19 Feb A Homeowners DIY – Creating an Old ‘New’ Kitchen using Recycled Vintage Cabinetry & Materials
A HOMEOWNERS DIY STORY
Elizabeth and Joe Vagnoni bought a cottage built in the early 1900’s. They knew it needed work, but Elizabeth, a TV commercial producer and Joe, an Audio Engineer, had never owned a house they did not have to remake into their own. This one was too good to pass by. The house abutted an nature preserve, was on a very quiet street and in one of most charming towns in southern Connecticut.
Besides cosmetics, the three issues they I.D.’d for HELP were 1. It needed a face lift 2. The kitchen was a disaster 3. It needed a guest wing for all the family that visited. The biggest dilemma was the floor plan of the house was reversed. The living space was on the second floor and the only usable room, a family room, was on the bottom floor. Elizabeth, reaching back to her Southern roots, came up with the idea to design a Low Country second floor entrance with a New England flair. The front of the house was bumped out a few feet to accommodate an interior front hall and a proper staircase and a small wing was added to the far side of the house for a guest room. 
The exterior was just the beginning.
The kitchen was the other problem.
Situated in the back of the house this dark, teeny kitchen had two small windows. Elizabeth knew from Day One that this kitchen would not inspire the chef in her. A light bulb went off when a friend called and told her she was ripping out her fabulous old country kitchen. Elizabeth, a real sucker for old structural elements, quickly measured her own old kitchen, ran over, measured her friend’s kitchen, had the carpenters remove it carefully and drove over later with Joe to bring the cabinets home.
Thus started their kitchen redo.
What they did:
- Exterior windows were added to the back side of the house. The corner of windows now overlooks the back yard and wildlife preserve.
- A top shelf was added around the upper part of the room primarily to house the lighting but it provided a nice architectural element as well. The supporting corbels were found on line at Van Dykes Restorers.
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- The soapstone counter is part of the recycled country kitchen, but the original sink was too small. Elizabeth ordered a new sink from soapstones.com in New Jersey and had her carpenter cut out the rectangular opening to fit the new sink. As the recycled soapstone came to an end beyond the sink, instead of ordering more soapstone they opted for continuing the counter in walnut . This created a separate ‘pantry’ when the top of an antique book case was installed above it.
Note: that corner has the only above the counter cabinets in the kitchen.
- The guts of the cabinets had to be adjusted and for that, Elizabeth bought Rev-A-Door inserts.
-The blue Torch tiles are traced back to 1880’s, the Trent Tile works in Trenton, NJ. Where did she find them? They were leftovers from a friend’s Brownstone remodel in Brooklyn so Elizabeth bought them immediately.
-The subway tiles that filled in the rest of the wall were leftover from the redo of one of her son’s bathrooms.
- The beadboard backing is bought at Home Depot in sheets. (how easy and accessible is that?)
- additional storage is in a hall pantry storage closet with the inside guts bought from Rev-A-Door.
- The most expensive costs were in the new appliances and labor. Even then, the stove was an older model so it was gotten less expensively.
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Budget: As little as possible
Actual Cost: $25,000
Labor, Appliances, Cabinetry, Flooring, Windows… everything.
Click the pic to enlarge
Drawers, drawer slide, drawer fronts
Limestone Flooring – Home Depot
(P.S. We just found out the homeowners are gearing up for their next home makeover and this house is on the market. Interested? Email us at mail@thedailybasics.com and we’ll put you in touch)
