[Once again a diversion from the multiple crises afflicting our fair globe and nation, crises I believe we can do little about. The pandemic still keeps me mostly at home; if I go out it's for groceries and supplies, or to various medical appointments. So I spend at least some of my time exploring the YouTubes and reading glossy magazines where I make discoveries.]
Kitchen design has evolved somewhat during my lifetime. Above is a picture of a typical kitchen in what I suspect is a farmhouse c. 1930. It's large and square and "unfitted." Ie, without built in cabinets. This means the house and kitchen probably date from around 1900, but the equipment is newer. The stove is probably from the mid-1920s or even 1930, and the refrigerator is a 1930 or later GE Monitor Top.
Though I don't remember it clearly, this is probably similar to the kitchen in my father's house in Iowa where I only lived a few months after I was born and returned to for a few months in the summers of 1961 and 1962. The house was old, parts of it very old (c.1845-50), but the kitchen was an add-on around 1900 when my grandfather bought it and had it expanded. When I visited in the summers of 1961 and 62, the kitchen was modernized somewhat. I remember there was one of those steel cabinet sinks under the bank of windows on one side and a newer stove and refrigerator but beyond that, I don't remember much.
The first house we lived in in California was built in 1930 and had a very plain and simple kitchen. It was a narrow corridor along the back of the house (actually it was a duplex). There was a black stove up on legs (c. 1930) and a small refrigerator (flat-top c. 1935) on one wall. The other side was a built-in cabinet with sink under the tiny window and tile drainboards on either side. There were upper cabinets for dishes and dry foods. And by the side door, there was a broom closet. There wasn't room for much else, though there might have been a "California Cooler" on the same wall as the sink and the broom closet might have been on the wall with the stove and refrigerator. There was a single overhead light (might even have been a bare bulb), and I remember the room seemed dark and cramped -- even when I was just a toddler. The flooring was varied gray linoleum with a small figure and a border.
We moved from there to another bigger house when I was three. I don't remember the kitchen or much of the interior of that house at all. The house itself was practically new, built as Post War housing on a lot next to a high water Victorian. I remember the kitchen in that Victorian house better than the one next door where I lived. The Victorian one was plain and unfitted except for the steel cabinet sink -- those seemed to have been ubiquitous for a while -- and had a round table and chairs at one end, newer stove and refrigerator at the other. There was a dish cabinet, too. It wasn't a Hoosier, but was simpler, with an upper section with glass doors and a lower section with drawers on one side and a wood-doored section next to the drawers. I believe the cabinet was on wheels. There was one electric light on a dangling cord in the center of the room and there may have been another one over the stove but I'm not sure.
After that, we lived in a succession of pre-and-post-War houses in Los Angeles County, only one of which left much of an impression on me. It was a very cozy and homey house in West Covina built around 1939 or so, with a corridor kitchen. Built in cabinets, sink under the window, blue and white tiled counter tops, an older but functional stove and refrigerator, both dating from about the time the house was built, and an eating area in a bay window at the back. There was ivy-decorated white wall paper. The room was light and bright -- I remember the sunlight in the breakfast area well -- and I liked it.
We moved from there to a brand new house a few miles away. It also had a corridor kitchen, but without the charm of the one we'd left. There was the usual sink and tile drainboard built-in cabinet on one side with the usual upper cabinets on either side of the window over the sink and a stove and refrigerator on the other side. We went through a succession of used refrigerators dating from the mid-thirties to the late forties, none of which lasted very long (the longest lasting was a Servel gas refrigerator) before getting a new Kenmore refrigerator which we kept for at least ten or even fifteen years and hauled around to a number of different houses. The stove, however, was an indestructible Wedgewood that had been purchased with the house, and which stayed with the house when we moved again five years later.
At the far end of this corridor kitchen was an eating area with a window (no bay window) that also served as a laundry area. We had a Kenmore automatic washer but no dryer, and there was no room for a dryer anyway. Laundry was hung on the clothes line out in the side yard or on one of those folding wooden racks indoors when the weather was bad.
The flooring was linoleum with an overall pattern, no border, and I think it was green like the tile border on the countertops. There was a cabinet next to the stove that held the water heater and some brooms and such. There was one overhead light in the kitchen proper and one in the eating/laundry area.
