Video about 1950's kitchens
- Thread starter rickr
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Watched it about 10 minutes after it was posted.
Nice little video.
It’s amazing how dramatically the eras of design changed too.
Here at least, the 1950s and 60s kitchens tended to use a lot of brightly coloured laminated and really zinging colours in the 60s on cabinet fronts. I’ve moved into houses that had multicoloured red and yellow doors, coloured glass block dividers and even a big sunshine inlay!
By the 1970s you start to see much more carved wood fronts and more traditional designs, and the high gloss finishes, if used, went much more muted with lots of greens and browns. Then by the 1980s they went for a lot of wood, but also more streamlined and tech looking. The late 80s and early 90s here had a lot of bland and somewhat retro designs. Things got very traditional looking with wooden doors and so on. By the 2000s you’re back into a mixture of ultra modern again and extremely minimalistic designs.
You tended to get a divide here between “European style” kitchen which were often just influenced by systemised design movements and minimalism with built in appliances or fully integrated appliances and then just generic kitchens which tended to use a lot of wooden frontages, could be a lot more traditional looking and often used more slot in appliances and didn’t care as much about integrating things to make them invisible.
Other than big range cookers, slot in here seems to be largely gone. Most of the standard width slot in cookers are now cheap and basic. If you went back to the 1990s there was still a wide range of (mostly British made) slot in cookers which were available in pretty high spec levels at the mid and high end and usually had eye level controls and cook top lighting. Those companies completely disappeared and the continental slot in cookers tended to be aimed at a budget market and were flat with the controls at the front. That sort of ended the slot in market here - they’re usually avoided nowadays or seen as a low budget solution. It’s a pity in some ways as they used to be pretty decent appliances with some innovative features, but they were probably very ugly and retro to some eyes - many of them still had plenty of chrome in the early 90s.
Here at least, the 1950s and 60s kitchens tended to use a lot of brightly coloured laminated and really zinging colours in the 60s on cabinet fronts. I’ve moved into houses that had multicoloured red and yellow doors, coloured glass block dividers and even a big sunshine inlay!
By the 1970s you start to see much more carved wood fronts and more traditional designs, and the high gloss finishes, if used, went much more muted with lots of greens and browns. Then by the 1980s they went for a lot of wood, but also more streamlined and tech looking. The late 80s and early 90s here had a lot of bland and somewhat retro designs. Things got very traditional looking with wooden doors and so on. By the 2000s you’re back into a mixture of ultra modern again and extremely minimalistic designs.
You tended to get a divide here between “European style” kitchen which were often just influenced by systemised design movements and minimalism with built in appliances or fully integrated appliances and then just generic kitchens which tended to use a lot of wooden frontages, could be a lot more traditional looking and often used more slot in appliances and didn’t care as much about integrating things to make them invisible.
Other than big range cookers, slot in here seems to be largely gone. Most of the standard width slot in cookers are now cheap and basic. If you went back to the 1990s there was still a wide range of (mostly British made) slot in cookers which were available in pretty high spec levels at the mid and high end and usually had eye level controls and cook top lighting. Those companies completely disappeared and the continental slot in cookers tended to be aimed at a budget market and were flat with the controls at the front. That sort of ended the slot in market here - they’re usually avoided nowadays or seen as a low budget solution. It’s a pity in some ways as they used to be pretty decent appliances with some innovative features, but they were probably very ugly and retro to some eyes - many of them still had plenty of chrome in the early 90s.
Great video, thank you for sharing.
Whatever happened to colour in kitchens and interiors? I blame the brown trend in the seventies. After that bright colours disappeard out of our houses.
Whatever happened to colour in kitchens and interiors? I blame the brown trend in the seventies. After that bright colours disappeard out of our houses.
The 1970s really introduced a lot of natural colours which were used in very drab ways in a lot of designs - acres of greens and browns. The 80s has its moments but mostly seems fairly conservative too.
Not all 1970s designs were bad. There were some really colourful and creative designs too, but when you use 70s colours in a conservative way, you end up with a very dull looking home. I just remember moving into my current house which was very definitely 70s chic but very conservatively so. It had things like long, dark brown mohair curtains - almost like a theatre curtain.
Loads of rail mounted spot lights, big brown cans and a dark oak kitchen with dark oak flooring and panelling at the back. They had installed 16 full sized recessed cans in the ceiling with 150 watt spots. You could feel the heat if they were all on!
