Tips to using the slide show: Click on the first thumbnail… the image will enlarge… move forward or back using arrows below the caption… you can start or stop at any image.
Can I describe the history of kitchens from 1946 to 1966 in the captions of 24 photos? Here is a cheerful cliffs-notes attempt that includes: Modular sink bases for thrifty farmhouse homemakers… The importance of sanitary kitchens… A short history of steel kitchen cabinets… The ubiquitous knotty pine… The brief popularity of pickled wood… Remembering 40″ stoves… Wishing for appliance centers… Wishing for drainboard sinks… Lingering over Mondrian kitchens… Celebrating coppertone… and more. Honestly, I can’t say which of these kitchens is “my favorite”. They each reflect a particular point in history, so in many cases it’s impossible to judge any one “better” than the next.
Love no. 14 and I wish I could completely recreate no. 20 in my house.
#21 was one of the models for the kitchen remodel we did. Note: that laminate IS our laminate. We totally went for the red walls, green lower cabinets and wood upper cabinets in this picture. I love the look of this.
(NOTE TO SELF: take photos of finished kitchen and send to Pam! My daughter has this idea of dressing up in 60s clothes and posing in the photos, but it’s been hard to wrangle everybody in the house in one place!!)
Number 10–the American Kitchens Pioneer in Coppertone–was the kitchen of my youth. Our house was a custom built MCModest (designed by my Mom) not Early American, but it still worked. Mom always said you should build a house, live in it for a few years, then tear it down and do all the things you should have done the first time. However, my parents lived in that house the way it was, for 30 years.
Hey Pam…Picture #8 is very similar to the 1963 kitchen pic that I sent you. I think that pic #22 is more 1950′s since the father is wearing a hat. I like this pic….Dad is home and his daughter is happy as he holds her up and mother is happily watching them as she prepares a pot of coffee. Notice how one of her legs is up.
I can’t get the Home Depot ad to close and it covers the pictures!!
try scrolling down a bit then starting. i think this is an issue – depending on your browser and java (keep them all updated)
I choose #11 — love that color combo! #12 is great too.
No question….#14. Love it. Unfortunately, my current kitchen bears absolutely no resemblance what so ever.
Ironically, Lynn, mine does look quite a bit like 14 and I’d so much rather have number 2.
Number two is for me too!
Number 7 is the closest match to my kitchen, but I never considered a red counter top with the teal and yellow color scheme. Interesting!
Pam,
how far have you gone into vintage dishwashers? I was google imaging “double bowl, double drainboard sink” which I <3 when I came across some pics for vintage dishwashers.
To be honest, I never really considered them as an option as I guess I assumed most vintage small appliances break down. But now I think I will look into them when I get my own kitchen as it will complete the look and save me from hand washing. yuck.
See what I found-
http://www.automaticwasher.org/cgi-bin/TD/TD-VIEWTHREAD.cgi?25871
Thanks, Lindsey.
Well, technically I was googling – “vintage youngstown kitchenaider”
But I was drooling over the double bowl/double drainboards that came up.
I love the oven on #21. I saw one at an estate sale in a very modest neighborhood of midcentury houses. Wish they still made ‘em.
Great survey. I love the march through the years approach. You’re ready for the lecture circuit with this group.
You mentioned Modernfold Doors in #12: I have seen them in older kitchens. In fact, a friend of ours has one in his 1946 kitchen and though I don’t think it was original equipment, it has definitely been there a long time!
Just looking at the photos again and I think the “lady’ in the pink dress, number 20, is actually a teenage girl. Hard to imagine today, I know, but I do remember being a clone of her’s for a few years then the beat went on ;o).
Is the lady or teenage girl or whoever in #20 painting a still life of those yellow flowers?
Thanks for sharing! I love each one of these!!
Yes, thank you Pam. They are all lovely… it’s always nice to dream!
Love # 2, # 3, and # 10. I think if I was replicating one of those, it would probably be # 3, but not in red, white, and blue. More like 30′s cream, black, blood red, and jadite green
Thanks for the photo show!
Tami
Great images, Pam! Re: your comment on stoves in #4, I know there were “gas on gas” stoves that included heaters, but I think that the tradition of 40″ ranges comes more from the work surface and storage that these stoves provided. More often than not, the extra room provided a storage cabinet for pots and pans. The extra space atop the stove served as a work surface and a heat-resistant place to move pots and pans, when counters most likely would have been linoleum and not heat-friendly.
Up to the 50s, it was possible to find stoves even in a 60″ configuration, usually marketed to people with lots of money who did large-scale entertaining. In gas stoves, those big sizes accommodated multiple ovens or broilers, which was important, since broilers were not part of the main oven.
Quite often, features would increase with price. A 40″ range at the bottom of the line might have one storage drawer on the side and perhaps one on the bottom. Next up might feature two drawers on the bottom and one on the side. A step from there might give you a deep well cooker and the side door being a warming drawer. I have a 1956 GE range with two ovens. It’s the top-of-the-line “Liberator” and the second oven is a very welcome feature, as is that work space next to the burners.
