Are stainless steel appliances appropriate for midcentury houses, if you want to do a relatively authentic remodel? This question comes up fairly often on the blog, and the answer is: Yes. My research indicates that stainless steel — or UPDATED per reader comments: maybe it was brushed chrome — was used on midcentury appliances. Brushed chrome: I’ll declare that “close enough.” Even with that: There are further qualifications, because there some places where we did not see these materials used.
As best I can tell from 15 years of studying photos of midcentury kitchens, stainless steel and/or brushed chrome was used on: Built-in ovens, expensive built-in or counter-depth refrigerators, dishwashers, kitchen sinks, range hoods, countertops, counter edging, and various small built-in appliances. Above: Time capsule kitchen with St. Charles cabinets from this story.
These finishes were not commonly used on the sides of free-standing ranges — although they do pop up now and then as in Sarah’s 1956 Hotpoint stainless steel or is it brushed chrome range above. I have never seen them as a finish on steel kitchen cabinets.
Today, stainless steel appliances are so popular that they are likely the easiest solution if you need new appliances. White appliances also are available fairly widely. Pastels: Niche market, only a few suppliers.
If you want to use modern stainless steel — but you still want to “get the look” my experience includes:
-
Be careful about sizing your appliances — so many of today’s refrigerators are behemoths. Try to make sure your refrigerator is “scaled” to the size or your kitchen. If you can swing it, look for counter-depth. And if you can really swing it, consider Sub-Zero. They make counter-depth refrigerators with stainless steel fronts in a variety of sizes and door configurations, and you can get handles and exhaust grilles just like they’ve been making for many decades. Sub Zeros are pricey, though.
- Go for a built-in oven(s) with range-top burners [rather than a freestanding range with the oven on the bottom]. But, if your existing kitchen layout has the space carved out for a free-standing range and you are not reconfiguring your cabinets, don’t sweat it. Yes: Stainless steel appliances were used in vintage kitchens.
Vic says
We had a stove with a stainless steel top over a harvest gold body.
Phil says
Hotpoint sold free-standing ranges that were finished in brushed chrome in the 1950s but you’re right that it was usually for built-ins.
Here are brushed chrome Frigidaire built-ins from 1963-64 I have at home.
https://flic.kr/p/Q9GMtr
I also have the matching fridge with brushed chrome doors (the cabinet is white, sides were not finished in gray or black back then)
https://flic.kr/p/SrXUi2
I’m still searching for brushed chrome panels for my 1963 dishwasher. They were available too…
I also have older Nutone range hoods in stainless steel but if I want to install one of them, I’ll have to modify my cabinets.
https://flic.kr/p/ETogyV
The more common style at the top of the 48″ stainless range hood is another 30″ Nutone finished in anodized aluminum.
https://flic.kr/p/jsurXQ
There was also this style that could either be matched to the cabinets or to the color of the appliances with a filler panel. The rest is also aluminum, not stainless.
https://flic.kr/p/oKuAEP
ineffablespace says
I grew up in a house that had some stainless appliances, and I had a classmate that lived in a semi-modest rancher that had all built-in, all stainless appliances (including the refrigerator which must have been a Revco). So, I agree that stainless appliances are not necessarily the vintage-vibe-killer, like some posters thought in a previous story.
I actually have some different ideas about what I think about “time capsule” kitchens, “surviving” kitchens that may not actually be time capsules, and new, but “vintage styled” kitchens, and they probably are not in alignment with what a lot of people think when they are trying to create a vintage style kitchen or hang on to a survivor.
1) It’s very rare to see a time capsule kitchen that has every single original appliance. But other than that everything may be original. So it’s still essentially a time capsule even if it has an out of place newer appliance.
2) It’s a little more common to see surviving kitchens that have had some updates or all new appliances where most of the fabric is original. It’s common to see kitchens that are essentially original Except for all new appliances. I think replacing appliances is a natural progression.
3) It’s pretty common to see non-matching appliances if they are all original especially if it has an original range hood, an original cooktop (which was often stainless) and anything freestanding vs built in may not have matched.
