Vintage Furniture Part 1 - The Vintage Kitchen - By Annie Ef

Wednesday 18 September 2013

Vintage Furniture Part 1 - The Vintage Kitchen - By Annie Ef

Ever the cheerful: a lady beside her fridge

Vintage furniture! Which one of us, vintage lovers wouldn't want to have an old fashioned couch in our houses? Where to start with a topic so big? In the kitchen of course! 

The idea behind a vintage kitchen is simple, it has to have a warm feeling to it. Sharp edges, sterile whites or cold silvers and blacks had no place there. It has to be a place where you wouldn't mind spending most of the day on cooking, baking or just gossiping with friends.

The kitchen was the woman's kingdom, a place where she held absolute power. You got on your wives bad side, and the fridge was out of limits. It was also a place where she spent a vast majority of her time. This manifested in the style of it. The colours were well matched, and the whole concept of it kept within the same style. Weather is was a traditional or modern kitchen, every little detail was refined. It was a place the women could, and would show off. The kitchen was the one room that reflected current trends the most.  The design of kitchen accessories was very similar to the one outside of it. Round edges, pastel colours, all of this could be seen in the design of cars, for example. The husband had his 1953 convertible Cadillac, and she had her fridge, that looked like it was about to drive away at any point.

On top of being very visually pleasing, the vintage kitchen is also set up to be as comfortable to use as possible. Big fridges, working areas and stoves allowed not only for fast preparation of meals, but also made it possible to cook a huge thanksgiving dinner for the entire family, and bake a pie in the meantime. The cabinets were large enough to be able to hold everything, and, in case guests arrived early, allowed the lady of the house to hide everything she didn't have time to clean up yet. She might not look ready for the guests yet, but her kitchen was spotless at all times.

There wasn't much a woman couldn't handle in her kitchen!

Smaller kitchens had a different feel to them

If someone lived in an apartment, they didn't have  the luxury of a big kitchen. As such a lot of women settled for a "bar" set up. An open kitchen, with a counter that served as a table gave the impression of bigger space, provided a dining area, and made it possible to keep an eye on the rest of the family. This had it's disadvantages as well, with a kitchen like that it had to be held clean at all times, and, of course, was much less comfortable. The style of this kitchen was usually a bit different from the one found in family houses. Because it was exposed, the design of it often matched the style of the rest of the apartment. Nonetheless, these kitchens had a definite charm to them as well. While the suburban kitchen was warm and pastel, this one had sharp colours and edges. It was much more modern, and, in the later years, usually had a slight futuristic feel to it.

A modern take on a vintage kitchen

It's easy to generalise like that, but keep in mind that vintage kitchens varied as much as the ones we know now. Every one had a unique touch to it, and even though it's easy to point out some trends, our image of it is usually very different from what most of them actually looked like. Then again, we, vintage lovers, like to operate with stereotypes as far as oldies are concerned, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with is. After all, the stereotypical vintage kitchen is lovely!