Thank you for the additional commentary, Paul. You could well be right!
I love your selection of images of kitchens Pam…they always make me feel happy! I have been meaning to draw your attention to a movie that is in the “free on demand” category on Verizon Fios right now (don’t know if eveyrone in the country can get that). It’s called “Divorce American Style” starring Dick van Dyke and Debbie Reynolds, filmed in mid 1960′s and there is some great home interior (and even some office interior) eye-candy in the movie (including a Mondrian kitchen). (Plus a rather humorous approach to dealing with divorce and alimony)
Thanks, Alice — I’ll check it out. Hey: Good to hear from you!!!
We just caught this movie on TCM the other night! I was just drooling over the house, it’s fantastic. The kitchen really was incredible!
A friend and I saw “The Help” over the weekend, and I don’t know what had me more in a head-spinning tizzy: the cars, the homes & decor or the clothes.
Another bright, cheery start to my day! Thanks so much!
According to my grandmother, who lived in California in the ’60s, a lot of people had pink or yellow, or turquoise kitchens, with matching appliances. She describes it as being a California thing, so its possible that some of this was regional, or at least more likely to show up in areas with lots of new housing.
Grandma also had a neighbor, during this period, who had redone her kitchen cabinets with a faux-finish where the ‘knotty pine’ pattern was white on a pale pink background. to match the pink walls, pink and white tile and pink appliances.
My kitchen was originally painted pink, I don’t know for certain what the original cabinets looked like because the kitchen was redone sometime in the early 1970′s. Based on my neighbor who has the original cabinets in her kitchen, and pantry and linen closet doors, my guess is that they were blonde wood with flying V pulls.The ’70′s re-do featured dark cabinets, avacado green linoleum, and brown walls. /
Katie – You may be correct in this theory. Our home in the Los Angeles area was built in 1961 and originally had turquoise stove top, hood & ovens. Very spiffy. I remember others with pink and yellow kitchens.
My grandparents had modernfold doors (or something very similar) in their summer cottage when I was a child. They didn’t really seem all that practical. They are too thin to provide much privacy and frequently got jammed or came off their tracks, although they may have just been showing their age, as this was in the 80s.
Pam, this is an awesome post, thank you! You must have seen my plaintive tweets Sunday about the kitchen in our new house…LOL
I adore #2. It reminds me of the cheery retro kitchen we created in our last home, though it was definitely more in the patriotic spirit of #3 with turquoise walls, white cabinets and red accessories.
You need to write a book about this stuff. You’re collecting little pieces of our history.
That wonderful double wall oven in #21 is the oven portion of a Frigidaire ‘Flair’ Imperial range, I believe. They’re usually a full one-piece range with a pull-out cooktop in the lower half… I never knew they made separate wall ovens! Gawd, I’d love to have that.
Note to Pam: a local TV station just started running the old “Perry Mason” TV series with Raymond Burr, and I think of you every time they show the interior of Perry’s legal office — the whole thing is paneled in pecky cypress!
We haven’t seen much of that lately, have we?
Probably not really noticed by others, but I saw a couple ads that look like Club Aluminum saucepans were on the stove….that is another mid-century love of mine, Club Aluminum cookware, often in pastels or avocado colors……..I just purchased a 1 quart saucepan on eBay last week.
Oh yeah! Wouldn’t #4 have been so modern looking in the fifties. Personally I love the white metal cabinets. Maybe too sterile for some but just seems clean and crisp to me.
Number 2. Streamline all the way!
I found a built in similar to the Fridgidaire in the pic at an estate sale in Arapahoe Acres yesterday. I was *this* close to saving it for my own kitchen! I’m sort of regretting not picking it up.
Wow, Pam! We just took out a “Modernfold” door. It was between our two back bedrooms…and bright yellow (like the bedroom walls.) While we loved it in theory, say if one had 2 kids who might want to connect and play sometimes, and have their privacy at others…we felt that a wall would better suit our needs. We have the door if any of your readers are interested…thanks for sharing! Holly
Great Pictures!! Love that old advertising.
We just bought a 1961 house, that’s darn close to being a time capsule. Our kitchen looks very much like #8, as far as lay out and cabinetry goes. There was a renovation in the ’70′s and they removed the wall oven and replaced it with a terrific ’70s Frigidaire range with a cool and useful “Heat Minder” burner. I am sure it’s going to be a bear to fix if it ever goes… sigh. I love that my house is very stylish, but in a way unlike most others.
These pictures brought back great memories!! About 20 years ago I lived in a post-war kit house outside Washington, DC. The kitchen there had original steel cabinets, porcelain sink with drainboards and a big beautiful old stove. I LOVED that kitchen… it was so convenient to work in and using a magnet to hold your recipe card at eye level was super handy!
Kitchens used to be such happy spaces with color and light. Now they are dark with dark woods and rock (granite), steel and greige. When did we get so cold and humorless?
image 12: we have two modernfold doors in our house, and one is off the kitchen. If only they were pink!!!!!! Kitchen was last updated in the 50s, and I guess these doors were marketed up here in Western Maine, LOL!