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

Pam’s vintage Geneva kitchen, photo copyright Kit Latham

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. Galgo Steel Kitchens and Vanities — Mexico brand see reference here
27. GE
28. Geneva
29. Gennesee
30. Hallmark Custom Steel Kitchen Cabinets, manufactured in Wellsburg, W. Va. (added Jan. 2017)
31. Hotpoint
32. Harrison Steel Cabinet Co.
33. Hobart
34. Hoffman
35. Homart
36. Humphreys Manufacturing (#85, added August 2017)
    1. Brochure
37. J&L Steel
38. Jamestown
39. Jubilee
40. KBC
41. King
42. Kirby (Australia)
43. Kitchen Kraft
44. Kitchen Queen
45. Kelvinator
46. Kohler
47. Levitt
48. Lustron (The latest addition, as we suspect they made their own steel cabinets for their steel houses. Thanks, Jim!)
49. Lyon
50. Leisure Made
51. Marvel
52. Midwest Mfg. Company
53. Miller Metal Products, Inc.
54. Modern Steel Co., Geneva, Ill. *added 12/21/16
55. Montgomery Ward
    1. 1941 catalog of Montgomery Ward steel kitchen cabinets
56. Morgan Kitchen Cabinet 
57. Morhand Kitchens
58. Morton
59. Murray
    1. Advertising depiction
60. Olympia Aluminum Kitchen Kabinets
61. Palace
62. Palley Manufacturing Co.
63. Paul (U.K.)
64. Peerless-Mayer
65. Puritan 
66. RCA-Whirlpool
67. Regency
    1. 12-page catalog from the 1950s
68. Republic
69. Reynolds
70. Roberts & Mander Corp.
71. St. Charles
72. Servel, Inc.
73. Sears
74. Shirley All-Steel Kitchens and bathroom cabinets
    1. 1952 catalog and founder info
    2. Bathroom sink base and sink top spotted on craigslist
75. Signature
76. Stewart
77. Swanco
78. Thriftee
79. Tracy
80. Universal-Rundle
81. United Lifetime Kitchens
82. United Metal Cabinet Corp.
83. Westinghouse
84. Walters
85. The White House Line — early brand, precursor to St. Charles
    1. Story here
86. Whitehead Monel
87. Wood-Metal Kitchen Cabinets (added Jan. 2017)
88. Yorktown
89. 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.