Kitchens through the years
From utilitarian and functional to more colourful, cheerful palettes, Kitchens and their uses have certainly changed a lot.
Let’s look back at some of the ground-breaking moments; you may be amazed at the number of trendy features that have come and gone.
Kitchen designs between 1920-1923
In this decade, in comes the all-purpose cooking item – The Stove / Oven along with its mechanical counterpart – The “Cleaning Machine”. The stove is big, bulky and very expensive with multiple burners to help the modern cook. The cleaning machine is an electric dishwasher which was created to rescue its users from the drudgery of taking care of the cutlery and crockery. Homemakers were encouraged to buy these items, not because of status, but mainly as they were seen as tools to support a happy, healthy household.
Throughout this decade, labour saving devices came along thick and fast, toasters, grills and coffee percolators were introduced and were placed right on the dinner table.
The main design of a disjointed room had become an organised space with large items doing the jobs of many smaller ones.
Kitchen designs between 1930-1939
The 1930’s saw homes looking for efficient design. The ideal was the “self-cleaning” kitchen. This wasn’t an actual self-cleaning room, but had a multitude of materials that are easy to clean and maintain, such as metal cabinets, linoleum floors and stainless-steel counters.
By the mid 30’s art deco was introduced. Which crept into Kitchen designs and deco colours and shapes were seen in the decoration of what was once just a functional room.
Between 1940-1970
In the late 40s, washing machines and wringers debuted in the UK. This was a new concept as for many homes had a “laundry room” specifically for this purpose. So, to have these items in the kitchen was quite a new experience. This led to the creation of a dining nook in the many kitchens due to the extra space the new compact machines gave to the home makers.
During the 1950s, modern refrigerators, electric range ovens and more hidden, functional items were introduced into kitchen design. Although these were used for preservative / functional purposes, they were also starting to be coloured to match the room; The electric range was now the Hallmark of the high-tech kitchen as before now, cooking was done with wood, coal and gas, but with the electric range, cooking was done for the first time with electricity.
The 70’s saw the rise of a very patterned kitchen, with it being a functional BUT family oriented room – also along came almost “space age” technology in the microwaves and coffee / tea makers that were starting to become the norm.
In our next blog we will take you from the 1970’s to modern times.