Pre/ After WW2 Kitchen

vintageteainmywardrobe

Hello,

I know this is going to be a random one but I am really looking for help and hoping someone on here will be able to lend some advice.

I am wanting to rip out my modern kitchen completely and build a pre/after WW2 (UK) kitchen. I live in an traditional one up, one down 1800’s terraced fisherman cottage (with a crap 2009 two storey extension where the kitchen is), the kitchen was there when we bought the house (first time buyer). I’ve been told it was installed in 2009. This is my dream home so I don't envision us selling it, ever, unless something drastic happens.

I’m just wondering if anyone has done this? I know I can go either way in the way that I could have kitchen cupboards (a la the version you can get now), which I don’t think will work for me at all or I could go the draw set, separate cooker, Belfast sink and vintage kitchen cupboards (of which I have two of the tall ones), kinda like this (https://i0.wp.com/sawhd.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Retro-Kitchen-1940s-3.jpg?resize=1024%2C768&ssl=1). I just kind of need to talk to someone who has one/done one so I know whether it’s a pipe dream and unusable or whether it would be usable.

To help a bit of background, I’ve been steadily retro refitting our house to 1930's/1940's/1950's and I’d say it’s quite granny chic, with a modern twist.

Thanks for any help in advance even if it’s to tell me I’m barking up the wrong tree lol!

Nessy

Heatherweed

It works our kitchen has belfast sink in wooden frame. Gas range cooker ,wooden trolley, large 2 door larder cupboard. One wall brick with fire place. We love it not to everyone's taste but whole bunglow very old fashioned beams log fire etc. Go for it

unrecordings

We sort of did this with our last house & current one. In the current one (1928 semi) the kitchen had to come out anyway, so we got some base units from B&Q - cream doors & with the right handles a bit Art Deco. We didn't bother with wall units and instead put up shelves made from external hardwood ply on wooden brackets. Worktops were going to be Oak, but we we ended up just using more hardwood ply as we still weren't 100% on the layout (that was eight years ago and it's still fine). The thing to think about is storage. Ours has a good pantry and we managed to retain the fitted shelving doen the side of the chimney breast. Depends on how much kitchen gadgetry there is (and how much vintage china)

vintageteainmywardrobe

Heatherweed wrote: »

It works our kitchen has belfast sink in wooden frame. Gas range cooker ,wooden trolley, large 2 door larder cupboard. One wall brick with fire place. We love it not to everyone's taste but whole bunglow very old fashioned beams log fire etc. Go for it

Thank you @heatherweed, I've been trying for a while (several facebook groups) to just find someone who has the same kind of set up I wanted, I was so worried that I was just wishing for a different era. I'm so glad it works and it makes my dream a lot more attainable.

unrecordings wrote: »

We sort of did this with our last house & current one. In the current one (1928 semi) the kitchen had to come out anyway, so we got some base units from B&Q - cream doors & with the right handles a bit Art Deco. We didn't bother with wall units and instead put up shelves made from external hardwood ply on wooden brackets. Worktops were going to be Oak, but we we ended up just using more hardwood ply as we still weren't 100% on the layout (that was eight years ago and it's still fine). The thing to think about is storage. Ours has a good pantry and we managed to retain the fitted shelving doen the side of the chimney breast. Depends on how much kitchen gadgetry there is (and how much vintage china)

Thank you @unrecordings, I agree with the storage, I've been making a list of what we actually use compared to what we think we use/need and well as long as I have space for all my jars, my dehydrator and slow cooker we should do OK. I don't have a pantry sadly as the house is so small but I'd be using my two 1930's/1940's larder cupboards as the pantry.

caronc

Might be a bit later date wise than you want but my Gran had one of these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Kitchenette-Retro-Pantry-Larder-50s-60s-Mid-Century-Cabinet-Cupboard/254427866067?hash=item3b3d1523d3:g:-EYAAOSwyEJdi3Qe bought in the early 1950s and it held a lot of stuff as well as the handy pull out work top. I had it for a few years when I first got married and bitterly regret ditching it when we moved in 1991. Really handy if you don't want lots of food stuffs on display and don't have a larder.

thriftwizard

Holding my hands up & mentioning straight away that my kitchen doesn't belong to any particular era, being very much a traditional "farmhouse" type kitchen with pine table (secondhand IKEA), slate floor tiles, benches that my brother made, built-in pine larder cupboards & dresser-type cupboards, re-used base units etc. but I'm a "vintage" market trader & just about everything in the example you've shown us, I've seen at auction in the very recent past. Old-style cupboards, larder cupboards & tables usually change hands down here (south, central) for less than £50 including the buyer's premium & VAT. I personally went for a deep stainless steel double sink from a catering company, rather than the classic ceramic Belfast, as it's easier to clean & doesn't chip, and at that point there were at least 7 of us living here!

