I recently had to re-design my kitchen and I came up with the idea of making it a shrine to the kitchen of my youth. My parents had a lovely big warm kitchen which had everything I needed to make myself comfortable and enjoy lots of lovely snacks.
After I got to thinking about it and planning it for a while I came to the conclusion that my retro kitchen was actually going to be a modern kitchen after all.
The Layout
The kitchen in my old family home had a breakfast bar and a serving hatch in it. I tend to think of these as being old fashioned ideas but when I checked out the possibilities online I saw that these are actually common elements of cutting edge kitchens as well. All I need to do is use more modern materials such as chrome instead of the old rotted wood which formed part of our old kitchen.
The Decoration
A few years ago I would have laughed at the idea of putting up old fashioned wallpaper in my new kitchen. It was the one thing I hated about my parent’ kitchen and I vowed never to use it in my own home. However, wallpaper has become trendy lately, hasn’t it? I had a look at some of the best designs and must admit that I can’t now imagine my retro modern home without this on the walls. When it comes to the colours, it seems that the best and most popular kitchen colours never really go out of fashion. In the old days we had a blue and yellow colour scheme and that is still fine by me.
The Gadgets
This is one area where I can really get the look I am after without losing out on anything. The abundance of retro gadgets and appliances around these days means that it won’t be any problem getting a fridge, a radio or a coffee machine. What really got me excited thought was the thought of getting a new Soda stream machine. I had one of these as a kid and to be honest I thought they had stopped making them, as I hadn’t seen one for ages. Well, it turns out that not only do they still make them but that they now come in fashionable shapes and designs. I was so excited at this that I phoned up my sister (she was a bigger Soda Stream maniac than I was) and told her. It turns out she already has one and she told me that there are now flavours like passion fruit & mango to try as well. Now all I need is to dig out my old Smurfs record and the atmosphere will be complete.
Decorating a kitchen with retro devices such a soda stream or a retro style coffee machine can provide it with a modern look.