Custom designed refrigerator from Klondike Case
If I had $4000 burning a hole in my pocket I know what I’d be tempted to spend it on!
These are beautifully handcrafted oak, maple, cherry or hickory wood refrigerator cases from Klondike Case. The craftsmanship is amazing and would look right at home in an old fashioned kitchen.
If you live in an old home, and are like me, you are probably curious what your kitchen looked like almost 100 years ago. I have been researching historical publications, magazines, books and online sources for ideas to help us when we restore our kitchen. These images span the early 1900′s to the late 1920′s, but primarily focus on the earlier years.
On thing that I found very interesting is that refrigerators or ice boxes are often shown integrated into a wall or cabinetry. This “trend” is considered modern in kitchen design today. Ha!
Well, our great Kitchen Layout debate has been decided. Actually, our lack of budget and space decided it for us. We will be going with layout Idea 1.
You can read my long rambling about our kitchen’s short comings here.
1) We have decided to cut costs by working within our existing space.
2) We will save money by reusing our existing refrigerator and stove.
3) We will be able to vent the stove through our back porch ceiling. The back porch is on the other side of the wall where we will place the stove.
4) No matter how much I loved the idea of an island – even though I found magazine photos of beautiful shaker inspired islands that I fell in love with – we do NOT have enough space for an island unless we recess our fridge into a wall. $$$$ = not going to happen any time soon.
I began to consider the unthinkable – ripping out an original built-in cupboard or two in order to gain more usable space for stove and/or refrigerator placement! Ok, it was a brief consideration. I mean where trying to figure out every possible configuration.
Yes, things would be so much easier if we didn’t have those beautiful built-in cupboards to deal with. Actually, the built-in cupboards have been greatly abused but I can imagine them restored and beautiful some day.
I keep thinking of the vow I made to myself when we purchased the house. Our house seemed so forlorn and neglected that I promised myself we would try to bring it back to its former quiet beauty. Most importantly, I swore that we would do it no harm. Those built-in cupboards have been in this house for 92 years and in this house they will stay.
I have begun planning, or trying to plan, the best way to restore our kitchen. It’s a little tricky for several reasons. We have 3 doors leading into the kitchen on 3 different walls, 2 large built-in cupboards, and really no easy or inexpensive way to expand the space due to bathrooms, a stairway, plumbing and heat runs to the second story behind every wall.
On the south facing sink wall, a tile backsplash, counter and under the counter cupboards were added some time in our home’s past. They block part of the original built-in cupboards on the east and west walls.
I want to rip out the tile and MDF cupboards and plan on restoring the original built-in cupboards and having new doors made for them. The current doors are cheap MDF replacements of the originals.
I would like to have smaller cupboards on either side of a new sink to house the two modern conveniences that I am not willing to live without; a dishwasher and the microwave. I am thinking of something like this without the over the counter cupboards. I really like the dark slate or soapstone counters and sink.
The fridge is visible from both the den and back porch, not the most attractive view. I have considered insetting a 24″ deep fridge into a wall to keep it from sticking out into the kitchen so awkwardly. The problem is a stairway on the other side of the fridge wall prevents us from insetting the fridge in its current location. Moving and insetting the fridge next to a built-in cupboard is an option but would leave us with a displaced stove. I have seen people build cupboards around their refrigerators but there isn’t enough room due to the already tight space between the refrigerator and stove.
The stove is overlapping part of the doorframe.
I am most unhappy with a large drainpipe next to the stove that has an unattractive box built around it. The original plaster wall was cut when updates needed to be made to the pipe.
There is also an equally ugly box on the ceiling hiding two water pipes. The water pipes can easily be moved inside the ceiling, so that is not a big deal.
I guess it is a big deal to move the drainage pipe next to the stove because of the way the house was built, heat runs, electric wiring and other reasons that I don’t entirely understand. If we extend the plaster wall back to the way it was originally, the wall will be butting up with the edge of the stove. I could tile the walls around the stove to make them easier to clean, but the main problem is the space feels claustrophobic. I have had 2 different plumbers look into moving the drain pipe and that pipe will be very, very expensive (thousands of dollars) to move. I consider this the biggest problem in need of a good solution.
Our kitchen woodwork was originally painted. We are considering restoring and staining all the woodwork in the kitchen to match the other rooms downstairs. I wonder if that would look too dark?
So, I’m feeling a little bit at a loss and locked into our existing layout. We could remove one of the original built-in cupboards to solve some of these space issues but that really isn’t an option I’m considering. I want to keep those cupboards and I love all the storage space they provide. Is that unreasonable?
All suggestions and ideas are welcome.
Update:
Here is a link to a diagram of the kitchen.