Retro Vintage Kitchen Upgrade – Adrienne Breaux Adrienne BreauxHouse Tour Director Adrienne loves architecture, design, cats, science fiction and watching “Star Trek.” For the past 10 years, she has called home: a van, a former downtown store in small-town Texas, and a studio apartment rumored to have once been owned by Willie Nelson. She currently lives in her colorful, maximalist dream home in New Orleans, Louisiana, with her partner, a perfect dog and a cute cat. Follow Lauren Murphy Lauren Murphy Updated January 2, 2024
We independently select the products – if you buy from one of our links, we may earn a commission. All prices are accurate at the time of publication.
Retro Vintage Kitchen Upgrade
One of the most common reasons why homeowners renovate their kitchen is because the space feels outdated. Design details like linoleum flooring, backsplash tiles and wall paint colors
Home Design Ideas: A Beach Cottage Kitchen Gets A Fun, Retro Look
But retro kitchens don’t have to be replaced with something ultra-modern if you like their kitschy appeal. While the word retro
Referring to items that are no longer in style, it can also mean “preloved,” or vintage with sentimental or historical value. By accepting the retro roots of your kitchen, you can create a cohesive home that is a blend of your personality and the structure of the house.
Taking on an expensive renovation using popular materials and fixtures saves you money, and installing pre-loved items or purchasing retro and second-hand elements is much more affordable than buying new. And if you’re worried that leaning into your kitchen’s vintage roots means sacrificing style, these 30 retro and retro-inspired kitchens will prove otherwise.
We’re absolutely obsessed with the bold yellow counter and backsplash tiles in this Australian home. The bright tile gives the kitchen a mid-century feel, while the natural brick walls make the entire home seamlessly retro.
Updated Vintage Kitchen
Installing patterned tile flooring in your kitchen is a great way to give your space retro vibes while keeping it a little minimal and sleek. Go for a subtly patterned tile that matches the rest of your kitchen’s aesthetic, like the stunning light blue flooring in this Amsterdam house.
Earth tones are central to mid-century modern design. Because natural colors are so popular in this era, incorporating natural browns and greens will make your retro kitchen stand out. We were so inspired by the earth tones and retro touches included in this Australian kitchen that we included it in the list twice!
The stark contrast in this Colorado cabin is a vibe. Dark walls, white cabinets and vintage appliances make the room look delightfully retro, while the wooden ceiling beams give it warmth. And we can’t ignore the ornately carved column by the kitchen island – what a stunning retro touch.
Globe lights are a major highlight of mid-century design, as seen in this Texas home. When designing your own retro kitchen, consider adding funky light fixtures over the island to give the space a modern retro feel. To make it feel even more retro, take notes from the homeowners who have embraced retro-looking wood wall panels.
Custom Kitchen Remodeling Blog
This Parisian apartment is straight out of the 1950s and we can’t get over it. Funky patterned wallpaper and a unique teapot hanging light fixture make this otherwise simple kitchen pop and give it tons of visual interest.
When it comes to interior design, the term “retro” is practically synonymous with color. Reds, greens, yellows – we love it all. Want to add color to your retro kitchen? Take inspiration from the owners of this Australian house who painted their cabinets a lovely shade of red.
The renters hit the jackpot when they found this amazing LA house that is dripping with vintage vibes and old charm. Take this retro kitchen for example, which shows off dark red countertop and backsplash tiles along with dark wood cabinets. While we love light and bright kitchens, the dark colors here really work together for a chic space.
If you do not want to communicate with dark colors in your retro kitchen, keep the candles light. Artists Cisco Merel and Barbara Cartier designed their Panama home around retro features that were already there when they bought it, like stunning white countertops and wall tiles in the kitchen. They painted their cabinets a light shade to complement the tiles and brighten things up.
Antique, Vintage, Retro And Modern Decor In Your Midcentury Home: Where To Find It.
Opting for pastels in an otherwise updated kitchen is a simple and beautiful way to give it a retro feel. We love how @homeofcharl not only used pastel paint, but pretty pastel pink tiles to give a touch of bygone kitsch to her adorable Anglesey, UK home.
Another easy-breezy way to bring retro vibes into the kitchen is by filling it with plants and placing them in hanging macrame planters. Designed by deVOL Kitchens in the UK, this dreamy kitchen has a balance of vintage-inspired and modern touches to create an Insta-worthy cooking space.