The rest of the house was wall to wall beige wool carpets. Dark wood everywhere. Bathrooms were in avocado in one and dark pink in the other and an en suite with a dark brown shower, bath, wash basin and bidet (they were briefly popular and nobody seemed to know what then were for … many people referring to them as a foot bath.) that bathroom also had very practical dark orange shag pile carpet. There was also one room where they clearly bought a mid 80s Laura Ashley catalog … sooo many floral prints.
It was interesting but the whole house was taken out of That 70s Show. It actually really suited a more retro modernist look with lots of light. I kept the old school vibe - has lots of mid century touches but it’s very much brighter, more interesting, a lot more use of light woods and other surfaces - the carpets are banished, although I’ve some interesting big retro modernist designs on rugs and the shag pile bathroom carpet was sent for safe disposal as a potential biohazard
The bedrooms were quite something - had ceiling to floor smoked glass (quite dark) mirror wardrobe or very dark oak. There was also a disco ball in the en suite, which I kept!
The trend at the moment seems to go towards flat minimalism, painted cabinets and invisibility, which works in some context but can look really bland too. [this post was last edited: 5/24/2022-05:59]
Not all 1970s designs were bad. There were some really colourful and creative designs too, but when you use 70s colours in a conservative way, you end up with a very dull looking home. I just remember moving into my current house which was very definitely 70s chic but very conservatively so. It had things like long, dark brown mohair curtains - almost like a theatre curtain.
Loads of rail mounted spot lights, big brown cans and a dark oak kitchen with dark oak flooring and panelling at the back. They had installed 16 full sized recessed cans in the ceiling with 150 watt spots. You could feel the heat if they were all on!
The rest of the house was wall to wall beige wool carpets. Dark wood everywhere. Bathrooms were in avocado in one and dark pink in the other and an en suite with a dark brown shower, bath, wash basin and bidet (they were briefly popular and nobody seemed to know what then were for … many people referring to them as a foot bath.) that bathroom also had very practical dark orange shag pile carpet. There was also one room where they clearly bought a mid 80s Laura Ashley catalog … sooo many floral prints.
It was interesting but the whole house was taken out of That 70s Show. It actually really suited a more retro modernist look with lots of light. I kept the old school vibe - has lots of mid century touches but it’s very much brighter, more interesting, a lot more use of light woods and other surfaces - the carpets are banished, although I’ve some interesting big retro modernist designs on rugs and the shag pile bathroom carpet was sent for safe disposal as a potential biohazard
The bedrooms were quite something - had ceiling to floor smoked glass (quite dark) mirror wardrobe or very dark oak. There was also a disco ball in the en suite, which I kept!
The trend at the moment seems to go towards flat minimalism, painted cabinets and invisibility, which works in some context but can look really bland too. [this post was last edited: 5/24/2022-05:59]
Here’s a new video, this one is about the 1960’s kitchens.
Thak you Lugi. I found the same video about 12 hours after it was put up on Youtube yesterday evening, entitled the same as the film, Appliances We Need.
I have been a member since the old Yahoo Group days in 1998. Since that time, I've been on the lookout for our O'Keefe & Merrit gas cooktop and wall oven that was in the new house we moved to September 1961. And yesterday evening when I saw the YT film, there it was. OUr cooktop and wall oven are in the movie from 0:09 to 0:20. I've seen the wall oven in a couple of shoppers square listings over the years but never the exact cooktop. Usually those listings, as well as magazine ads having kitchen mockups of the wall oven and cooktop, it featured the next model down that didn't have the griddle in the middle and the burners were at an angle front to back instead of straight front to back like ours was--but still the same 42" wide cooktop.
I have been a member since the old Yahoo Group days in 1998. Since that time, I've been on the lookout for our O'Keefe & Merrit gas cooktop and wall oven that was in the new house we moved to September 1961. And yesterday evening when I saw the YT film, there it was. OUr cooktop and wall oven are in the movie from 0:09 to 0:20. I've seen the wall oven in a couple of shoppers square listings over the years but never the exact cooktop. Usually those listings, as well as magazine ads having kitchen mockups of the wall oven and cooktop, it featured the next model down that didn't have the griddle in the middle and the burners were at an angle front to back instead of straight front to back like ours was--but still the same 42" wide cooktop.
Into the 70’s we go.
