BREAKING NEWS! Uncle Atom's Kitchen Cabinet Re-do Featured on RetroRenovation.com

That laborious kitchen cabinet re-do I recently finished caught the eye of retro blogging maven Pam at www.retrorenovation.com, and she contacted me about featuring our kitchen on her blog. And today is the day!  Thanks Pam, you know I love your blog and all you've done to generate an appreciation for all things mid-century.
If you are visiting here for the first time, welcome.  Check out my projects link for my original blog posts on the kitchen re-do and a bunch of other projects. I love our 1958 ranch home and enjoy collecting all sorts of mid-century stuff, including old cars and even an old Shasta camper.

Kitchen Cabinets, Before and After, and an Estate Sale Find

I'm finally done with the kitchen cabinets!

Here are the before and after pics.  Thanks everyone for all the encouragement along the way.  I'm glad I tackled this in sections -- that way we were able to keep using the kitchen during the two month refinishing process.

In this last photo you can see this turquoise canister set I scored at an estate sale yesterday.  It's in great shape, and it even came with this matching paper towel, wax paper, aluminum foil dispenser.

With the cabinets done, now I need to focus on getting the Frigidaire Flair double oven installed and working.  Then I want to think about paint or wallpaper for the kitchen, and I need to figure out our best option for replacing or updating the counter tops.  Sadly, the mint-green-with-gold-specks Formica is really in bad shape.

Thrift Shop Pickup - Cubist Teak Wall Art? And, another kitchen update

I've been trying to hit the thrift stores more often - maybe that's a bad thing, because I'm dragging more stuff home when I do!

Here's a prime example.

I've seen these online from time to time but I don't know what to call it.  It's a combination of painted image and some kind of plastic raised material that gives it a 3-D look.  It shows some wear around the off white areas, and it's kinda scratched up.

I did a little searching and turned up a smaller pair of these on that auction site under the term mid century cubist teak wall art.  The auction listing is a buy it now for $199.  I paid a tiny fraction of that, so I guess I did good.  Not sure what I'll do with this yet, it's a little too big and heavy to try and sell online, so I'll probably hold onto it unless I set up at the flea market this summer.

For those who are breathlessly waiting for a kitchen cabinet update, here ya go:

I got the shelves on the other side of the window finished, and did the cabinet faces above the lazy susan area.  Ran out of gas working on the doors so three are still in stages of paint removal.  I knew I would get sick of this job, but I'll keep pushing myself to get it done.  I've got a total of eight doors to do yet.

More Kitchen Cabinet Progress, and a New Sofa!

I'm still plugging away at refinishing the kitchen cabinets.  I got more of the lower cabinet faces, doors and drawers done.  I'm now almost half way done with the whole job.

Here's a before shot of the area I worked on this weekend.  Stripping the paint off the lazy susan in the corner was tiring, but I'm getting pretty fast at it.

 

Here's the lazy susan after shellacking and installing the repainted handles.  

I have the three doors off and in process.  I'm hoping that my evenings this week will be enough to get the doors done and the upper cabinets stripped and done.

So, my latest score came today.  I found this danish-style wood sofa frame for pretty cheap because it's missing all its cushions.  

The straps in the photo above are made from lawn chair strapping!  I'll replace those with correct

 straps.  I like the lines on this sofa, especially the back.

The wood is a good match with our pair of Selig Z chairs, so I'm pretty excited. I'd really like to find the Selig Z sofa frame to go with the Z chairs, but until I do this will be a great stand in. I'll do a follow up post on the sofa as I get it cleaned up and have some cushions made.