A Kitchen and Bathroom Remodeling Magazine

Kitchen Cabinets & their History

 

The term kitchen cabinet has specific political roots going back to 1831 when then President Andrew Jackson had a collection of ‘unofficial’ political advisors (versus the ‘parlor’ cabinet) whom he consulted after expelling six members of his official Cabinet.

 

Today of course we recognize the term kitchen cabinet to be a cabinet that is in our kitchen that holds such items as dishes, glasses, pots and pans as well as food items.  Other built in cabinets in kitchens might hold large appliances (dishwashers, garbage disposals) and depending on the design of your kitchen, may have places for vacuum cleaners, brooms, wastepaper baskets and a plethora of other items. Often when entering a kitchen we find that stoves, ovens, refrigerators and other larger appliances are integrated into the cabinets.

 

Prior to kitchen cabinets (which were only invented in the early 20^th Century), we used such things as pantries (for storing food), cupboards which held items such as dishes and glassware, protecting them from dust and dirt.  Food preparation was typically done on tables that were integrated into cupboards.  Originally called Multi-Tasking cabinets, they were designed by the Hoosier Manufacturing Company (New Castle) and originally were nicknamed ‘hoosies’ which meant a unit that contained a stove, and pullout work area and had specially designed drawers and shelves to store such things as bread, vegetables, cans and other items needed for cooking.

 

Earlier cabinets were extremely decorative and ornate pieces of furniture that were found in all rooms in the home, including bedrooms, entry halls, living and dining rooms as well as kitchens (where they were used to store food and dishes).  The illustration at the left shows a cabinet from the 17^th century and was probably used to store china and silverware.  Today, storage of china is accomplished mostly in what we now refer to as ‘hutches’ (or china cabinets) or in other ornamental closets with glass fronts so the items can be seen when entering the room. 

 

 

 

Modern kitchen cabinets are made from a variety of products, including laminates, hard woods, soft woods, aluminum and other metals and are typically the basis for the overall design for the kitchen.  If a lot of entertaining is going to be done, then a different layout would be done than for someone who would be mainly using their kitchen for family meals.

 

Often, especially when building new homes, the designer will showcase the kitchen and typically works with the home buyer to determine how the kitchen will be used before determining the kitchen cabinet layouts.

 

We have different expectations of our kitchen cabinets today, we want more convenience, including spice racks, carousels, towel racks, storage bins (for potato and onion), silverware containers (specially designed to hold our flatware) and especially lighting.  We expect most of this to be built into our cabinetry today.

Today kitchen designs include

One Way Galley Kitchens (also known as ‘single file’) which typically have the cabinets and sink, stove, and refrigerator: all along one wall, and a work area.  This is used especially where space is limited (such as a studio apartment).

Two Way Galley Kitchens (double file) with opposite walls holding stove and sink (and cabinets) and the other holding the refrigerator and additional cabinet space.  This is the ‘classic work kitchen’ that most of us see.

Lesser used “L” kitchens have cabinets that may be on adjacent walls, with a work area in the center and a table on a third wall, or “U” shaped kitchens with cabinets on 3 walls, and a sink at the base. 

Island Kitchens (also known as block kitchens) are must more recent where the stove and sink are placed where an “L” or “U” would normally hold a table and an island separates the cabinets.  This is typically used in an open kitchen and allows the person cooking more ability to interact with family and guests.

Modern kitchens (unlike in prior years) are much more informal spaces and allow people to eat in them.  These are known as eat in kitchens and avoid the formality of eating in a separate dining area (or dining room).

There are many types of kitchen cabinets:

Freestanding cabinets are ones that can be easily moved from one area to another and may include things like hutches, stand alone pantries or a plain cabinet that holds any items that you care to store in them. 

A built in cabinet as the name implies is immovable and is attached to a wall (and may even be a floor to ceiling cabinet).   Because a built in cabinet takes more labor, time and skill, they are typically much more expensive than a freestanding cabinet would be.

Kitchen cabinets may be frameless (no frame around the front of the cabinet) or it may have a face frame which is typically an aesthetic preference of the owner of the cabinet.  Today, we have choices of stock cabinets (those that are mass produced and available at most home building supply stores), semi custom made cabinets (those that are partially designed with some matching characteristics) which allow the purchaser to select door type (i.e. wood, glass, laminate, etc), or fully custom made.  The custom built cabinet is clearly the most expensive of the options however it does allow the purchasing person to have their say as to what they’d like not only as a design but also allows selection of materials from start to finish.

Let’s look at some specifics:  Let’s say you’re having a home built and you have determined you are going to be doing a lot of entertaining and you will be cooking a lot, and need additional storage space for cooking supplies.  Let’s talk about some of the convenient cabinet layouts you can select.

Having your dishwasher built in to your preparation area along with a sink is a major time-saver when preparing large meals, baking, or even for everyday preparing of meals.  You may also want a bin built in for tossing scraps or trash while you’re cooking avoiding the necessity of moving all over the kitchen while you’re cooking and having the ability to clean up as you go along.

Work spaces need to be functional and nothing could be more functional than having a rotating cabinet space to hold your spices and other cooking supplies close to your preparation area.  Special cabinets can be designed to deal with this type of a set up.  If you’ve built your oven in, you may want cabinet space underneath to hold baking dishes and casserole dishes and other pans that will only be used in the oven.  A specially set up drawer to hold potholders, cooling racks and trivets may also be helpful in this area.

For food storage, you may consider not only open shelves, but specially designed cabinets that have storage behind the shelves that are visible when the doors are opened that store infrequently used items so they don’t have to be moved each time you need to reach for something you use all the time.  If you use a lot of spices, you may opt to have your spice racks built into the doors of these special designed cabinets.  Some people may decide that rather than waste the ‘dead’ space in corners to have specially designed ‘lazy susan’s’ built into the space there to allow maximization of the area and eliminate dead space.  Special spots to hold pot covers, or areas to hold storage containers and their covers can also be built.

 

If you live in an area where recycling is recognized you may want to have several bins built in to accommodate not only your every day trash, but recycle items as well, one for paper, one for plastic or glass, one for cans and another for cans and bottles with deposits.  This would allow all of our ‘recycle’ materials to be self contained between pickups without having to traipse outside your home to deposit them in recycle bins and also prevents unsightly bins from being in your kitchen area.

 

The possibilities for kitchen cabinets are endless, only limited by your own desires and imagination. Maximizing your kitchen space with the best possible cabinetry can be a fun and enjoyable adventure!