Thread: Kitchen Styles

[quote=silentC]
There are a couple of things that intrigue me. The first is, a lot of Shaker designs have these tiny little drawers in rows underneath the larger wall hanging cupboards. What did they put in them? quote]

Salt and Peper

OK, that accounts for two of them, what about the rest?

I was just reading your post in the other thread. So what you're saying is that there isn't really such a thing as an Australian style. I suppose there would be cabinetry associated with different architectural periods but since most of our tradies have been imports, I suppose they would just reflect the mother country.

Originally Posted by silentC

OK, that accounts for two of them, what about the rest?

I was just reading your post in the other thread. So what you're saying is that there isn't really such a thing as an Australian style. I suppose there would be cabinetry associated with different architectural periods but since most of our tradies have been imports, I suppose they would just reflect the mother country.

Exactly - Mother country and no Movement. Although i cant see a distinct style, their is no doubt our Designer/makers are up their with the very best the world has to offer

Originally Posted by silentC

There are a couple of things that intrigue me. The first is, a lot of Shaker designs have these tiny little drawers in rows underneath the larger wall hanging cupboards. What did they put in them?

Frangers.
The TV remote.
Car Keys.
Playboy Mags.

Al

Mother Anne would be shaking in her grave!!

Originally Posted by silentC

Mother Anne would be shaking in her grave!!

Owwhh yeah, and Mr Buzzy.

Al :eek:

Hi Darren, maybe spices?

Cheers
Barry

Hi SilentC - Just a thought - I am thinking of making our kit. doors with a removable panel, so that I can change the look of the kitchen when I want without too much hassle or cost. Ours will have Marri frames (milled from offcuts of the floor joists), and for insert panels some of the options are: black perforated metal, painted panels (folk arty), 12mm T&G in same timber or contrasting Jarrah, pyrography pics on veneer/ply panels; & so on.

I keep a plastic leafed folder of torn out mag. pics of furniture I like. Lots of times you can create a whole kitchen with the same style. Some of the American home mags have some fantastic kitchens in them.

Cheers,

Jill

My observations on an Australian style are simply that built-in kitchens for most didn't eventuate until well after WW2.

Kitchens prior to that time comprised a table, a sink (if you were flash) and a cupboard with maybe a meatsafe on the verandah.

Always painted, although sometimes the table top had been scrubbed clean, more often than not it had a "sanitary" lino top.

The late fifties saw the transition, with framed cupboards, laminex bench tops usually with an extruded moulding in aluminium screwed to the face, and painted cupboard fronts.

Here, with the exception of small pockets of wealth in Sydney and Melbourne, we didn't have the sort of disposable cash that allowed expenditure on flash stuff for utilitarian purposes, neither did we have the time for philosophising about whether our kitchens expressed the correct work ethic/philosophy as did the Shakers, there was too much going on; too many races and footy matches to attend.

Our population generally was just too small and too poor and arrived too late in world history. "We" were still living in slab huts using furniture made of kerosine tins and fruit boxes when the Shakers were at their peak!

As for a new Aus style, well usually the guys promoting that are the ones that get their design magazines airmail!
Cheers,

P

Originally Posted by silentC

..........first is, a lot of Shaker designs have these tiny little drawers in rows underneath the larger wall hanging cupboards. What did they put in them?.........

I know for a fact that Shaker people created those drawers so they could fill them up with the tea, coffee, sugar, biscuit, soap and shampoo packets they steal from motel rooms

I think about the kitchen in my Nanna's house. It was built pre-WWII. There was a big fireplace in one corner which was no longer in use. There was a row of painted cupboards under the window with the single bowl sink and a benchtop electric stove and oven (side by side I think, we are going back 20 years or more). The rest of the furniture in the room was freestanding cupboards, none of which matched.

I never thought about whether this was because she was rich or poor, just thought it was the way it was. I suppose with a husband who died early on and seven kids, there wasn't money for food let alone fancy cupboards to keep it in.

So when people 'restore' these Federation homes and whack in the $30,000 kitchens, they're not really being true to the tradition.

I suppose the other point is that Shaker kitchens probably weren't built-ins either. They would probably have consisted of freestanding cupboards and tables. The ones you see now are 'after the Shaker style', not authentic reproductions of a Shaker kitchen.

So I'm not really expecting someone to say "this is what kitchens looked like in the 20's" more "this is what cabinetry looked like in the 20's". Is there or has there ever been an Australian style, or has it always just been imported?

Barry, on the little drawers I thought of spices but then wouldn't they have been against their beliefs, seeing as they were all about utilitarian things with no frills?

Namtrak, there's not too many of them left (about 300 or so I think). The dumb thing about them was they believed in celibacy, which is a good way to ensure the eventual demise of your society. Maybe Al was right :eek:

The only comment I'd make about frame and panel doors in a kitchen is that they are great dust collectors.

I'm not sure if that's what you want in a kitchen.

Re: The Shaker's mode of living. Yeah, I never got that either. Even married couples lived separately. :confused:

"Hands to work, hearts to god".

they are great dust collectors

Yeah, good point. Don't tell SWMBO

The other alternative in solid timber doors is the batten door. Not a big fan of the look though.

Originally Posted by silentC

The other alternative in solid timber doors is the batten door. Not a big fan of the look though.

What's a batten door when it's at home?

Got a piccy ?