The Retro Renovation® Encyclopedia of Vintage Steel Kitchen Cabinets

From Ace & Acme to Yorktown & Youngstown:
Our guide to 80 82 83 84 85 86  85+ brands of metal kitchen
cabinets made after World War II

NOTE: I am in the process of working to integrate all existing research on to this page –it’s gonna take a while!

The product that started it all — the blog, that is: Vintage steel kitchen cabinets. I wanted to renovate my kitchen. Vintage steel kitchen cabinets entered my consciousness. I went on a five-year quest to find a set. Along the way I also obsessively researched how to put a 1950s-1960s kitchen together. When I was all done, it turned out so well that I started the blog to share what I had learned. In my cabinet-quest, I already had identified many brands of steel kitchen cabinets made back in the day. And in the years since — very often with the help of readers — we have identified a total of 80+ different brands of metal kitchen cabinets built before, during but most after World War II — mostly steel, mostly in the U.S.

First up, please read:

• A short history of steel kitchen cabinets – history, design and FAQs

Then dive in:

8O+ brands of metal kitchen cabinets — pretty amazing, huh!

1. Ace
2. Acme Metal Products Corp.
3. Admiral
4. Alden
5. American
6. American-Standard
   1. “Standard” was the original or earlier name of the company (perhaps Standard merged with American? I don’t know the history). See this 1938 catalog of Standard kitchen cabinets — in colors!
7. American Central Division
8. Ampco
   1. More research required: This may be the same company as Regency/Quality e.e. Alabama Metal Products
9. Anemone Kitchen Furnishings (U.K.)
   1. Brochure
10. Art Metal Cabinets
11. Beautycraft Custom
    1. Made by Miller Metal Product, Baltimore. Yellow set here.
    2. Green set here
12. Beauty Queen
13. Berger
    1. See my Berger Steel Cabinets for Kitchens catalog from 1949. This company was owned by Republic Steel. Berger steel kitchen cabinets may subsequently have been subsumed by Republic Steel Kitchen cabinets.
14. Blietz Construction, Chicago; maybe; (added per spotting by Jim, Sept. 2016) 
15. Briggs Beautyware
16. Capitol
17. Columbia
18. Cox
19. Crane
20. Crosley
21. Dieterich Steel Cabinet Corp.
22. Dupont-Dulux
23. Elgin
24. English Rose (U.K.)(Aluminium)
25. Frigidaire
26. GE
27. Geneva
28. Gennesee
29. Hallmark Custom Steel Kitchen Cabinets, manufactured in Wellsburg, W. Va. (added Jan. 2017)
30. Hotpoint
31. Harrison Steel Cabinet Co.
32. Hobart
33. Hoffman
34. Homart
35. Humphreys Manufacturing (#85, added August 2017)
    1. Brochure
36. J&L Steel
37. Jamestown
38. Jubilee
39. KBC
40. King
41. Kirby (Australia)
42. Kitchen Kraft
43. Kitchen Queen
44. Kelvinator
45. Kohler
46. Levitt
47. Lustron (The latest addition, as we suspect they made their own steel cabinets for their steel houses. Thanks, Jim!)
48. Lyon
49. Leisure Made
50. Marvel
51. Midwest Mfg. Company
52. Miller Metal Products, Inc.
53. Modern Steel Co., Geneva, Ill. *added 12/21/16
54. Montgomery Ward
    1. 1941 catalog of Montgomery Ward steel kitchen cabinets
55. Morgan Kitchen Cabinet 
56. Morhand Kitchens
57. Morton
58. Murray
    1. Advertising depiction
59. Olympia Aluminum Kitchen Kabinets
60. Palace
61. Palley Manufacturing Co.
62. Paul (U.K.)
63. Peerless-Mayer
64. RCA-Whirlpool
65. Regency
    1. 12-page catalog from the 1950s
66. Republic
67. Reynolds
68. Roberts & Mander Corp.
69. St. Charles
70. Servel, Inc.
71. Sears
72. Shirley All-Steel Kitchens and bathroom cabinets
    1. 1952 catalog and founder info
    2. Bathroom sink base and sink top spotted on craigslist
73. Signature
74. Stewart
75. Swanco
76. Thriftee
77. Tracy
78. Universal-Rundle
79. United Lifetime Kitchens
80. United Metal Cabinet Corp.
81. Westinghouse
82. Walters
83. The White House Line — early brand, precursor to St. Charles
    1. Story here
84. Whitehead Monel
85. Wood-Metal Kitchen Cabinets (added Jan. 2017)
86. Yorktown
87. Youngstown

Note: In my compendium, I do not include companies that seemed only to have made single-unit items. That is, some companies made steel hoosier cabinets… some made only a sink base with sink… and companies like Dwyer made apartment kitchen combos. I don’t include these — I want to focus on companies that made complete kitchens with lots of mix-and-match models that you could order in bulk to fill out a typical family fitted kitchen. In this sense, I should probably not include Lustron on the big list above, as it was bespoke only for Lustron houses; I may take out of the list at some point — or perhaps make and put it into a supplementary list along with the other such units described in this section; pondering.

Read more:

• Our complete steel kitchen cabinet category
• BE SAFE / RENOVATE SAFE — get informed when using vintage products.
• Note, we’ve featured one reader, Melita, who used steel cabinets made today — from Moya Living
• Another company — Toro Kitchen Cabinets — has entered the market, putting powder-coated steel doors onto wood cabinets.