I will be ready for the "big reveal" soon for our 40s inspired kitchen. Our goal is vintage modern with clean lines and modest styling. Think Ant Bea's kitchen from The Andy Griffith Show with a modern-for-back-then edge to it. Our stove, hardware and sink are real vintage from the 40s and the rest will hopefully blend in. We bought vintage canisters and a paper towel/aluminum foil holder and will be using old style train shelves in chrome as well. The Marmoleum floor (when fixed), will also try for the retro vibe.
Our cabs are Ikea in white slab fronts, to give the impression of the old style metal cabs. We actually fooled someone who knocked on one and said he was checking to see if it was metal without us having said a word about trying for them to look that way.

I removed the metal two metal cabinets on my kitchen walls when I moved in. One was long and narrow with sliding glass doors and an open shelf below. The other was just a 2-door upper cabinet on an opposite wall. That was 32yrs ago, and I can't remember why I took them down as they were in good shape. The long one is in the garage on the wall and the other was put in the cellar where it rusted to death.

My decorating taste has always leaned toward the 1930's and 1940's, and most of the time I don't do it intentionally; just seems natural.

Sorry Lavender-- I think with your help I am trying to rid myself of my 1957 kitchen!!! ;)

I'm trying to design my new kitchen so it blends in with my 1955 house. I'm not going over the top with 50's kitsch, but I want the design to flow with everything else. The kitchen I tore out was an "update" from the 1970's and let's just say that it felt jarring to walk from the rest of the house (which has clean mid-century lines - no updating) to the kitchen (which looked like some sort of Morrocan hookah bar).

I think of 1940s and 1950s houses being rather modest, because this was the boom era for a typical middle class income person to be able to own a small modest house. Prior to that era, home ownership in the cities was not high. People did not have the money to have a well-done craftsman-ship type of products.

I was in a waterfront custom-home near-mansion from the 30s or 40s (?). The woodwork and workmanship in that house was exquisite. I don't consider this a typical home of that era.

The typical cabinets from that era are slab front plywood cabinets that are site built. This was before they had modular cabinets. Modest homes had laminate/linoleum with metal banding counters. Linoleum floors were common. Slightly upscale homes had tile counters. I lived in one of these in the 1970s. (my parents' first home) and again in a rental in the 90s. I really like the feel of these homes. The way I would decribe the feel of homes is "honest" and "integrity", if left intact.

There is usually hardwood floors and good tilework throughout, ie bathrooms.

I presonally think that most over the top kitchens that are going into these modest 1940s and 1950s houses will scream 2011 many decades from now. If you "redo" the entire house to 2011 sensibility so everything flows in and out of the house, then the house will age better, IMHO. But redoing the entire house is very expensive.

Most homes from that era are not MCM. If the house is MCM inspired, i think you need to take queue from that. MCM is a very specific type of look from that era.

Dianalo, can you post picts of your kitchen. I am trying to convince my DH that we can get the "feel" and the "look" of 1940s kitchen with Ikea...

Think Ant Bea's kitchen from The Andy Griffith Show...

OK, this visual tickled me, so I HAD to google it. I am SO TKO. Here's some fun pics:

{{!gwi}}

Silly Youtube Video, but good Aunt Bee kitchen pics, including stainless sink

If I had Aunt Bee's kitchen, I wouldn't change a thing! (Well, maybe the curtains...) It drives me crazy when people remuddle a functional kitchen like that. Unfortunately, many people, if Aunt Bee's house was on the market, would think to themselves, "This house is O.K., but we'll need to gut the kitchen."