Three elements color, materials and accessories – can take a kitchen out of the workaday class and into the realm of leisure living. When Dr. and Mrs. Goddard Du Bois remodeled a kitchen, porch, pantry and closets into one big room for cooking, family activities and informal parties, they chose a sophisticated color scheme of blue, white and black. It is carried out in two versions. In the kitchen emphasis is on white and black: white for the ceiling, countertops and the wood cabinets above the counter, black for those below. Blue curtains and blue glass are the color accents. Beyond the cooking island, the scheme is reversed. The ceiling is painted blue, bench and banquette are upholstered in blue plastic, the curtains are blue-and-white. Black dining chairs, white globe-shaped lighting fixtures, white-topped table are the accents. Warmth and bright color come from mahogany paneling, a copy of modern painting, a garden view. A black-spattered white vinyl floor links the two areas.

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source: House and Garden Magazine | August 1959

Although in recent years color has held the center of the stage, the white kitchen is coming back into style but with a difference. If you would like a white kitchen but recall with a shudder the grimly clinical "laboratory kitchens" of the modernistic Twenties and Thirties, take heart. White is a wonderful background if you know how to use it. