Kitchen Cabinet

“ Besides the table top, which is used as a molding board, there are places for the flour bin, sugar container, bread, cake, pots, pans, rolling pin, cutlery, jars, dishes, marketing slips, and even the favorite cook book.
The kitchen cabinet is a boon to the small housekeeper and is becoming so appreciated for its concentration of work and saving of steps that even the owners of large homes insist on installing it. That is why architects are including the kitchen cabinet in their plans. It means a saving of 75% of toil and thus becomes a factor in making servants willing to stay with you. ”

“ We must have enormous wood-baskets or wood-boxes. Oh, it’s just like furnishing a real house! What loads of fun we’ll have!”
“Then, in the kitchen,” Mr. Rose went on, drawing as he spoke, “we’ll have a tiny sink, all nice white enamel, and a wall-cupboard for your dish-towels and soap and such things. Also a sort of a small—a very small—kitchen cabinet for your pepper and salt, with a place underneath for pans and kettles.” ”

“ In this cabinet there is, too, room for a gas stove or electric plates, so that with it you have a complete, compact kitchen.
The unit systems in steel are most elastic, as they can be duplicated over the broadest and the narrowest, longest and shortest kitchens. Whole pantries can be equipped with them. Diet kitchens in the upper floors of large residences can also be equipped with these units so that any member of the family, nurse or valet, can prepare a little meal with everything comfortably housed in the pantry cabinet. ”

“ But now when there are specialists descanting on the glories of saving steps, time and money there is little excuse. In this article one stumbling block will be removed and the kitchen can well transform itself into a room where the most methodical man can work and where any maid coming in for the first time will not have to use levers, telescopes, periscopes and what not to prepare the first meal. For the kitchen cabinet is the first plank in the platform of standardizing domestic work even as it is being standardized in the factory. ”

“ There are several different types of worktables in the Curtis catalog. One of them is shown in the large illustration on page 12; another is shown at the bottom of that page. Bins, drawers and cabinets utilize the space beneath the table top. Like Curtis dressers, they are made with “toe-room” for the convenience of the worker. Perhaps a corner of your kitchen can be used for a dining alcove, or a breakfast table that folds into a wall cabinet when not in use, such as are shown on page 15.
There should be a built-in ironing board in every kitchen. ”

“ The steel are either 6′′ from the floor to allow for cleaning or are stationary and are attached to the floor by curved constructed tile or linoleum, which gives continuity and unity, thus reducing the swabbing out of the floor to simplest terms.
The kitchen cabinet that is put in when the house is built, be it of wood or steel, is more convenient than any other closet, as no builder has given sufficient thought to maximum utilities. ”

“ The unit system is proud of the adaptability to any need, including even broom closets on the side of the cabinet, filling any wall space. These are usually made of steel and provide a cheaper method of backing up one side of the kitchen than by the use of tile or kitchen shelving. ”

“ America today is kitchen conscious and is ready for a thorough modernization job on her kitchen. Kitchen planning as an important phase of selling should be carefully studied. Kitchens should be planned to be efficient and should be laid out carefully, preferably by an architect, for the installation of sink bases, extra built-in cabinets, and other features. However, the kitchen also offers unlimited opportunities for the sale of portable cabinets, kitchen tables and chairs, cabinet bases, work tables, curtains, linoleum, pots, pans, and accessories. ”

“ Such wall treatment will go far toward making a beautiful kitchen. Add to this a well-arranged dresser for blue or white kitchen china, with a closed cabinet for the heavy iron utensils which can hardly be included in any scheme of kitchen beauty; curtained cupboards and short window-hangings of blue, or "Turkey red"—which are invaluable for colour, and always washable; a painted floor—which is far better than oil-cloth, and one has the elements of a satisfactory scheme of beauty. ”

“ Cleats: 4 pieces 1” thick × 1” wide × 14” long. Directions:
After cutting legs, nail on cleats even with the top edge, measuring 14” for the bottom cleat. Measure 2” from the ends and sides of the top and nail on the legs. Measure 73⁄4” from the right-hand end and 9” from the side and make a hole 8” in diameter. Nail the bottom shelf at an equal distance from the bottom of the legs.
[Pg 16] [Pg 17] WALL CABINET FOR THE KITCHEN
(Made from Dry Goods Boxes)
A comfort to the housewife is a kitchen cabinet, containing different compartments for spices and such accessories necessary in cooking. ”

“ Who could grow fond of a white-tiled floor or a porcelain sink as they exist in so many modern kitchens! And as for the bulgy and top-heavy cook stoves, badly proportioned refrigerators, and kitchen cabinets—well, we should have to like cooking very well indeed before we could feel any pleasure in the mere presence of these necessary but unnecessarily ugly accompaniments to our work.
We have come to think of cleanliness as not only next to godliness, but as something which takes the place of beauty—is beauty. ”

“ After it was shown to the sitters that he was utterly helpless, the curtain was drawn. The manager now placed an ordinary kitchen table in front of the door of the cabinet, so that it stood away from it about two feet. The table contained no drawer. On the table was laid writing materials, a guitar, and small bell. The manager seated himself close to one side of the cabinet entrance, and started a large Swiss music box. ”

“ Stove should be convenient to, but slightly away from, work shelf for hot weather. An ideal arrangement is china cupboard at right of sink, cabinet with broad work shelf at left of sink and, in a narrow kitchen, range on opposite wall from sink across narrowest part of room; if range is far from any broad working surface a table should be very near range. All kitchen equipment, except range, should be as near as possible to dining room door. If no dining room pantry with sink is provided, kitchen sink should be near dining room door. ”

