Kitchen remodel: antique kitchens hide conveniences

If you want to restore an antique kitchen look to your historic home, you can do it without giving up safe, modern conveniences. Kitchens have changed more in the last 100 years than any room in the house, and those changes have ramped up safety while toning down the energy bills.

Elements needed for your kitchen remodel: antique kitchens have pieces like an old Hoosier baker's cabinet, sideboards, pie-keeper cabinets and a sturdy work table to use as an island. Salvage companies are a good source for reclaimed hardwood flooring.

Companies such as Elmira Stove Works and Heartland create refrigerators, free-standing stoves--including wood-burning--dishwasher door panels, wall ovens and microwave ovens in antique black--and other colors--with brass, nickel or copper trim. The appliances have modern bells and whistles from self-cleaning ovens to ice-cube makers. The ice man doesn't deliver any more, but Elmira and Heartland do!