Whether you love bringing as much color to a room as possible or prefer neutrals, we love this design idea from Dear Saturdays’ Christine Han. While renovating her Brooklyn kitchen housed in a century-old building, she created a one-of-a-kind kitchen mosaic tile pattern that brings a bit of retro cool to the light-drenched space.
Marble countertops may have ruled the design world for decades, but we’re noticing a return to Formica countertops in modern and retro kitchens. We found the perfect example in a 1960s-inspired English cottage that rocks some cheerful yellow Formica countertops in the kitchen.
Charming Vintage Kitchen Designs
Lighting is often the last thing we consider when renovating or simply redecorating a kitchen, but it is an essential element to think through. We love Laura Olden’s retro-inspired fixtures that feel right at home in a 1970s home designed by Fred Blacksmith. They instantly brighten up the room and ensure that your midnight snacking adventures will always be well-lit.
Nothing can transport a room into another era like bold colors and patterns with a retro spin, like the amazing retro kitchen makeover in this remodeled Alameda, California house, designed by Abigail Braden of August Interiors. The “before” of this kitchen was the definition of outdated: old tiles, old floors, and a sad color palette. Instead of ripping everything out to start over, the designer and the homeowners decided to paint the existing vintage cabinets a bold blue, reupholster a vintage dinette set with a bright yellow, and install cute, retro-inspired patterns on the curtains and tiles.
Depending on which era you’re trying to emulate with your kitchen design, chances are that look will be helped along by a retro-inspired color palette. Sometimes, a retro color can even be the main source of retro vibes, as in this Australian mod beach shack. The kitchen’s vintage cabinets got an adorable DIY update with a pastel color palette.
The power of a curated grouping or two of retro-inspired and vintage accessories can supplement a retro color palette, as in this mid-mod Asheville, North Carolina apartment. Although this renter painted her kitchen’s walls pink, the idea of using retro-inspired accessories to bring retro color into your kitchen is useful for renters who can’t paint their walls.
Kitchen Renovation Retro Background, Kitchen, Decoration, Vintage Background Image And Wallpaper For Free Download
While looking for vintage accessories in retro colors to add a historical spin to your kitchen, be sure to look for retro patterns as well. Plenty of old and contemporary kitchen accessories like mugs, tea pots, tea towels and more have retro patterns that would set the tone of your room, like in this creative Australian home.
If you want a modern kitchen upgrade for aesthetic or functional reasons, but want to honor your home’s retro roots, you can actually lean on just one very recognizable retro item. This low-key retro style Melbourne house has a great example with its minimal and modern kitchen, with a recognizable mid-century sunburst wall clock.
Whether you’re dealing with an older kitchen that needs new life, or you’ve made some small updates that are vintage inspired, a strong accessories game can push your kitchen’s look over the top. You can splurge for second-hand accessories on a budget or support contemporary artists with a vintage aesthetic and incorporate items that have older color palettes, retro-inspired patterns or a combination of both. This Australian retro beach home is an example of a strong accessories game.
This 1970s Australian house really embraces its roots by going full retro style in every room of the home, kitchen included. But while the colors, patterns in the accessories and even plants give it a vintage vibe, it also shows how powerful a pop of green can be in a room to make it feel peaceful and inviting.
Retro Glam Kitchen Renovation Details • Pmq For Two
Sometimes what a kitchen with “outdated” elements needs is a step back. By paring down what you already have, keeping accessories to a minimum, and finding colors that complement the existing vintage elements, you can turn an “outdated” kitchen into a gorgeous retro space, as shown in this beautiful cookspace by Alexa Chambers.
You can always go in the opposite direction. Rather than keeping things minimal with just a few retro elements, go all out. Embrace maximalism! Like the cute couple in this Oakland apartment, you can absolutely stuff your kitchen with a collection of vintage items to achieve a fun retro look.
If your kitchen has room for furniture, vi
Vintage retro kitchen accessories, retro upgrade hair straightener, vintage retro kitchen wall clocks, retro vintage kitchen appliances, vintage retro kitchen cupboard, vintage retro kitchen chairs, retro vintage kitchen, vintage retro kitchen table, vintage retro kitchen cabinet, retro vintage kitchen decor, vintage retro kitchen curtains, vintage retro kitchen canisters