House in Progress Diary

The Puzzle of Bungalow Kitchens

Many people who purchase bungalows struggle with how to work within the kitchen. Kitchens have often been the most muddled over time, and our kitchen is certainly no exception.

Modern appliances hunch uncomfortably next to built-in cabinets. Some old cabinets have been ripped out to make way for a small dishwasher. Freestanding kitchen furniture sprawls around...the windows seem too low...the ceiling seems too high. Lack of ventilation, a uneven wooden floor with strange holes plugged by various means. And VERY little room to move around.

I was reading a book I found in our "collection" called "Twenty Lessons in Domestic Science" by Marion Cole Fisher from 1916 (two years after our kitchen was built) and was surprised by what I found!

Nestled in between the recipes for Velvet Cake and Bride's Cake and Biscuits and Norwegian bread, was this diagram (click on the image to enlarge it):

The middle of the diagram shows the floor layout (including an overhead sketch of a skylight (?!) and ventilation. The sides are meant to be "folded up"...they show the walls of the room.

WOW!

And Lesson 20 in the book imparted wisdom on kitchen layout and maintenance. Here is an excerpt (again, click to enlarge):

So, besides being a beautiful book to read and look at (it has lovely black and white illustrations), and filled with recipes of the time, it dispenses valuable advice from the past on the layout, care and maintenance of bungalow kitchens!

I am, as always, agog.

Posted by jeanne on January 19, 2004 at 11:51 AM (2)