The kitchen is very small. It is mostly 1963 original. We don't have a lot of money to spend sprucing it up but we put together a plan to increase some functionality as well as give it a nice 60's vibe on a budget. We plan to use the 60's Howard Johnson's color palate of aqua, white and orange. Perhaps a bit daring but I just love that color combination and I think it really says "Welcome to our swinging sixties kitchen".
To do this, we decided to go from the current configuration of a separate wall oven and cooktop (in photo below the big open hole is where the wall oven was) to just a range. We decided to cutout below the cooktop so we would have a place for the range. We would then create a space in the old wall oven area for the microwave.
Enter our local handyman, he cutout the area below the cooktop.
He then had the great idea of taking the cabinet doors from where he did the cutout and move them to enclose part of the open area where the wall oven was. I just loved this idea and it helped us address our concern of having the microwave in this cavernous hole. It also gave us more storage area and who doesn't like more storage. He cut the cabinet doors to fit and then installed a shelf so that we can put the microwave in there. I feel like adding the shelf and doors really finishes off the area.
Looks like our dog Peanut approves!
We did a dry run with our free aqua range to make sure it fit and worked. The good news is that it fit and the cooktop works. The bad news is that the lower element in the oven does not work.
So I will need to see if I can find a replacement.
Up next, find out what happens when you try to remove 4x4 ceramic tiles and formica that were installed in 1963! Let's just say it ain't pretty!
Rebecca