As I describe these kitchens, I realize they were mostly very similar -- and very simple. They expressed in a common vernacular the common idea of what A Kitchen Was. In Iowa and the Victorian house next door to one of the places I lived in California it was square, in most of the houses where I lived in California, it was long and narrow, but everywhere it was small. The central and sometimes only fixture was the sink cabinet whether built in of wood and tile or freestanding and steel. There would usually be wall cabinets above the drainboards where one kept one's dishes on one side of the sink and one's dry foods on the other. Stove and refrigerator would be freestanding and usually had no cabinetry associated with them. They were simply there by themselves. There may or may not have been an eating area in the kitchen, but if there was, it was just big enough for a small table and two chairs (or four at the most). Or there might be a built in bench set up and a small table.
Flooring was invariably linoleum. There was limited lighting. There was no hood over the stove but there might be an exhaust fan somewhere on a wall or ceiling. Usually not, though. The sink was almost always under a window -- not in the Victorian house, but that was an exception. There were no peninsulas or islands. No breakfast bar. No elaborate lighting. No dishwashers or microwaves. Just the bare essentials, some kitchens looking a bit nicer or brighter than others but all pretty much the same.
That changed when we moved to a five year old suburban house in 1962. The kitchen in this house was square. It was very small though, just 10 x 10, and beyond it was another 10 x 10 room that was called a "family room" but was just big enough for eating at a table and chairs. These two rooms were not separated by a wall. No, instead, there was a peninsula in the kitchen at right angles to the cabinets along one wall. The peninsula was the separation between rooms and as it was wider than the other counter tops it also could serve as a breakfast bar. We had two rattan swivel stools but hardly ever sat there to eat. The sink was diagonally set below two corner windows across the room, and there was another small cabinet beside the sink. The countertops were Formica in that ever popular "Skylark" (aka "Jetsons") pattern. There was a built in yellow GE electric range and oven on the opposite wall next to which was the refrigerator (for us a copper tone frost-free Kenmore with the freezer on the bottom.) Next to that was a very small broom closet. The cabinets were oak veneered with hammered copper handles and exposed hinges. There were two ceiling lights with somewhat mid-century glass covers, one in the center and one over the sink, and the range hood also had a light. The flooring was linoleum in a random stone pattern, mostly grays and browns. The walls were painted yellow.
This kitchen represented quite a different vernacular than any previous one we had experienced. The corridor kitchen in various sizes had been typical in most of the other houses I'd lived in, but here, the corridor was modified and expanded (one still had to pass through the kitchen proper to get to the eating area) and the fixtures and cabinetry were arranged in a u-shape on one side and straight along the wall on the other. The built in side-by-side range and oven were quite different from the free-standing stove -- cook-top on top, oven below -- that was typical of the later thirties, forties and early fifties. They were electric which was a first for us as well. The arrangement, though, was very similar to the high-oven stoves on legs that were typical of the twenties and early thirties, and we had one of those in the first house we lived in in California. (My mother didn't care for it because it didn't have a pilot light and every burner and the oven had to be lit with a match. She was afraid that I would turn on the gas and no one would notice until the whole house exploded. She said she had witnessed her house in Indiana burn down when she was three or four and was completely traumatized by it. Her fear of fire stayed with her the rest of her life.)
The images above are of a slightly updated version of the kitchen in a similar house. The differences are that the cabinets have been glazed with white -- but they are still the original oak veneer with the original hammered copper hinges and handles. The light fixtures have globe shades instead of the original Googie ones (later, our kitchen lights had the same globe shades). The appliances are newer which is typical in this neighborhood as the original GE range and oven gave out after about 20 years and could not be repaired. The counter tops in the pictures, however are the original "Skylark" Formica we had in our kitchen, and I would say that's a testament to the longevity and durability of laminate counter-tops contrary to some of the current mythology about how "they don't last." The flooring is newer vinyl -- as would be expected as the original linoleum didn't last very long at all.
Unseen in the images above is the built-in dishwasher the homeowners had installed at some point. There was a lower cabinet which could be removed and replaced with a dishwasher if the homeowners wanted, but a dishwasher was not standard equipment. We had a portable one purchased around 1960, so we never had one built in. Funny thing, though. We hardly ever used the dishwasher, and almost none of the places I've lived since then has had a dishwasher, and where there was one, we almost never used it.
The vernacular of this kitchen represents a significant change from the more typical corridor kitchens we'd previously known. But we found it wasn't that unusual, for many houses built in the thirties, forties, and early fifties also had small square-ish kitchens, usually with cabinets in an L rather than U or D shape. The arrangement here is a modification and modernization of that plan.
