I call the theme "Great racks of the greatest generation"
Before (well, before we moved in...)
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Now:
This is above the stove and fridge. The plane is a Corgi Memphis Bell replica, and the calender was a gift from a friend who runs a game store- it was a promo for a WWII flying game.
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The curtains I made (which really need some trim or detail or something), and some photos I printed off the internet and framed. They're of the art from the Texas Ranger, Strawberry Bitch, and Dream Gal.
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The microwave cart I built from some 2x4s. it's made to fit over a nonfunctional radiator, so it had to be wide. The toaster cozie is vintage. The recycling is not.
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The counter I made from a couple discount-store (Big Lots) bookshelves, a varnished plank from Home Depot and some stick-on floor tiles. It's messy, we just made lunch before I took these. And yes, I use the apron hanging there.
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Above the counter... I love these signs. Like $7 each on ebay! I suspect the hooks will cost us a small bit of the security deposit, but it's worth it for the cabinet space they freed up and not to fight pans in and out of there every day.
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And these are some patches a friend of mine happened to have. Cheap dollar store frames (some of which broke on the walk home), and fabric scraps. They're in the doorway.
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And finally, my shoes, as requested by taz:
They're not peep-toed exactly, I don't know the term for the open bit there, though. Bonus swollen ankle!
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That is the coolest kitchen ever! Wow!!

I love it!

Great, great theme. As a 40s junkie myself (and a pinup lover too!) I absoutely dig it. And those shoes are cute/sweet/sexxay. A Navy E for Excellent!

Spiffy pad, kid.

Wow, that's great. Lovely shoes too.

Thanks! I was so amazed my roommate agreed to it, so I just ran wild. I still get things here and there, and an artist friend is making me a present for the kitchen (no idea what, but it involved taking various pictures of me), but for the most part it's done. The counter alone has made it 1000 times more fun to cook in, just because I'm not hunting for space everywhere.

I just get a bit edgy when people come over with their kids, it's tough to tell in the pics, but the place is absolutely not rated G. I don't know if cartoon nipples are PG or PG-13, but I do know my friend came over with his seven year old son this afternoon, and the boy's eyes nearly fell out of his head before we guided him into the much safer pre-raphialite dining room.

That's terrific!

It's great! I love the theme, and I love, love the black and white checkered floor. Someday I will have a black and white checkered floor.

I wanna see the Pre-Raphaelite dining room.

That is SO my favorite kind of artwork!

Awesome. Just be wary of the linoleum floor. My wife and I have exactly the same floor in the kitchen of our 1948 Cape Cod in Connecticut. It's gorgeous but requires herculean effort and hella cleaning supplies to keep it looking that way. Happy to offer you advice off line.

Gorgeous place! Congratulations!

Eh, the dining room isn't much, just a couple framed posters on the walls. It's mostly bookshelves and, as of late, my sewing supplies.

I'll do more with it once I paint the table, though.

Cool ideas in the kitchen, kellydamnit. Cute shoes, too. Here's a suggestion of a WWII classic poster that is kid safe. And you might consider a wall mounted pot rack at some point, to get the pots away from the wall.

I love the creativity you've put into this, and the work and attention to detail that you've displayed. The scale model of the Memphis Belle is great, as are items like the toaster cozy. Great job.

Yay, cute shoes! Yay, cool, cool kitchen!

I've had two kitchens with black and white checkered floors, and two kitchens with terrazzo floors now (among others that I don't remember). The black and white is ultracool, but yeah, a bitch to clean... Terrazzo is, like, what dirt? Ladidadida. The worst, worst, worst ever was my old all-white ceramic tile bathroom. I would wash it down with water from the shower nozzle (there was a drain in the floor) and exactly five seconds later, dirt would start showing up. Worst investment in cleaning possible. Never do white tile (we didn't choose it) unless you are a crazy person. Given my druthers, I'd have terracotta tile wherever I don't have wood floors.

What you want to do is get black privacy bars for all the breasts in the room. It will be like following the dotted line.

I don't know if cartoon nipples are PG or PG-13...

I just saw "cartoon nipples" and got all excited.

Isn't the Strawberry Bitch in the Dayton Museum in OH? I could swear I've seen her there. Hey, she is!

Holy cow that was worth it just for the toaster cover and blender alone!

OMG cool kitchen! My kitchen in my apartment in Boston (which I miss an *absurd* amount) had black-and-white checkerboard floors. I always wanted to get a couple of giant chess pieces as decoration, but I never got around to having the funds for sheer frivolity.

I just used a swiffer wet-jet on it to keep it clean. It seemed to work just fine.

I LOVE MY BLENDER.

No, seriously. It's the first time I've actually bought the kitchen appliance I wanted and not just the cheapest thing there. It wasn't a fortune or anything ($60 or so at Target, which means it cost more than everything save the stove and fridge), but the whole thing is steel and glass. It can turn an entire tray of ice cubes into snow in like 45 seconds.

And yes, the kitchen floor was what sold me on the apartment last summer and, in the nine months since, become the bane of my existence. Seriously, I wash that thing every single Sunday and it always looks like I've had a pack of rugby players over for a post-game drink.
I generally do random liquid cleaner, then diluted bleach when dry, then a coat of future (maybe two). Looks beautiful for about 48 hours. The biggest problem is, I think I'm the first person to actually take care of this floor in at least a decade, so there's a lot of damage to it. I was thinking of ripping out the damaged tiles and replacing them since just doing a couple wouldn't be too much, then I realized something like three quarters had significant damage. (cuts, burns, etc)
Plus, I'm nuts. I was raised in a house where you could eat off the floors. My mom was raised in a house where you could eat off the floors. So not having floors that are food-worthy makes me feel like some kind of failure.

Love the theme. I had to show it to Mr. V, as he's been talking about a pin-up as another tattoo. He loved it, too.
My friend had black vinyl flooring in her kitchen, too. It was made to look like marble, and it looked good, but she hated the upkeep. About a month ago she got laminate flooring in the dining room and kitchen instead. I couldn't believe how much bigger her tiny galley kitchen looked with the new flooring. Personally, I'd love real tiles, but currently that's a pipe dream.

I love it! I love the kitchen and the shoes!

And I think it would be cool if you named your kitchen something like the 351st Bomb Group Canteen, and collected a few pictures of the guys who really flew, to put up. I bet they'd be tickled to be remembered in a homey kitchen like yours, if you could ask them.

Those 8th Air Force units took some of the highest large unit casualty rates of the war, and it wouldn't have been won by the Allies, without their sacrifice.

That's a really good idea... I'll hit up my roommate for ideas, his dad's a WWII historian.
(he hasn't seen the kitchen yet)

Very nice, indeed. (I fear our kitchen's rather 1940s, too, only not in such a good way.)

What an awesome kitchen! You've done a wonderful job, KD.

What a fun kitchen! I would love to see the Pre-Raphaelite-themed room too! Do you dine with Waterhouse? He's my favourite of the lot. :)

Bitchin' kitchen, kd.

Somebody had to say it.