I feel that it is totally ok to redo an older house with a modern kitchen.....
Take everything out and start fresh with a new floor plan.

Especially if the kitchen is more separated from the rest of the house.

Jane Powell's Bungalow Kitchens is a great guide for inspiration and details. Take cues from the original time period and incorporate modern finishes and details (lighting/plumbing fixtures/cabinet details) to get your kitchen to blend with the house. A well constructed ideabook with notes will help you get there. I would love to see the whole space. It appears that that there is more natural light to work with on wall opposite the window. A sky light might help open it up as well. Are all the walls staying as is? Will you post more pictures please?

Congratulations on your new house. Do you have more photos? Will your budget cover a complete redo all at once or will you be doing the work in stages?

Search for "unfitted kitchen" both here and the internet in general. You may find some ideas that fit your cottage perfectly. I am personally tired of kitchens with rows and rows of cabinets.

I do hope you can keep the floor, it looks lovely. I agree with the unfitted kitchen. Old fashions looking crocks and kitchen wear is now in the shops. So it would be easy to dress the room with old and new. I just love the little curtains they used to have below a sink. My Aunt's kitchen in Cornwall had this and a huge built in (Very tall) cupboard. The old mangle washing machine was in the corner. I'm NOT that old - My mum had a front loader so imagine my joy at being allowed to stay with my auntie on wash day.

This is a modern old kitchen that we finished. Cabinets and shelves were custom built to create the look of an old kitchen.

If you haven't tackled it yet I also have to support the idea of an unfitted kitchen. Check out Unfitted.co.uk for some great ideas. One cost-saving advantage is that you may not even have to do much more than paint the walls - if they are not in really bad shape. The (myth of)perfectly flat walls found in new construction might not even be desirable with the unfitted decor.

We intend to change out kitchen to an unfitted kitchen in the future (probably way into the future, the paying work keeps getting in the way). We are collecting furniture that can be used in the kitchen for storage vs. cabinets. We search salvage places, antique dealers, garage sales, craig's list, etc. Don't rule out old dressers for storage and counter top space, hosiers, secretaries for china cabinets, etc.

Can you provide a few more photos of the adjoining spaces so we can see whether it's possible to open up the kitchen to dining/living area especially if this is a vacation or weekend place. Do you envision congregating in an open living/dining/cooking area or are you restricted on space? What's your budget? (I've been impressed in a vacation rental by the Ikea shaker cabinets. Don't know how long ago they were purchased, but the quality and look were impressive for the price.)

If your kitchen is going to be a small U-shape, Google U-shaped kitchen. Some upper open shelves can work well in tight spaces, and there are all sorts of appliance sizes that can fit into small spaces. Let us know how you plan to use the cottage--full-time or part-time, rental/personal use?

old post.

Yes modernize the kitchen people live old houses but nothing ls kitchens. We had one like this and did white cabinets and black granite counter and small black and white ceramic tile floor. It looked fabulous and we flipped it on the first day on market.