“ One firm emphasizes its burner because it spreads well; it claims there is a saving of gas, which is quite true. This stove also stresses its glass oven door. Now the glass oven door is a fine thing, but when meats are being cooked, the glass becomes greased, and unless cleaned off at once may leave furrows.
The cabinet stove is the type used practically all over this country. It sits on high legs and has the oven (top or bottom) , warmers and shelves. The stove without shelves is not called the cabinet style. Usually the cabinet has the ovens to right or left or below the cooking top. ”

“ The Kitchen is separated from the dining-room by a single door, and in close proximity to the rear entrance and cellar stairway doors. It contains one large closet, range with elevated oven, warm-closet, and water-back, boiler, sink, and wash-tubs. The Kitchen should be wainscoted 3 feet high, with 5⁄8 × 3-inch ceiling-boards. The clock and lamp-shelf should be put between the closet and hall doors, and not over the range. The advantage of having the kitchen on the same floor with the dining-room must be apparent to every one.... ”

“ If expense be no obstacle, it will be well to have a separate chimney for the kitchen, as this is one of the surest ways of preventing odors of food from reaching other rooms. Although the room may be admirably arranged and finished, it will not be a model apartment unless there be good ventilation and an abundance of light. Most kitchens have some dark corners, but there should be none.
Excepting the ceilings, every part of the room, as well as of the pantry and the adjoining closets, should be finished in a way that permits of washing. A hard-wood floor is desirable. ”

“ It is equally unpleasant to sit in the room in which one has just dined, or to take meals in the room where they have just been cooked. With a little contrivance and ingenuity, the kitchen may be transformed into a neat little dining-room, a gas stove erected in any convenient recess or in the bathroom, and with paper-bag cookery, nothing more elaborate will be needed. ”

“ The endless variety of new things which may be suggested for the kitchen is a veritable gold mine for the salesman who takes the opportunity to investigate the possibilities.
Many interesting and delightful things go into the modern kitchen which were unknown in those of 20 years ago. One sees a colorful pad for the work chair, a hanging bookshelf for cookbooks and accessories, an ornamental wall clock, colored prints, and plants. And of course in many a kitchen there is the breakfast nook, with its decorative furniture and its colored linen, glass, and china. ”

“ The kitchen is an odd and dingy little place, with its solitary window and blackened ceiling, where slender rafters are set widely apart, that the chestnuts, strewn over the floor above, may be dried during winter by the heat from beneath. There is no glass, moreover, to the window, but only heavy little wooden shutters; but these are not often closed, and the free air blows in by night and by day, bearing the sweet scent of carnations, that stand in a broken pot on the sill. There is no door leading into the sleeping-room—only an aperture in the wall. ”

“ If stove is already installed in a dark place in exhibition house, move it into light, even though repiping and wiring may be required. Mirrors may be hung to throw additional light on range. If there is no good working shelf on cabinet, a table should be near cabinet for mixing food. There will then have to be a second table with a heat proof top near the stove unless stove is so near to cabinet that one table will serve both for mixing and setting hot utensils on. If possible, install a gas range, or an electric range if current is cheap enough to warrant. ”

“ I’m going to paint the woodwork white, and get some ball-bearing casters for it, and use it in the kitchen to work on. Then I can wheel it around where I need it, over by the sink when I’m washing dishes, over by the stove to hold the bowl of batter when I’m baking cakes.”
“Say, that’ll be great!” cried Louise. “Oh! I never [Pg 131] realized a kitchen could be pretty. Why, I’d like to wash dishes in a place like that—all white! Say, Nellie, is that a part of interior decorating? Kitchens?”
“Surely!” smiled the sister. “We want to make it pleasant where we have to work the most. ”

“ When not in use this table may be moved to some other part of the room. There should be one more table in the kitchen, between two windows if the space will permit,—a settle table, which serves as a seat when not in use for ironing or some other purpose. Above the table have two shelves,—one for a clock, and the other for cook-books, the grocer’s and marketman’s order-books, etc. It is a good idea to have the corners of all the tables rounded, so that nobody shall be hurt by striking against them. ”

“ A very small room in a tar-papered shanty, reeking poverty. The entrance is center-back,—a few boards nailed together for a door. A similar door, opening into the bedroom of the shack, upstage right. Downstage left, a broken window. Left center, a rusty cooking stove. Above it, a series of shelves holding a few dishes and cooking utensils. Rough board table in the center of the room. A kitchen chair at the right of the table. A large wooden rocker near the stove; rope and wire hold it together. An arm-chair, below the bedroom door is full of newspapers. ”

“ On each side of the sink have a swinging table, on which to place dishes. The tables will at times be convenient when making salads and other similar dishes. Above the table nearest the kitchen have a slide in the wall, that dishes may be passed to and from the kitchen. This small space will not admit odors or the hot air as the door would if kept open. In case there be two or more servants in the household, the door from the closet to the kitchen need not be opened at all while a meal is served, all dishes being passed through the slide. ”

“ The kitchen floor should be simply boarded; if only used to cook in, it should have merely one or two large squares of oilcloth or cocoa-nut matting by the stove, kitchen table, or where the cook and kitchen-maid stand to work, and the furniture should resolve itself into a couple of good tables, one the ordinary kitchen table, the other much on the same lines but smaller, and placed close to the window, to be used for pastry making and the finer parts of cooking, and which should both be scrubbed daily, and on which grease should never be allowed to remain for one minute. ”

“ Directly beyon the well two girls may be seen in the act of preparing dinner which consists in arranging the dishes on little raised lacquer trays, which are to be carried in when dinner is ready. Near the range are little portable affairs made of soft stone used as braziers. The raised floor is composed of broad planks; kitchens invariably have wooden floors, which are oftentimes very smooth and polished.
The usual form of kitchen range is represented in fig. 168; this is made of broken tiles and mud or clay compacted together and neatly plastered and blackened on the outside. ”