enough, it was taken at the same location! It’s The Allis at Soho House Chicago, and it’s like the designers captured my vision for my own kitchen and created it on a larger scale in their gorgeous restaurant! I LOVE everything about it!

I’m debating if I want painted cabinets. It was very common to have painted cabinets in the 1920’s. In the early part of the 1920’s kitchens tended to be lighter in color (white wooden cabinets were very popular, as well as standalone white Hoosier cabinets), but by the end of the decade brighter paint colors were more in style. Our house was built in 1927, and according to the family who bought the house in the 1960’s, the original cabinets were painted a pale yellow. The people who originally designed and built our house definitely liked color, as seen by the bright bathroom tiles and fixtures that are still in the house today. Apparently pink, black, and yellow all in the same bathroom was the “bee’s knees” back in the roaring twenties! So, while painted cabinets would fit the style of kitchens from the 1920’s and would be a nod to the original kitchen, dark wooden cabinets would tie in well with all of the trim work and built-ins in our home. Decisions, decisions…..

Image via House and Garden UK / Photo by Alexander James

Image via Better Homes and Gardens

I’m absolutely loving researching vintage kitchens and dreaming up ideas for our future kitchen remodel! Tell me, are there any kitchen details that you think are a must have in a kitchen? Are marble counters too high maintenance? Can you recommended any kitchen design books or websites I should refer to for ideas?

For more details and pictures of our kitchen plans, follow Whimsical Blue Living on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. And be sure to sign up for our newsletter to receive an email every Sunday morning with the posts from the week.

Have a beautiful day!
Sandy