Yes, I’ve published another important entry in my growing Encyclopedia of Vintage Steel Kitchen Cabinets: A look at the Servel brand. And ooh la la, this company offered a feature that I continue museum-worthy. Hey, I’m actually reading these catalogs. Before you click to the story, inspect the photo above. Squint hard. You’ll still never guess, it’s kinda… behind the scenes. Click here to be amazed… okay, maybe that’s expecting a bit much. But I was. Amazed!
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19 comments
Leslie says
When I’m at my mom’s house she’s often watching those shows on DIY and HGTV where the stars “renovate” houses, which almost always involves “opening it up” (i.e. destroying the interior) and “modernizing” the kitchen (i.e. making it look boringly like every other kitchen that’s being made now).
I want you to do a TV show. I want you to save those pink bathrooms and those fascinating kitchens. I want you to go out and buy the old kitchen cabinets and restore them and install them.
Pretty please? Because if I have to watch one more destructovation I may become hysterical.
CarolK says
The only DIY show where I’ve seen the designer/flipper go open concept is Bargain Mansions which I can’t watch as it makes me angry. Restored, Rehab Addict and Stone House Revival are much more our speed. Brett has had vintage stoves restored and he has Antique Stove Heaven to restore them. I learned about Antique Stove Heaven right here on RetroRenovation. He’ll go back to the blueprints if can find them or old pictures of the house to help him in the restoration. Brett and Nicole Curtis try to save as much of the old house as is possible, but sometimes there are things they can’t save and the guy on Stone House Revival is the same.
Of course, it would be great to see Pam on DIY. I think HGTV is too far gone.
Sara says
The timeliness of this post on these Servel kitchens is amazing! You may have just help us solve the problem of what floor color we want for our 1956 bungalow with a 90s kitchen: think dark green countertops, white cabinets, and walls we just painted a beautiful yellow. Now if only we can find a floor similar to what is featured in the “Teen-Age” kitchen design, the project will be complete (at least until we can do a full period-appropriate remodel)! I’m of course doing research but anyone has ideas on where to find that swirly copper brown floor look, please reply.
Allen says
Look at Marmoleum floors or some types of cork flooring. Hope your project turns out well.
Dan says
You might be able to get the same effect with a cork pattern vinyl, if such a thing exists.
CarolK says
I was about to say actual cork flooring, Allen. That would be my first choice in the kitchen. It’s quiet, kind to the feet and legs, and also kind to your breakables. Marmoleum would be good as well.
Robert J. Connor says
Sara just happened to see this, but I finished a basement floor with a copper swirl pattern by using an epoxy finish by Epoxy Master. It is a bit messy and expensive but I think it turned out well. http://www.epoxymaster.com
Katherine Sedgwick says
While I love everything about steel cabinets (and appreciate all your research work on them, Pam), what I REALLY love about this post are the Servel kitchen designs. They are gorgeous! And for someone (me) planning a kitchen redesign with a vintage feel, absolutely inspirational. Thanks so much for finding and sharing them!
Mar y Anne S says
When I was little my grandparents lived on an isolated ranch in Eastern Oregon. The only electricity was a gasoline powered generator that my grandpa would fire up in the evenings if someone wanted to do needlework or read. The refrigerator was a Servel that ran on propane. It was a big improvement over none at all. The refrigerator was in a cool room built off of the big back porch. The rest of the room was used as a pantry. The well where you drew up the drinking and washing water in a bucket was in the middle of the porch. My grandmother was a whiz on the wood cook stove and could prepare large, multi-course meals for many people with ease. By the time my mom was 14 she had learned how to cook for a big crew of working men on the wood stove. I loved to visit my grandparents when I was growing up in the 60’s. My grandmother loved her refrigerator as it made her life easier. I wonder if the drying cabinet came from the warming ovens above all the best wood cook stoves? Seems to me that’s where the crackers were kept. I really like the colors and the cheerfulness of all these kitchens in the photos.
Pam Kueber says
Hi Mary Ann, what wonderful memories, thank you for sharing them! What an amazing life your grandparents had. So hard to imagine that even as late as the 1960s there were people living without electricity, and pumping water by hand from a well!
Yes, I think you are absolutely right about the drying cabinet idea coming from old wood stoves — that makes total sense! Not a new idea — just one carried over to another technology!
Mike says
Omg. The South was full of people in the 60s living without electricity. The civil war set things back by a 100 years down here. People forget how hard life was. That’s one of the reasons my wife and I are mid century freaks. It’s hard to imagine a world with amazing wonders like 1960s design and the poverty we lived in. We never forget that when these amazing mid century designs we made our parents were living with no shoes and electricity
Crystal says
I just love looking at the pictures and reading about these kitchens! Thanks for sharing and please keep them coming!
Wendellyn Plummer says
Most of my dad’s family worked for Servel when the factory was in Evansville. My dad actually learned how to weld at Servel. His job was to spot weld the refrigerator carcasses together. At the time Servel provided many jobs for the people in the Evansville area. I believe Whirlpool came in behind Servel. Maybe even in the same plant, I’m not for certain?
Ranger Smith says
Wow! What a posting! The color illustrations are fantastic; love the floors that have a border in a different color. And, A Mangle! This is a great way to start the week. Thanks
Chrissy says
old fridge as liquor cabinet – brilliant!
Did the dry cereal storage over the fridge start before or after this invention? How many people store it up there because that’s where it always was? The things that go through my mind…
double sink? I’m so glad for CarolK’s comment. We are planning side by side sinks in our reno and everyone thinks I’m crazy. It was nice to see the concept existed back then too. (For us, it’s a function thing).
ChrisICU says
Very interesting article. I have a Servel refrigerator from the 40’s or 50’s, but not with the attachment on the top. While it is both propane and electric I don’t have it turned it on. Instead, it’s my liquor cabinet.
CarolK says
That sounds like an ideal “upcycling” of your fridge, ChrisICU!
What I find interesting/weird about these steel cabinets is that the double sinks are actually two separate sinks. The countertop runs between the two sinks. I think a true double sink would be preferable. Pam, were the two separate sinks common in metal cabinets or was this arrangement only seen in the Servel cabs?
Pam Kueber says
Hi CarolK, I think these are illustrations that are mostly “ideas”. I don’t think a sink arrangement like that would have been common at all. It would have been impractical.
That said, one of the photos seems to show a stainless steel or Monel integral sinks/countertop situation, which would have been a possibility.
Daniel says
My grandmother had a massive coal stove that took up most of the space in her tiny kitchen. At one end was a cabinet that used heated air to keep crackers and such dry and crisp. Worked great!
I can’t quite figure out the need or advantage for a gas refrigerator, unless you did not have reliable electricity, but I doubt that would be the case with the glamorous kitchens shown here. It would be interesting to hear from anyone with any experience or knowledge of gas refrigerators.