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.
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….
… A pull-out bread board…
… A flour bin …
… 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!!!
Rosy says
Humorous that we all think that pull out breadboard is a “cutting board.” It just goes to show how far away from that kitchen we are. They were intended for making bread…the kneading part. Not for cutting on. Most of us cannot imagine making bread so often that we would need a kitchen tool specifically designed for it!
My grandmother had one and through the mid-70’s was still baking bread weekly and cookies nearly every day (she was every kid in the neighborhoods adopted grama and they all stopped at her house on the way home from school). She never let us cut on her breadboard.
Pam Kueber says
Well there you go!
Patti says
I wonder if the separated bins were for potatoes, vegetables or fruits?
Ronda Vallejo says
When I was very young, my parents lived in a tiny house that they’d bought in the late 30’s. It had a large bin for flour, but I would imagine potatoes would have been a common thing in bins, too.
Ronda Vallejo says
This kitchen functions so much better than the kitchen I have today! I love the wall fridge, and the glass doors. My dream home would have a kitchen like this!
Cyd says
Ah, I remember our “cabinettes” I grew up with and hadn’t seen them elsewhere. I suppose they are gone since all the other metal cabinets are used in other places in the basement these days. My mother must have known about the pullout cutting board since we have one made of the materials used in the 1970’s kitchen remodel of the house built in 1900.
[She also remodeled the blue bathroom to enlarge it in the 1970’s, but the yellow bathroom with pink fixtures remain intact. I suppose that’s why I fell in love with our 1958 midcentury modest house. Midcentury modern was out of my price range.]
DJ Sparkles says
Oh, how I would love this! But I live on the other side of the country, so it’s not going to happen. I’ve always admired the counter-top refrigerators, but my kitchen is too small for one. And good to know the cons about them, as I’m already a recovering mold victim and don’t need any more mold! (My mold was courtesy of the Cedar Hills Rec Center in Beaverton, Oregon, where I used to exercise. And yes on the no on front-load washers, another known mold hazard!)
But I would dearly love those cabinettes, which is a handy feature we never should have abandoned!
Mary says
The house I grew up in was from the 40s and had the pull out wooden cutting board and one of the metal pull out bread boxes but the cabinets were not metal but that brings back memories! Would love to have this kitchen!