Looking at vintage steel cabinets, am I making a good decision?

[volvoguy87]

There is a thread in the Shoppers' Square forum on some vintage steel kitchen cabinets. I have emailed the seller and am SERIOUSLY considering buying the whole set. I have no experience with vintage steel cabinets, however. I know that not all steel cabinets were created equal and I would like to know from folks here with more experience than I have if the ones I am considering are worth the effort.

The manufacturer is "American Kitchens" by AVCO. This is the same group that brought us D&M dishwashers.

I have read that St. Charles cabinets are the best, but how are these? I am renovating a historic home and would like to use these in my kitchen.
These cabinets are in Niles, Michigan, about 5 or so hours from Cincinnati so I hope they are worth the drive. If anyone wants to inspect them, I'd welcome the information as it's a very long drive just for an inspection trip.

What do you think, is this a good idea?
Dave

http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?46580

 

[danemodsandy]

Dave:

First off, even lousy steel cabinets are better than wood ones, IMHO.

These American Kitchen cabinets were, comparatively speaking, Chevy cabinets as opposed to Cadillac cabinets like St. Charles. Their paint jobs are not as heavy and meticulous, and the American Kitchen sink base my sister had in her first house when she bought it did not have much of anything inside the doors; they did not have the solid, quiet Rolls-Royce feel of expensive metal cabinets, which have a solid manufactured wood panel filling the inside of the doors. But American Kitchen stuff was far from the cheapest out there.

They're very decent cabinets, and once you've had metal cabinets of any brand, you hate going back to wood, trust me.

Buy them. BUY THEM.

 

[norgeway]

DITTO!!

Once you see how much more they hold and how easily they clean...you will wonder why on earth they are not made today!!!

 

[westie2]

Dave these are the cabinets that were in one of my grabd parents homes built in 1950.  They were great add still looked great in 1996 when grandmother was moved to nursing home and house was sold.  For the price and shape they are in can't beat them.  She used Jubilee only to clean keep with that smooth shine.  Her countertop was the Red Ice.

 

[pulltostart]

Dave,
I had a these cabinets in my last home, built in 1957, and there was nothing wrong about the quality. In all honesty, mine were slightly different in that the doors were wood-based with birch faces and the drawers had a copper finish, but they were the same construction. The kitchen badly needed updating but I just didn't have the heart to remove those cabinets, so I kept the kitchen unchanged.

lawrence

 

[volvoguy87]

Keep em' coming.

Who made GE's steel cabinets? I have seen some GE cabinets that have a glas-front that go underneath the upper cabinets. Some of those would be handy! I wonder if they would fit beneath my cabinets?

What other cabinets were made by AVCO? I think Crosley cabinets are AVCOs, but are there others?

What kinds of corner cabinets did AVCO produce? I've seen a lower cabinet lazy susan, a lower cabinet with a pull out narrow drawer, a blind lower cabinet, and a blind upper corner cabinet. My kitchen is small and I need every inch of storage space I can get, so a blind corner would be a big problem. If I know what name brands would be compatable with American Kitchens I can look around and possibly mix and match to come up with some better corner solutions.

Dave

 

[westie2]

Dave it looks to me to be two separate sets of base cabinets and tops with sinks.  The U shaped with the white countertop and then the green countertop one that looks to be one straight base cabinet.  Both together would give you plenty of cabinet space.  The corner units look to be nice to hold like potatoes and the one to the right is made to hold baking sheets.

 

[classiccaprice]

Why are the counters two different colors?  Green/White.  Did I miss something?

 

[norgeway]

GE Cabinets...

Were made by Republic Steel , My favorites were Morton, also sold by Kelvinator, they had sliding glass shelves with built in flourescent lighting.