Kitchen Cabinets

Cabinet design and details are critical in making a new kitchen fit  an old house. We look at traditional construction, and outline the must-haves for restoration-worthy cabinets.

- Mary Ellen Polson

WHAT GIVES an old-house kitchen the feeling of authenticity? It’s the cabinets that connect a new installation to an earlier time, whether or not you choose marble countertops and vintage appliances.

Getting cabinetry right is tricky, given social and technology changes—and because the kitchen has evolved from being a closeted area for servants to the center of family life. Kitchens are larger and filled with such appurtenances as pot fillers and espresso makers, and contemporary homeowners demand storage capacity beyond even the pantries of old. Finding the right balance between, say, a late-19th-century appearance and a 21st-century lifestyle is a juggling act.

Few kitchens before about 1910 had what could be considered built-in cabinets. Islands were rare, worktables plentiful. Even in so grand a structure as the Gamble House, built in 1908, cabinetry was limited to one large and one smaller pass-through cupboard. The area under the drainboard sink was completely open. Fixed cabinets were reserved for the pantry, the transitional space between kitchen and dining room where plates, serving pieces, and cutlery were stored.

Cabinets began to proliferate during the building boom in builder’s cottages and houses in the 1910s [text cont. on p. 44]

SETTING THE STANDARD