To be clear, however, it is very small as were all the kitchens I can remember in the many places I have lived. At only 10 x 10, it's actually larger than some which may have measured only 7 or 8 feet wide by 10 or 11 feet long.
Small, efficient kitchens started to become the norm during the Bungalow Era, especially after WWI, when servantless households in which the housewife had to "do her own work" prevailed. Kitchens were back of the house laboratories, easy to use, easy to clean, and only big enough for the necessary operations of storing, prepping, cooking and cleaning up. No room for any unessentials. Minimalism before it was a trend on Twitter.
This trend toward efficiency would continue right up to the end of the sixties and beyond. But the kitchen vernacular today is very different even when expressed minimally.
There has been a tendency toward excess in many latter day kitchen designs. First, there's been a return to the square kitchen floor plan, but now instead of a 10 x 10 square kitchen, they're much larger, 20 x 20 or even more. The bloat in size just keeps growing, too. Separate pantries have reappeared, and they, too, have grown and grown to the point where there may be two or three separate pantries altogether as large as the bloated kitchen. In many designs, upper cabinets have disappeared, replaced with either nothing or open shelves sparsely dotted with dishware. The problem with open shelves in the kitchen is very well known, and it is a problem that hasn't gone away because of modern trends in kitchen design. The problem is that the shelves and everything on them have to be washed down pretty much every day because even with excellent ventilation, cooking and all the other kitchen activities tends to lead to deposits of grease, dust and moisture on all exposed surfaces. It's unavoidable. The open shelves treatments seem to be adapted from common restaurant practice (where, btw, the corridor kitchen still prevails) where practically everything on the open shelves is used (sometimes repeatedly) every day, and everything is (or should be) washed down at the end of the day. That's what you can do -- and must be done -- when you have staff, but in a private home where there may be only a couple living, there isn't really staff to do the work. Is there?
What to do? One of the excess trends is to multiply appliances and fixtures. Two dishwashers are common, sometimes three or even four. There might be two dishwashers in the kitchen as well as one in each pantry. Why? Well because: everything on those open shelves that are so trendy has to be washed every day. Oh. Remember the trend toward open pot hanging racks back in eighties? Same problem there. I remember in one of her houses, Martha Stewart hung many baskets from the kitchen ceiling as well as her collections of copper pots and pans. Oh really? That wasn't wise at all, but it looked nice for the moment. Appearances count, after all. But who washes and cleans all that stuff? It wasn't Martha!
As dishwashers multiplied, so did ovens and sometimes cooktops. Some of the on trend contemporary kitchens sport a very expensive and elaborate free-standing range with 6 to 12 burners and two or three ovens (one electric, one gas, one steam) and there will also be several built in wall ovens (two is common) along with one or two built in microwave/convection ovens. Wait. Isn't this overkill? Of course it is, but you never know, do you, when you might need all these appliances. Well? The freestanding range, along with all those cooktop burners, needs a griddle, of course, and a sous vide well to do all those fancy cooking tricks you see on the cooking shows. Of course you're not going to use them very often, but you want them to be there just in case, no?
The freestanding range is usually gas, costs anywhere from $12-$60,000 and it may be supplemented by an electric induction cooktop on the inevitable island. Because why not? You never know, right? And oh, those kitchen islands! These are like the ultimate contemporary kitchen vernacular. You MUST have at least one kitchen island! You MUST!
But on trend is two and sometimes even three islands, again adapted from commercial kitchens, and representing utter excess for the sake of it in a private home setting.
Each island, of course, has to have high stools so that people can sit and watch the brilliance of the cook in action, chat among themselves, sample varietal wines and nosh on samples of the cook's creativity . Each island, too, has a separate function: one for baking prep, one for veg prep, one for other needs, whatever they may be. Oh, and every island has to have pendant lights over it, two being typical, but often many more (I've seen examples of as many as nine pendant lights over an island.) And when there are only two pendants they might reach gargantuan size just because they're statements not really lighting fixtures at all.
And then there are the countertops. Tile and laminate, of course, are verboten. For about ten years, granite was the only acceptable countertop material, but it's fallen out of favor. Marble took its place for a while, but then, it too fell from grace. The reason? Neither is really suited to long term heavy use as a kitchen counter. They're very expensive and they're fragile -- especially marble. They stain easily -- and permanently. They scratch. They crack. They chip. They scorch. They lose their luster. They might be good for certain specialty uses (pastry rolling for example) but not for general kitchen use -- which is why they never were used for countertops generally, even by the rich before the trend-setters determined they would be the only acceptable kitchen counters from then on. The unsuitability of granite and marble was noticed, however, and eventually the trend went to "quartz" (that's not quartz) and other created kitchen countertop products that resemble stone or concrete but are made of crushed stone or something similar bound with a plastic material or epoxy and are more durable and easier to take care of -- and are also very expensive.