It may look dated, and give a designer or a minimalist nightmares, but my kitchen works, and works well. A lot of baking happens, and at least two main meals are prepped & cooked from scratch in there most days (two pescatarians, two omnivores!) So it should be entirely do-able to have the kitchen you'd love, that works well for you. (We may change our dresser-type cupboards for open shelving soon, as they're not really deep enough for plates & things, but curtains will feature to keep dust & grease out.)

I have a number of regular customers whose homes are completely 40s/50s, with the exception of a modern fridge, a TV and a computer. Seems the simplicity makes them happy, and what's wrong with that?

phoebe1989seb

We did something similar back in the mid 1990s in our detached Victorian house that still had its original small kitchen with large walk-in pantry/larder.

The (elderly) previous owner had no real fitted kitchen to rip out, just a couple of ugly 1980s cabinets with a stainless steel sink. We tiled the floor with reclaimed quarry tiles.

We had a small butler sink unit made in oak with a single draining board, bought a large antique dresser that filled one wall and prepped food on a carpenters wooden workbench that we adapted into a kind of island (although it was pushed up against one wall, so not really an island). That just left space for a 60cm oven......

Our washing machine was in an outbuilding and back then we didn't have the luxury of a dishwasher, lol

I confess that the kitchen set up wasn't terribly practical, but it was a very tiny room for the size of the (four bed) house. It would have worked much better in a larger room, imho.

I guess the woman we sold the house to a few years later thought so too as she moved all the freestanding pieces into the adjacent sunroom - which she used as a utility - and had fitted cabinets installed in the kitchen.

Recently our son created an unfitted kitchen in his last home, using vintage pine dressers etc adapted to house a butler sink etc.....

glennevis

Went for a guided tour of the Castle of Mey this year. This was the late Queen Mother's home and the kitchen dates from the 1950s. The fridge is still going strong after 65 years. Still looks really stylish and it shows that you could have fitted kitchen units even then.


http://www.caithness.org/caithness/castles/mey/insidemey/kitchena.jpg

PasturesNew

I dislike modern/fitted kitchens immensely - my 'dream kitchen' would simply be a sink so I could plonk stand alone items where I wanted them. I think they're easier to get the storage right (and change it) when you want.

Modern/fitted kitchens, changes, fixes etc require so many 'specialists' to become involved for no purpose other than an end result of "doesn't it look neat'. You're also stuck with somebody else's poor choices when you buy a house, things you can't change.

Go for it.... you'll be able to move things about, change your mind, have the 'right size' cupboards etc that fit your needs and bugg4h those who have been increasingly sucked into the 'fitted' route. Nobody's kitchen ever suits somebody else, so at least you're not annoyed by/stuck with choices a stranger made (probably when they were trying to skimp).

Give it 10 years... I bet stand alone kitchens are all the rage again.

vintageteainmywardrobe

caronc wrote: »

Might be a bit later date wise than you want but my Gran had one of these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Kitchenette-Retro-Pantry-Larder-50s-60s-Mid-Century-Cabinet-Cupboard/254427866067?hash=item3b3d1523d3:g:-EYAAOSwyEJdi3Qe bought in the early 1950s and it held a lot of stuff as well as the handy pull out work top. I had it for a few years when I first got married and bitterly regret ditching it when we moved in 1991. Really handy if you don't want lots of food stuffs on display and don't have a larder.

