The first kitchen I remember well, and in which I made my first attempts at cooking, was my mothers kitchen with its Wedgewood stove. The stove had four burners, a griddle, one oven, and a broiler; similar to the first photo. Next to it hung Reverware copper-bottomed pans like nearly every other kitchen in that era.
By 1974 I was married and we bought a little 1928 bungalow. It came with this vintage gas stove. I don't remember the brand, but it had a room heater on the right and I loved it. Handyman built a hood over it with a rail to hang our Revereware Bicentennial Copper pots and pans.
That's when we acquired this antique meat block. It weighs a ton and we've hauled it from house to house over the years because we just love it and could never part with it.
We painted the kitchen bright blue and put up yellow and blue wallpaper. We hadn't yet gotten into heavy duty remodeling, so we decorated to match the existing tile.
We also got this Hoosier cabinet and displayed our vintage tins on it.
I loved that funky little kitchen.
Here's what we looked like back then. We were just kids - maybe 23 and 25 in this photo.
In 1980 we moved to a nicer house, but the kitchen was smaller. We sold the Hoosier cabinet, but managed to squeeze the meat block in.
We still had yellow wallpaper and tile to deal with, but check out that yellow rotary phone!
Then we moved onto a 35' sailboat and had a really tiny kitchen. Only 6' of counter top, a 24" wide propane stove, a tiny sink, and an old fashioned ice box.
And then our kitchen got even smaller! Our next boat had maybe 5' of countertop, but 4' of that was the refrigerator, so you had to keep 2' of that clear to access the top loading frige. Again, we had a nice 24" wide propane stove; in my opinion, the best boat stove available.
After our boating adventures we bought another house and remodeled that kitchen with a modern 36" gas stove, trash compactor, dishwasher, etc. It was very nice!
In 1990 style, we chose all brass hardware and faucets, a modern Viking gas range, black granite countertops, and white cabinets, but we added a quaint booth seating arrangement.
Then we bought our "forever" house. Close to good schools, large tree shaded lot in a great neighborhood, but...
the house was a dump. And the kitchen was a cook's nightmare: electric stove, rusty metal cabinets, formica countertops, poor lighting, wimpy exhaust fan.
I lived with that kitchen for nine years while we remodeled every other part of the house.
Finally in 2005 we did the kitchen. And it was fabulous! The whole house was English style so I designed a "fireplace" to house the gas stove. The sides of the fireplace had little cupboards for spices and it had great lighting and a commercial exhaust fan on the roof.
We hid the refrigerator and dishwasher behind cabinets doors, and there was plenty of space to display dishes and teapots. When the kids were at home we kept the table in the middle of the room, but after they flew the coop, we moved it to a wall, and put our beloved meatblock in the middle.
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| Right of stove |
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| Left of stove |
This was my favorite kitchen ever and we had so many fun parties that revolved around cooking with friends. Our kitchen was always the hub of all the action!
And then we moved onto a sailboat again and went cruising. For four years I cooked here; in the most perfectly designed galley ever.
Such a tiny kitchen, but safe and easy for cooking underway because it was so narrow. I could safely wedge myself in on either tack, the stove gimbled itself to stay level, I could access the fridge and freezer without clearing the counters, and everything was right there! I cooked three meals a day there, many of them prepared underway, for four years.
The kitchen looked like this when we bought the house. There had been a fire and the kitchen was stripped out, but the sink was under a window that originally looked out onto a breezeway.
The stove and frige were on the opposite wall, and there was a tiny breakfast area under this bay window in the other end of the room. Groceries had to come through the garage, then through the breezeway/family room, and finally into the kitchen.
After drawing the whole house and evaluating the floor plan and traffic flow, we decided to change the bay window to a door, use the kitchen as a breakfast room/entry, and move the kitchen to a den next door.
That not only gave us a larger kitchen, but convenient access to the driveway and an airy, light-filled breakfast room. More rearranging turned the patio room (next to the new kitchen) into the dining room, and the old dining room into an office.
So now this corner looks like this.
And this corner looks like this.
Our old gas range will sit under that huge exhaust hood. The stove restoration is almost done. We should be cooking on it any day now.
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