4) If you have an over the range microwave that generally kills the vibe, but if the house was built after the early 70s not so much.
5) Vintage looking new appliances in a kitchen that otherwise does not have the earmarks of a vintage kitchen in terms of cabinet construction and other materials does not a “vintage-style” kitchen make.
6) Vintage looking new appliances often look a little fake in an otherwise vintage kitchen. I like them, but I think they are more appropriate for their cute factor than they are at verisimilitude.
I think it’s much more “genuine” to have the Non-appliance elements look correct and to have newer appliances, than it is to have a current looking kitchen with “vintage” appliances.
Because this is how people end up with true time capsule kitchens even by accident. They replace only what needs to be replaced, which is most often an appliance. (And seems to be refrigerators and dishwashers more than ranges or ovens).
Steve says
I have seen some period literature from the mid 1960’s, where the finish of an oven and cooktop was referred to as ‘brushed chrome’. I don’t know if that was just another name for stainless, or if it was a different finish.
Pam Kueber says
Hmmm…. that may be…
Phil says
Usually, it was one or the other. Frigidaire for example had brushed chrome. The Frigidaire appliances with optional brushed chrome finish were usually stamped with “BC” or “CH”.
https://flic.kr/p/jAeNKV
https://flic.kr/p/7jVduh
Amanda says
Our house came with a non working built in revco fridge. It was sad when we had to remove it. But above all, I needed a functional fridge in my kitchen (and not around the corner and down the hall from the kitchen)
Justin says
I installed a set of Revco built-ins, on my outside bar. One is the fridge and the other is the freezer. I got them both from a 1958 house, that the owner wanted to teardown.
Do you still have yours or any parts from it, or did you get rid of it all?
Barbara says
I absolutely love to cook!
I cook from scratch!
I cook homemade food!
We’re 95% organic eaters!
If I can grow it, dry it, dig it, tap trees, raise it and pick it, I do!
My stainless steel oven is a Chambers. First thing I saw when I walked into the kitchen 23 years ago. Be still my heart! This house was built in 1963 by a builder for his family. Quality…!
I love stainless steel appliances. However, when I start my kitchen renovation, I’m putting in a 1950’s 8 burner porcelain Roper stove, 1950’s Geneva cabinets and a Kelvinator foodarama refrigerator. As for my Chambers oven, this gem will be going into my 1968 Airstream. I have spent numerous hours in my kitchen over the past 23 years. And, I don’t plan on stopping. Anyone invited into my home, will always walk out with a full stomach.
Like Pamela wrote and from her indebt research, stainless steel appliances were, and are very retro no matter what year it is.
Thanks again Pamela!
Barbara
LuAnn says
That’s good news for many people…there’s more than one way to Retro, right? I have a 1972 kitchen with black appliances from the 90s. They’re going to need to be replaced in the near future. I’m trying to decide between more black or stainless. I’ve never been a big fan of black appliances, but they look kind of homey in my maple kitchen with sage green laminate counters.
JeffK says
If you have a deep stainless refrigerator and are remodeling try to make the front as flush as the door swing will allow and push the rear of the unit in to a newly created wall niche behind (in to the stud space or deeper framed wall).
If Sub-Zero is not in your budget look at Fisher & Paykel. They have some austere designs which would go well in vintage situations. They also have sharper bent edges and flat surfaces instead of the larger radius front panels and curvy edges.
Nancy B says
We still love our original & one of the first Thermador double ovens!! They have the coolest look (maybe not the best ovens but they work & that is ok with me)!
Kelly Wittenauer says
Glad to see this acknowledged! I’ve grown weary of people bashing stainless appliances as not mid-century. I have a collection of home books & magazines from back in the day. And many of the kitchens pictured have stainless sinks & appliances, particularly in the higher end architect designed houses.
Jay says
Amen! I have never forgotten seeing the identical stainless oven that was installed in my modest ranch kitchen in the kitchen of a house designed by FLW.