This vintage GE steel kitchen is quite amazing: It’s chock full of many of the fabulous features that GE offered in its kitchens starting in about 1955. In addition to the steel kitchen cabinets, there’s:
- A wall refrigerator
- “Cabinettes” under the wall cabinets and below the refrigerator
- A countertop-level oven
- An undercounter freezer, the first time I’ve ever seen one in the wild — oh my!
- Original GE Textolite laminate countertops
- And bins and breadboards and other delights…
This kitchen is currently for sale on Facebook marketplace — and the seller Ariana sent me even better photos to show on the blog. Thank you, Ariana, and your sister Ligaya hosting the kitchen for sale for you! And thanks to the many readers who tipped me tot his kitchen! Let’s take a deep dive look inside >>
The kitchen is currently for sale for $500 in Quincy, Mass. Hey! That’s near me. But… but… I already have a vintage steel kitchen!
From the Facebook Marketplace listing:
A full metal kitchen cabinet set made by General Electric in the 50’s. It’s a fitted set in decent shape and includes the original electric cooktop as well as the original oven, both of which are fully functional. There’s a built in freezer within the unit, which will need to be thawed out.
Cabinets feature bread storage area, as well as a built-in combination fridge that will need some handy work if you want to get it running again, otherwise great for storage and aesthetics.
Cabinets have original metal wire shelves and additional storage below the top cabinets featuring most of the original frosted glass sliders. Double sink cabinet — can throw in sink, too, as well as the countertops.
It fits along 3 walls. Sink side is approx 41.6” long, 28” deep with countertop. Oven side is approx 32”deep, 53” tall max, 107.25” long. Food freezer/cooktop side is approx 31” deep, 83.5” tall, 181” long.
Doing a kitchen renovation and as much as we love the set, it no longer goes with our decor. Hoping to offload this amazing vintage unit ASAP! Won’t last long – definitely a retro lovers dream find!!
Well, I certainly agree with this: “A retro lover’s dream find!!” And what a beautiful looking mid century modern home — of course, I’m curious to see more of the house!
Back to the kitchen. The sellers were eager to learn more about its history, and I promised to share some of what I know about this kitchen and its provenance. So, following are some ways that this vintage GE steel kitchen cabinet set fits in with previous research on this blog.
#1 The GE wall cabinet refrigerator:
The GE wall refrigerator is a favorite vintage item spotted in kitchens. I’ve even heard from a few readers who have operational units.
The GE wall refrigerator was introduced by GE in 1955 in a variety of colors.
#2 The GE Refrigeration Center
Now things really get fun. To me, the most amazing “find” in this vintage GE kitchen is the undercounter freezer. As I said, I’ve never seen one in the wild before. But I’ve seen one in an advertisement in my personal collection:
Take a GE wall cabinet refrigerator …
… put two undercounter freezers directly below…
… connect the top and bottom with two “cabinettes” and a countertop…
…set the whole thing by itself… and you have:
…The GE Refrigeration Center!! I do not have an intro date for this unit — that is, I do not have an intro date for the undercounter refrigerators.
What an amazing kitchen feature — and in the GE kitchen set featured in today’s story, we are just one freezer short of an entire Refrigeration Center!
#3 GE Cabinettes
As I said above, this kitchen features GE “Cabinettes” too — and lots of them! Cabinettes were long narrow sliding-glass-door cabinets that tucked under wall cabinets. There were two heights. The smaller height was used in the GE Refrigeration Unit, the taller height was used under wall cabinets.
Golly, just count the Cabinettes in this kitchen! I’m seeing the (2) under the refrigerator, (2) under the wall cabinets and …
(2) corner cabinets on the left — wow, rare rare rare to see!
Here’s a look (squint) at the reeded glass doors. These things could also be lighted from the inside! (Have a pro check the wiring / Renovate Safe!)
#4 GE Textolite countertops
Yup, GE made countertop laminate, too. It was named Textolite. I don’t know the name of this pattern.
#5 Bins, bread bin, bread board, counter level oven, special cabinets:
It’s also fun to see all the other details in this kitchen:
Bins for… sugar and coffee? For bread? I’m not sure…Who knows?…
… A special base cabinet just for cookie sheets, including with separators….
… and a stainless steel oven that sits about counter-level high.
Oh, and did we mention: It’s pink!
Wow. I’m thinking this kitchen was installed by people who wanted the latest and greatest in kitchen design. It’s a wonder to see it still together (but get thee a vintage dishwasher, stat). Fingers crossed that it will find a very appreciative home. Thanks again to sellers Ariana and Ligaya for taking these photos for us to feature and for permission to archive this kitchen here!!!