Two 1948 kitchens in Mary and Duane’s time capsule house

Mary and Duane’s 1948 time capsule house is a sweet little Cape Cod. Quintessentially post-war New England, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a Royal Barry Wills. I need to go through all my books and see if I can find the plan — wouldn’t that be something? Oh. I’m writing about the kitchens. Yes: This house may be small — but this house is mighty! There is an original kitchen downstairs… and a second equally useful kitchen upstairs. Both have original vintage steel cabinets — and more. 

The main kitchen downstairs:

The downstairs kitchen is most notable for its fantastic stainless steel combination countertop + double sinks + backsplash. This must have been SOMETHING back in the day! Remember, the original owner was a plumbing contractor, we are told, so we see lots of little extra something in this house. 

This is my third story on Mary and Duane’s house. The other two:

• The gorgeous glamorous green and black bathroom.
• The cutie-pie upstairs bathroom, brown and yellow.

The original metal cabinets remain. I can’t identify the maker on sight, I might be able to find these in my vintage marketing materials. Don’t hold your breath, though, my piles have piles. 

No more photos of this kitchen. The rest of the space is taken up by a small kitchen table ‘where I’m standing while taking this photo’. As you can see, the original flooring is still in place, and the stove and refrigerator have been updated.

But wait til you see…

The upstairs kitchen: 

Above: An original steel sink cabinet unit with dual-drainboard enameled sink. 

To the left of the sink, a vintage Universal stove!

To the right of the sink: A cute little vintage GE refrigerator.

To the right of the refrigerator, there’s a door to storage in the attic eaves. But lookie close: There’s a can opener attached to the door frame!

Photo dump:

Note: A while back, I did a lot of research going through brochures. The most popular color for countertops in the 1940s, I decided: Black. These countertops are some sort of plastic or vinyl or… ? … mashup. They are not laminate.

Floor is original. Molly let me help her choose colors for new paint in various parts of the house. In this room, I recommended a beige that was found in the floor tile (she wanted something neutral). The new color looks very nice!

Bonus photos: Vintage Maytag in the mudroom downstairs. Doggonit: Even the washers were prettier back then!

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