Thank you for this, I actually have two of them, one from the 30's and one from the 40's. Sadly one has been painted so I need to strip back the paint but it's used every day and the other is in proper storage till I rip the kitchen out!

thriftwizard wrote: »

Holding my hands up & mentioning straight away that my kitchen doesn't belong to any particular era, being very much a traditional "farmhouse" type kitchen with pine table (secondhand IKEA), slate floor tiles, benches that my brother made, built-in pine larder cupboards & dresser-type cupboards, re-used base units etc. but I'm a "vintage" market trader & just about everything in the example you've shown us, I've seen at auction in the very recent past. Old-style cupboards, larder cupboards & tables usually change hands down here (south, central) for less than £50 including the buyer's premium & VAT. I personally went for a deep stainless steel double sink from a catering company, rather than the classic ceramic Belfast, as it's easier to clean & doesn't chip, and at that point there were at least 7 of us living here!

It may look dated, and give a designer or a minimalist nightmares, but my kitchen works, and works well. A lot of baking happens, and at least two main meals are prepped & cooked from scratch in there most days (two pescatarians, two omnivores!) So it should be entirely do-able to have the kitchen you'd love, that works well for you. (We may change our dresser-type cupboards for open shelving soon, as they're not really deep enough for plates & things, but curtains will feature to keep dust & grease out.)

I have a number of regular customers whose homes are completely 40s/50s, with the exception of a modern fridge, a TV and a computer. Seems the simplicity makes them happy, and what's wrong with that?

Your kitchen sounds amazing! I'm glad to hear it works. I always keep a look out for stuff when I'm in Leicester, so will see what I can find next time. I'd love to meet your customers!!! I'm currently retrofitting my bathroom into a 40's pink and mint green bathroom and I've found collecting all the little bits just lovely. Have my eye on the flying mallards though and boy are they expensive!

phoebe1989seb wrote: »

We did something similar back in the mid 1990s in our detached Victorian house that still had its original small kitchen with large walk-in pantry/larder.

The (elderly) previous owner had no real fitted kitchen to rip out, just a couple of ugly 1980s cabinets with a stainless steel sink. We tiled the floor with reclaimed quarry tiles.

We had a small butler sink unit made in oak with a single draining board, bought a large antique dresser that filled one wall and prepped food on a carpenters wooden workbench that we adapted into a kind of island (although it was pushed up against one wall, so not really an island). That just left space for a 60cm oven......

Our washing machine was in an outbuilding and back then we didn't have the luxury of a dishwasher, lol

I confess that the kitchen set up wasn't terribly practical, but it was a very tiny room for the size of the (four bed) house. It would have worked much better in a larger room, imho.

I guess the woman we sold the house to a few years later thought so too as she moved all the freestanding pieces into the adjacent sunroom - which she used as a utility - and had fitted cabinets installed in the kitchen.

Recently our son created an unfitted kitchen in his last home, using vintage pine dressers etc adapted to house a butler sink etc.....

We thankfully don't have a galley kitchen, though the house originally would of had one, because of the 2009 extension, which I wish wasn't done but if I ever have kids I'll be glad. I think the measurements of the kitchen is 9sq metres

Do you remember what didn't work? Was it the storage or just moving around?

I'd love to see your sons kitchen, that sounds ace!

vintageteainmywardrobe

PasturesNew wrote: »

I dislike modern/fitted kitchens immensely - my 'dream kitchen' would simply be a sink so I could plonk stand alone items where I wanted them. I think they're easier to get the storage right (and change it) when you want.

Modern/fitted kitchens, changes, fixes etc require so many 'specialists' to become involved for no purpose other than an end result of "doesn't it look neat'. You're also stuck with somebody else's poor choices when you buy a house, things you can't change.

Go for it.... you'll be able to move things about, change your mind, have the 'right size' cupboards etc that fit your needs and bugg4h those who have been increasingly sucked into the 'fitted' route. Nobody's kitchen ever suits somebody else, so at least you're not annoyed by/stuck with choices a stranger made (probably when they were trying to skimp).

Give it 10 years... I bet stand alone kitchens are all the rage again.

Thank you! Someone who has the same heart as me! I really really dislike modern kitchens, especially the "but you've got so much space" of which most of it isn't usable.

I think we'll be keeping the sink where it is as it's the only window in the kitchen but everything else will be move able as life moves, I'm actually really excited to do it, everyone else thinks I'm mad and that I'm going to be "paying the price" to put a modern kitchen back in but I won't. All I need is suitable storage for pot's/pan's which is in my vintage larder dressers. I need a pantry type thing, so I'm putting up shelving on one wall. and a decent table to make pastry's etc. Oh and the cooker but if I change everything around I might might be able to find a second hand electric aga in my price range :rotfl: