Fate may sometimes match the right owners with the right house. Though a 1950s split-level home on a quiet cul-de-sac in a western suburb had seen better days, it captivated a young couple for several reasons while they eyed it over a seven-year period. It had classic 1950s horizontal lines with a large picture window, through which they spied a piano. The wife had majored in music in college and worked as an administrator for a symphony orchestra. There was also a time warp surrounding the house that they found intriguing. An important Frank Lloyd Wright home stood on one side, and the street’s other 1950s houses had been left basically intact by their owners.
When the house came on the market at a price they could afford, the couple grabbed it and returned it to its prime condition. In remodeling the kitchen, the couple asked kitchen expert Michael De Giulio for a functional, aesthetic design that would respect the decade’s styling, materials and icons without re-creating its funkier diner-style look.
“The inspiration was more the entire early-design movement. We started with antiques but began to collect modern furniture like Eames,” the husband says. “We were interested in a room with a period essence that would be practical.”
The wife concurs: “We wanted to go more modern, but because it was an experiment, we anchored our choices with traditional elements such as 4-inch Colonial baseboard molding and casement windows.”
The choices that De Giulio and the couple made met their goals while also allowing artistic liberties where necessary. White acrylic cabinets rim the perimeter of the room, some with pebbled glass panels and chrome frames. A Lazy Susan, a convenience that became popular in the ’50s, was constructed in a recess in a backsplash near the range to store spices. Cabinet pulls were made with round glass backplates topped by chrome handles.
The couple initially requested red laminate countertops to play up a Mondrian hue, a favorite artist, but the reds they found were too shiny or prone to scratch. On countertops that rim the room, they substituted black granite. While not true to the period, that surface provides a crisp foil to the white cabinetry.
A curving center island and dining table, both of which reflect the era’s fascination with amoeboid shapes, are topped by terrazzo with tiny specks of white and chips of glass. The table has stainless-steel tapered legs and is surrounded by chrome and mesh chairs from Knoll’s Bertoia collection.
A tiled backsplash near the main cooking area echoes Mondrian’s palette and geometry, and its 2-inch squares are typical of the decade. Because recessed light spots just being introduced in the ’50s and not a popular motif, De Giulio used the more prevalent over- and under-cabinet tubes and a large geometric fixture handcrafted of stainless steel and bent maple by Timothy G. Cozzens. Warm white bulbs within cast fluorescent light, also popular in the ’50s.
Although linoleum would have been more appropriate than the maple flooring selected, the designer thought that was one surface that should be more practical than authentic because of the couple’s young child, with another on the way. “It also offered a light feeling. It wasn’t totally out of place. Houses in the ’20s and ’30s had maple floors, even if not in kitchens,” De Giulio says.
Appliances reflect the latest advances. “We’re not that nostalgic,” the wife says. A commercial cooktop with four burners and grille/griddle sits in a prominent spot, under a custom-designed stainless-steel hood that recalls the contours of the era’s most elegantly designed cars.
RESOURCES: Kitchen design: By Michael de Giulio Kitchen Design; Greg Webb, project manager; construction: Kaepplinger Builders, Lake Bluff; appliances: 48-inch SubZero refrigerator-freezer; Thermador Professional Series range; Miele dishwasher; undermounted Franke sinks. Appiani tiles at Ann Sacks Tile & Stone; cabinets and pulls by SieMatic; cabinet lights by Alcko; Custom-designed light fixture by Timothy G. Cozzens; Bertoia chairs at Knoll International. Kitchen styling by Barbara Pierson.
