In response to my post “A Word to the Wives,” Kathy asks me to describe my ideal kitchen. The first image that popped into my head is RetroRuth’s mid-century kitchen. It is such a great kitchen that Pam at Retro Renovation did a story about it.
Okay, the truth of the matter is that if you show me an article or advertisement showcasing a mid-century kitchen, I would probably say that it is my ideal kitchen–even if I said the same thing about a different kitchen I was shown the day before!
Perhaps it is from reading Sunset Magazine growing up and all of the historic houses that My Honey and I have visited but I seem to be drawn to “modern” kitchens from the Depression era through the early 1960′s. I like the metal cabinetry and the streamline look of them. I like the “anything is possible with a great deal of ease” that the post-war kitchens seem to evoke as photographed by Maynard Parker for House Beautiful.
Mid-century, the kitchens seemed light and airy. This was before the avocado and gold kitchens with their dark woodwork came into vogue. This was before the “luxury” of heavy granite and giant restaurant stoves found their way into the kitchen of new housing developments and in every “remodel” show on television.
My ideal kitchen is easy to clean, light, airy, uncluttered, has a breakfast nook with a chrome table so that we have to sit across from each other (I don’t think kitchen bars encourage conversation)and plenty of space for my cookbooks and other vintage finds. But, most importantly, my ideal kitchen is a place that exudes warmth, love, and makes everyone feel welcomed to just hang out in it.
What is your ideal kitchen like?
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Originally it might have been my question, but I really had to think about my ideal kitchen. While I’m drawn to the nostalgic appearance of photos such as the above, I have to admit that neither of my kitchens comes close to it. The town kitchen is a modular home — functional with plenty of storage and counter space. The updated country kitchen in the 1917 house has oak cabinetry and basic modern appliances. My idea was “tongue in groove” white cabinets but none of the men (the general contractor, the cabinet maker, or my husband) liked the idea. If I had been reading this blog ten years ago, my ideas might have been better defined and I might have felt empowered to argue for them.
My country kitchen has a bar with two stools and I love it when my daughter or a friend sits on one and visits with me as I cook. But Mike and I eat at the table in the diningroom adjacent to the kitchen. And another thing — my house doesn’t need two eating areas.
I wonder, though — I’d give anything to stand in my other grandmother’s 1930′s kitchen right now, and yet, I don’t think I’d find it to be my dream kitchen — the stove and refrigerator stuck on one wall, the kitchen window covered by a screened porch, the sink and dishwasher one metal unit, and one short counter for everything I do. And that door over there? — that’s the bathroom. Would that be my dream kitchen? Without Grandma there, I’m afraid I’d think the kitchen a little lacking in design and workability.
I hadn’t thought of a bar as a place for friends/family to sit and visit while I cook. I like that.
I think my childhood mid-centural kitchen was fairly well laid out. The work area was L-shaped with the oven unit anchoring one end (so easy to get things in and out of it!), the cooktop next to it, lots of counter room next to it and then the sink forming the reversed “L” part of it. As I stood at the stove, the fridge was behind me and then we had a huge table and nook area that could seat about 10 if we sat close to each other (normally, it had 7-8 people around it). But, it is also the place where I first learned how to cook and so I wonder if I think of it as ideal because of that neuro-training.
One thing I know — the kitchen doesn’t need to be big to be workable. My sister had a beautiful kitchen but my mother’s assessment was: “Nobody’s kitchen has more steps.”
An old sampler in my mother’s kitchen read:
Life’s riches other rooms adorn,
But in my kitchen, home is born.
The kitchen was really the center of life for all the homes I remember during my growing-up years. And I don’t mean necessarily that everything that happened there was positive. But it was life and we were wrapped in love in that room.