From Ace & Acme to Yorktown & Youngstown:
Our guide to 80 82 83 84 85 86 80+ 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:
Then dive in:
8O+ brands of metal kitchen cabinets — pretty amazing, huh!
- Ace
- Acme Metal Products Corp.
- Admiral
- Alden
- American
- American-Standard
- “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!
- American Central Division
- Ampco
- More research required: This may be the same company as Regency/Quality e.e. Alabama Metal Products
- Anemone Kitchen Furnishings (U.K.)
- Art Metal Cabinets
- Beautycraft Custom
- Made by Miller Metal Product, Baltimore. Yellow set here.
- Green set here
- Beauty Queen
- Berger
- Blietz Construction, Chicago; maybe; (added per spotting by Jim, Sept. 2016)
- Briggs Beautyware
- Capitol
- Columbia
- Cox
- Crane
- Crosley
- Dieterich Steel Cabinet Corp.
- Dupont-Dulux
- Elgin
- English Rose (U.K.)(Aluminium)
- Frigidaire
- GE
- Geneva
- Gennesee
- Hallmark Custom Steel Kitchen Cabinets, manufactured in Wellsburg, W. Va. (added Jan. 2017)
- Hotpoint
- Harrison Steel Cabinet Co.
- Hobart
- Hoffman
- Homart
- Humphreys Manufacturing (#85, added August 2017)
- J&L Steel
- Jamestown
- Jubilee
- KBC
- King
- Kirby (Australia)
- Kitchen Kraft
- Kitchen Queen
- Kelvinator
- Kohler
- Levitt
- Lustron (The latest addition, as we suspect they made their own steel cabinets for their steel houses. Thanks, Jim!)
- Lyon
- Leisure Made
- Marvel
- Modern Steel Co., Geneva, Ill. *added 12/21/16
- Morton
- Midwest Mfg. Company
- Morgan Kitchen Cabinets
- Murray
- Miller Metal Proucts, Inc.
- Morhand Kitchens
- Montgomery Ward
- Olympia Aluminum Kitchen Kabinets
- Palace
- Palley Manufacturing Co.
- Paul (U.K.)
- Peerless-Mayer
- RCA-Whirlpool
- Regency
- Republic
- Reynolds
- Roberts & Mander Corp.
- St. Charles
- Servel, Inc.
- Sears
- Shirley All-Steel Kitchens and bathroom cabinets
- Signature
- Stewart
- Swanco
- Thriftee
- Tracy
- Universal-Rundle
- United Lifetime Kitchens
- United Metal Cabinet Corp.
- Westinghouse
- Walters
- The White House Line — early brand, precursor to St. Charles
- Whitehead Monel
- Wood-Metal Kitchen Cabinets (added Jan. 2017)
- Yorktown
- 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.
A vintage 1956 English Rose kitchen – including REVO oven 
Ondrea and James’ English Rose kitchen: Two sets refurbished into one joyful remodel! 
English Rose-vintage-style kitchen cabinets from John Lewis of Hungerford 
One of the last St. Charles steel kitchens? 
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Just noticed that Holly Golightly’s kitchen has metal cabinets in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” Couldn’t tell which manufacturer.
I have a Beauty Queen metal sink base cabinet with a porcelian drain board sink. We are in the process of renovating our kitchen and have removed all of the wood cabinets. We’re not sure if we want to restore the sink base since it’s rusted through on one side and the bottom has a lot of rust too. We plan to have the sink restored because I love that old sink so much.
wonderful!!! thank you for all of your hard work!
I need hinges for my United Lifetime Cabinets. Anybody know where to get them? HELP
Soooo many brands, and this is a rare one. I don’t have answers on the hinges questions.
When we purchased our cabin, it came with a steel base cabinet. The sink is recessed on top (not a porcelain top) . The only name or identifying information I can find on it is “Blackhawk” on a large name plate across the front. I didn’t see Blackhawk on your list of cabinets and Google hasn’t been of any help to me. Has anyone heard of Blackhawk? Is it a model and not a manufacturer? Any information would be appreciated.
Thank you
I’ve never heard of this. If you contact me, we can connect and I can have you send a photo. I think some companies may have made just sink bases – not complete cabinet lines. https://retrorenovation.com/contact-retro-renovation/
Thank you! I will get photos this weekend and send them to you.
You sound like a great resource. We have several brands of vintage metal cabinets that we have been installing in our house. We are missing several of the ball stud catches as well as the piece they fit into (whatever that’s called). Any suggestions on where to find replacements parts. I’ve been unsuccessful in locating any. Thanks!
We are in the process of purchasing an older cabin that has a vintage 1941 American Standard sink in lovely shape (I was able to find that one on eBay to figure out what it is – at least I’m ALMOST positive!!) It also has a Youngstown kitchen in great shape – this is pretty much where I decided we had to get this place! Of course I will investigate more when we move in a month as I was too excited to remember to write anything down but I’d never seen anything like it – in this kind of good condition I mean. I guess what I’m trying to figure out now is, are the cabinet pulls and faucet accessories original (because they are shiny as new and I just can’t believe it!! BUT the bathroom sink appears to have original hardware so I thought just maybe…) and if so, do we keep going on using these in our everyday lives?? How can I clean them without ruining anything?? I have always said I won’t buy something vintage and NOT use it because that’s half the fun for me but I know how collectible they are from reading your articles. That’s actually what made me realize what they were in the first place! I have some photos and I plan to take more next time we go back. Any advice would be welcome, especially from you as this is one of the only blogs I go to for vintage info (seriously!!)
Thank you in advance!!!!!
Hi Vanessa, and welcome. You are asking a lot of questions all kind of blended together.
(1) Here’s a story to get you started — https://retrorenovation.com/2014/09/15/9-tips-start-remodeling/
(2) Regarding whether something is original or new, it’s hard to say without doing more research. See our stories about Youngstown Kitchen Cabinets (use the Search box, it works really well) to see what some of the original hardware looks like.
(3) Regarding cleaning, I am not an expert. On this and relative to other vintage products, materials and layers in your house, be aware that there may be hazards you need to become aware of before proceeding — on this, get with properly licensed professional(s) to assess what you are working with so you can make informed decision how to handle. For more info and some link see our Be Safe/Renovate Safe page –> https://retrorenovation.com/renovate-safe/
Good luck with all!
Found another brand for your list: Brentwood, out of Brentwood, MO.
http://stlouis.craigslist.org/for/5899894959.html
Wow! Thank you!!!
Hi Pam,
My sink is in a metal cabinet marked Admiral Metal Products, Chicago. Is that the same as Admiral? I did find an upper cabinet on ebay so am thinking it is/was not just a sink cabinet maker, but haven’t found anything else yet.
Elizabeth
I would think so.
I’m renovating a metal sink/cabinet unit to go into my new-construction house. The only writing on it is a stencil on the back of the sink that includes “KMP” and a date of 1950. Guessing the “MP” might stand for “metal products”, any idea what brand this might be? There’s also a “526” stamped on the very bottom of the unit. That’s probably a model number, I’m guessing.
Hi Colleen! Have you found any additional information on your sink? Wish I could help, but I’m having the same dilemma! Your post confirms that I’m reading my stamp correctly and KMP DOES exist!! My stamp reads 1952 & below that KMP.526.7 Any information you have will save my sanity! I’ve been obsessively searching with zero results