Three shades of green worked well with the owner’s collection of jadeite dishware.
When the owner of this wonderfully fresh retro kitchen bought the 19th-century house, the shelves and cabinets were a mess. She knew the kitchen needed a transformation and that green would be the color because it reflected all her collectibles.
To establish a vintage feel, celadon green for the cabinets was mixed with mint-green for the table and checkerboard floor. Then, a darker “awning” green was added to anchor the beadboard wainscoting. All three shades worked together and because they tied in visually with the owner’s collections of jadeite glass dishware, glassware and vintage accessories.
Cookbooks were stashed in the butler’s pantry, just outside the kitchen. While that space is painted a fourth green — one just lighter than the kitchen wainscot. The inside of the shelves were painted blue and Easter-egg-colors also were used for kitchen chairs. Then there’s the antique 6-burner, 2-oven Magic Chef 1000 from the 1930s. These beauties are not for everyone (pilot lights are on continuously and ovens tend to be small) but this one helped complete the overall look and fit perfectly in a space between a window and a door. The painted, checkerboard floor was professionally done.
Open shelving around the sink is used to display the wonderful colors of vintage bowl and glassware collections. How amazing to have everything that well coordinated and edited colorwise.
Filagree brackets add vintage detail below the shelves and, as a practical matter an old-fashioned dishtowel rack was hung directly above the sink. Green milk-glass canisters are displayed in a shelf found at a local antique shop.
