google painting brick and painted brick to get inspired.

I'm on it! Thanks.

Yes, Kathleen. Before I bought this house someone had torn out the round, custom made booth, and I replaced it with the benches Not as good, and yes it will be reupholstered/recovered. This house was owned by our closest neighbors on the farm. We sat around that table painting china, making photo books, and eating great pies :) Thanks for your interest.
The house was a sentimental purchase.

P.S. We have two walls of off-white painted brick in our sunroom addition (from when it was a screened porch on our 1929 house) and love the look of them.

Thanks for the encouragement, feeny.

im excited to see the progress, what a cool old pad!

Marrying 1970's and 1937? I'd put a fresh coat of paint on everything and wait until I could afford to do some real remodeling.

Urbanata, That's what I'm thinking. Not sure I can paint the wood cabinets as they are finished with Marine varnish. And if everything is white . . .?

I agree, paint the brick white or off white, whichever goes better with the rest of the kitchen. Strip the floor wax and use a couple coats of a good floor wax or Johnson's Pledge with Future floor polish to make it vastly easier to clean with a damp mop. Has the countertop burner set up been inspected recently for safety?

Marine varnish is very tough and durable.

Paint the brick.

apple-pie-order, Hahaha, if this place was inspected they'd take me to jail:) I have called the appliance repair folks. They will be here the first of the week. Maybe they will have a suggestion.

I like the brick. Paint it if want.

I love your nook.

Good idea to get the appliance repair people out. If you have not rented out the house before, you might like the Nolo Press; they have some good books on landlording and so on. I would put the fire extinguisher near the oven/cooktop and remove the dangling curtains near the cooktop.

Calico Corners usually has a couple bins of clearance fabric that might be good for the bench covers. Flat sheets and unlined panel curtains from Target can be cheap, too.

Thanks, apple-pie-order for the good suggestions. To all of you who have written, I've decided on Dove White (Benj. Moore) for the trim throughout, and Carrington Beige for the walls throughout the house. If I have some $ left at the end of the painting, I'll paper the back kitchen wall with something kitchen ish from the '30's. There are two levels of wallpaper that I can see inside the cupboards, one is cream and red squares, the other a pattern of small red and blue flowers on stylized trellis, on a cream background. I'll keep looking but cool paper is expensive. A few more photos of the place.

Such a cute place. Red and white checked curtains would be appropriate. Or check Target. Wallpapering is a lot of work and not appreciated by tenants, IMHO.

By the way, have you tried chipping off the fake brick? Sometimes it pops off. Other times it takes more work.

Oh this is a story book cottage! How wonderful! Very much sought after in their heyday.

Your kitchen is quite cute. I'd love to work on it with you. But here are some ideas (probably repeats from other commenters.)

Yes, paint all the cabinets. It's a DIY project that can be done quite easily. It takes time and patience but over all it's not that hard or expensive. I've done it twice and I'm not a painting pro ;-) The results were very nice....so said our friends. (My mom thought I was nuts to paint real wood! Hahah!)

Okey dokey...let's talk about style. Do you need to keep the banquette and table? Why not sell or store them away and find a nice thrift store/garage sale round table and 4 chairs. They can be painted too :-) Something sort of cottagey since the house is a cottage style.
(The 70's things in the house will be 'visually gone' once you get rid of a few things and repaint.)

Yes, you can paint brick. Yes you can paint cabinets. You can paint the backsplash too. And yes, you can even paint the floor! I've done that too :-) You'll need to get e.v.e.r..y.t.h.i.n.g off of it you can: dirt, sealants, floor wax, etc. That's the hard part; the prep. Then get a water based high quality primer. (I use Zinsser Bullseye 1-2-3). Next get a good quality porch and floor paint and paint away! There are many YouTube tutorials as well as other online tutorials for the exact "how to" steps out there. Our painted floor lasted years with minor touch ups about every 3 years. Of course we are a 'shoes off in the house' family but the dogs did walk on it too ;-)

Right now I see nearly a blank slate to work with. What fun this would be to redo....even on a small budget! Of course you can go any direction you'd like with interior style. But this is a cottage so I see beautiful light colors and light "visual weight" style for this cute home. I'd remove the heavy draperies in the LR and just use sheers or semi-sheers. If you need privacy, simple roller blinds that are out of the way until needed are fun and very inexpensive. I'm tellin' ya, this would be a dream for me to design. I love cottages. :-)

Let's see pics soon :-)

(Idea for table and chairs to replace your existing things. You can even paint the furniture to give some fun color to the space.)

jvansu, they can be painted if sanded enough to scratch the varnish surface, primed with an oil base primer and then painted, but why bother. Just save your money and do a remodel when you can afford to.

Urbanata.....true comments. You asked "but why bother". Sometimes the money never gets saved up enough to do a complete remodel. In the meantime, the place needs some TLC. After weighing all the pros and cons, I'm willing to bet by doing some simple painting and a few other decorating things, the house will look very nice. And I've seen far too many homes where the builder and/or the homeowner gets into a frame of mind to "update" (especially kitchens and baths) that look fabulous in their own right.....but out of place/context with the remainder of the house. This little cottage has a lot going for it. Right now paint can go a long way to give it back it's original personality without spending a ton of money.

