My Kitchen Circa 1956

Ok, so the kitchen below not really my kitchen. My kitchen was last updated when Ronald Reagan was in the White House; I'm guessing my kitchen is really circa 1986. But I often wonder what my kitchen did look like in 1956. Call me strange nostalgic, I've been tempted to peek in my neighbors homes when I'm walking the dog. However, I really don't want to be the nosey person who lives in the grey house. No one wants to be the nosey neighbor.


Any who, I was driving my son to his school when I drove past our house for rent: Remember we have a 1956 tract house. I noticed the sign in the yard belonged to the property management company my sister works for. I called my sister and asked her to let me see the inside of the house (beg is more like it). She happily agreed, lucky for me my sister doesn’t think it’s odd, I want see to the kitchen & and floors etc.


The house is really cute; my sister said it rented in less than one week; I made a mental note if we ever buy a bigger house and rent our current house out. We walked through the front door and I had hardwood floor envy, the original 1956 floors had been refinished a light brown. Refinishing our floors is still on our To Do List.


I walked into the kitchen/dining room and was transported back to 1956. Even though I was in 1956, the kitchen was so charming. All the cabinets were painted a charming yellow, the tile counters look better than mine! (You saw a sneak peek of our awful white tile and BROWN grout counters in this post)

Even though this kitchen is old, it has modern day style we see in alot of updated homes: The Bridge Wall Mounted Faucet. If you buy an updated version of this faucet from Kohler except to pay over $700.00. Back with a vengeance in most kitchens are undermount sinks either in stainless steal or procelain.



It's nice to find older homes with lighting over the sink, I drop down pendant would create instant style. I can't wait to find the perfect one from our kitchen.



Over 50 years later open shelves in a kitchens are still popular. I love the look of this kitchens open shelf - Amazing



This is hassle, a roll away dishwasher, not cute and I'm sure very messy! Thankfully we have a dishwasher, its not cute but it works for now.



I'd say this kitchen is more of a cottage county kitchen --- But I will say all the Wall Paper made me dizzy. The wallpaper covered every inch of the kitchen and dining room which is a really small space and made everything look even smaller. And even though wallpaper is back in vogue, I'm not a huge fan.



So there you have it, what my kitchen would have look like in the 1950's. I would like to think I would been more progressive and had pink appliances.

{ My kitchen has a very simular layout, except it's a little bit larger and you can see I'm lacking alot of counter space }

Chalk It Up to Dining

I wanted to add a bit of whismy to an empty wall in our dining room, so I thought the perfect addition would be a Chalk Board. I've seen some amazing chalk boards on these blogs: here, here and here. I knew I wanted the chalk board to be large and the frame had to be pretty.

Mr. CHL and I agreed we didn't want a black chalk board - we thought black would be to harsh in the room. Instead we wanted a dark gray chalk board plus I didn't want a bunch of leftover chalkboard paint. I googled diy chalk board paint colors, when I came across a great how to from Martha Stewart. Thanks to the amazing Martha you can have a chalk board in any color your heart desires.

We got a flat sample of Behr paint in Dark Pencil - I love this color very rich deep gray. The sample paint is the perfect size for this project 7oz. Next we mixed two tablespoon with the paint untill it was nice and smooth. Think hot cocoa with no clumps. Mr CHL applied the paint to the glass using a sponge roller, nice thin coats. We let the paint dry ten mins between coats - and lightly sanded each coat (after it was dry). It took about 5 coats to reach perfection.  











Meanwhile Mr. CHL spray paint the frame a glossy white, next I applied three coats of glossy white to the frame



A lovely addition to our almost done dining room & I love the deep gray color, looks perfect with the walls








Supplies Needed for Chalk board paint

1 cup of flat paint (any color)
2 tablespoons of unsanded grout
Sponge roller

Project Breakdown

Frame:     $ 14.99 (I used a picture frame because they are cheaper then framed mirrors)
Paint:       $    2.99
Unsanded Grout: Free, had on hand (previous owners left misc grout our garage)
Primer: Free, had on hand

Total Cost: $ 17.98