Other materials are tried from time to time -- zinc, stainless steel, copper, concrete for example -- but none are so popular and ubiquitous as natural stone or created stone.
During various periods, linoleum was a preferred countertop material, but it was very easily damaged and didn't work well where there was heavy use or chance of water pooling. Tile was the most popular countertop material for decades and decades, but it fell out of favor with the increasing availability of laminate (Formica, for example) which was smooth and mostly seamless and much easier to keep clean. But then the trend changed, and laminate fell out of favor -- replaced by tile! Then butcher-block wood, which was not a good choice for long term use.
I'll point out that the laminate countertops in the pictures above are 60 years old or more. It's hard to tell from the pictures what condition they're in, but they look pretty good and at least in my experience, they hold up very well.
Tile not so much. The house we lived in before we moved here was built in 1940 and had the original tile countertops. Several of the tiles had cracked, the grout was grotty and falling out in places, and some tiles were scratched and worn. As some have said, it's nearly impossible to keep tile countertops clean for very long. Thus the reversion from laminate to tile in the seventies and eighties seemed counter intuitive (!). It may have been more about nostalgia and the pseudo-Spanish decorating trend at the time though. Nostalgia for kitchen counters the way they used to be -- before laminate -- and the brief but ugly pseudo-Spanish period which was also a nostalgia trip since "Spanish" style was all the rage in the late 20s and early 30s.
Haven't mentioned the evolution in refrigerators yet. We had lots of different ones when we were cycling through numerous used refrigerators in the early and mid fifties. Inevitably, they would stop cooling within a few months. Yet I know of many refrigerators as old or older than the ones we were cycling through nearly seventy years ago that are working well to this day with few or no repairs. So. What was likely is that each of the used refrigerators we had suffered from a coolant leak (probably sulfur dioxide) that wasn't repaired. Instead, the refrigerator was merely recharged before being sold. Each one cost about $60, compared to $250 or more for a new refrigerator, so four used refrigerators that lasted a total of two years, say, would cost almost as much as a new refrigerator that might last 20 or 30 or more years... hmm. So in 1962, a brand new frost-free Sears Kenmore refrigerator-freezer was delivered and stayed in that house until my mother went to assisted living and the house was sold. For all I know, it might still be there!
Note, the refrigerator in our house now is at least 25 years old, may be closer to 30, and apart from its clogged freezer drain which I'm too lazy to unclog, it works fine.
Of course, I'm writing about the commonplace fridge. On trend refrigerators are something else altogether -- and many who have them complain they don't work. Really? Yes, really.
Refrigerators have become "smart" and can be operated from your phone. Isn't that something? Well, why?
They cost many thousands of dollars. They inevitably feature stainless steel (real or faux) exteriors that are hard to keep clean. They tend to be large or enormous, with two or three doors and a drawer or two, along with beverage and ice dispensers. Various compartments litter their interiors. Lights and cameras let you observe their interiors from afar so you can plan your shopping. And according to reports, they break down routinely. A solid year of use without repair is considered an accomplishment.
Ironically, there's quite a market for restored refrigerators from the thirties, forties, and fifties (which are also incredibly expensive at $5000 or more) that some people prefer to many of the "smart" models available today.
Some of the trend for modern expensive and supposedly smart refrigerators comes from the commercial kitchen arena, much as many of the other trends, though I'm not sure householders are aware unless they've seen commercial kitchens.
Of course your cooktops must have pot fillers in order to fill pots on the stove for pasta boiling. There must be sinks -- multiple -- for washing vegs and the odd plate or cup. Refrigerator and freezer drawers as well as microwave and convection ovens are often built in to islands to warm pastries and such. You never see a toaster or a waffle iron, nor really any electric appliances in the trendy kitchens. A coffee maker? Horrors! Unless built in with its own pot filler. Maybe a KitchenAid stand mixer and a Cuisinart food processor will appear. But other than that? To the pantry with them! Or don't have them at all.
A simple example of the contemporary kitchen vernacular. Others can be found here.
ASMR is another thing altogether which I won't go into in this post, but it's something I had never heard of before a few months ago. There are two U-Toob sites I visit fairly often for an ASMR fix, Baumgartner Restoration and Korean Street Food. More anon....
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