If it is just glued-on fake panels, I would get out my putty knife and see if it would be easy to remove. You never know about installers--some use enough glue to hold it through the centuries, others just a dab. If it's really anchored on there, then paint. $2000 is way too much. Yes, you would have to spend a considerable amount of time and elbow grease to prepare the brick and cabinets for paint, but it would save $$ and look much better. You can learn to do anything on YouTube!

Thanks so much, Connie. I had the booth remade (trying to resurrect the past :) ) after it had been torn out, and that cost me more than I'd like to remember, e.g. had table covered in Marmoleum, etc. Anyway, if I'm going to rent it, I'd rather have the renters wreck the booth than a round Oak table and bentwood chairs I have--and would use If I were to live here. BTW, on the curtains in the LR. It is cold here (OR) and the windows are old glass ( bad environmentalist--haven't changed them out!), so those are to cover the windows on those nights when one wishes they were in Arizona :) Any thoughts?

Hi flyr4fun, I'll bet that you are younger than me :) those bricks are on there for life. In thirty years, there are only 2 that wiggle, and one on the corner that needs re glueing. I COULD do a lot of things myself, but tearing out the wall is beyond me. Also, in an old completely handmade house like this, when you start tearing out you can be in for BIG trouble. It's like a person almost, everything is so connected that when you mess with the balance you got big trouble. I love you tube too! It convinced me that I was up to painting the bricks. I was scrubbing on them just now. I should have the prep done this week-end. Target is paint, Monday. Thanks for responding.

I love this house! Don't you dare paint those wooden cabinets, but yes, good lord, paint that awful brick. Good luck; can't wait to see the "after" pictures!

Very cute house.

This is an old thread, I know, but wanted to show you the finished kitchen.

It's a charmer!

See above photos. Can someone tell me how to rotate these images? They are originally horizontal but come out upside down and I can't fix them!

Small bedroom

Larger bedroom

Thanks jvanasu for pic. There is an arrow curl that says rotate & you kep hitting until pic is done.

You could use green from the art above couch for pillows for it. Room needs more color. A throw of color.

That's a good idea. I'm going with this green--the color of the dried hydrangea-pale soft lime.

Happyleg, where is the darn arrow?

jvanasu: On my computer there is no arrow.
I send photos from my phone to my email, then save them to my computer. They come in with a number for a name. Opening Windows explorer, I rename them and put them in my house folder.
When I upload to Houzz, or Pinterest, etc, I can see the photo, not just the file name. I have to right-click on the pic to get a menu. Rotate clockwise and Rotate counterclockwise are on the menu. I click until it is correct then upload the photo.

The white paint is a big improvement over the pink Z-brick. What geographical area are you in? Just curious about where such an unusual cottage is located.

Apple pie, the cottage is in Eugene, OR.

Man, the curved sleeping nooks are fab. This is really a cute cottage, inside and out! Good work on the brick, and congratulations all 'round! :)

Keep the wall of cabinets where the refrig is. Then consider getting rid of the other cabinets and brick, and doing an unfitted kitchen (look up unfitted kitchen) of free standing furniture for storage and work surfaces. Get the furniture from garage sales, flea markets, antique stores, etc. Great house! When you move you can take it with you.

Al, I'd like that idea too but unfortunately, when we start tearing out walls in this house or even going down a layer or two we have run into problems--old wiring (which we have now upgraded) asbestos shingles in some places which have been covered up for 30 years and to eliminate them would cost big$$$. So, less expensive for right now (we are renting it furnished) to simply leave it, since it works, but yes, I'd love to have a free standing stove, a hutch or shelves of some sort and a rolling work stand. When I was a child there was a big nickel plated wood burning cook stove where the brick range is now. It was white and chrome and looked cool. Thanks for your interest!

...

Thanks so much but how did you turn it?

Wow, beautiful!

i did it on my computer...

i love the little stove oven area, its like a doll house! paint the cabinets???

jvanasu, the arrow to rotate is in you pic.; one of the tools for each pic.

Thanks for additional info and new photos. If you have flexibility on raising the rent $50 a month or so in Eugene's market, you could dedicate the "extra" $50 to an electric stove fund. A reasonable self-cleaning electric stove with coil burners runs about $500. You'd need "wall money" to deal with what happens when you open the wall space with the oven and cooktops. Old cottages definitely have surprises behind the wall, and it sounds like you have run into and dealt with them already. Just in case you are interested in comments from other landlords about gradually upgrading and renovating older rental property, it might be useful to start a new thread.

I would suggest you paint the brick white and the wood-tone cabinets white so that everything will look more uniform. I believe your biggest problem is the dated red and grey check floor tile, and I suggest you find a solid color of flooring you want for the kitchen and the dining area.

Old post. Kitchen has been redone.

The floor tiles are the best part!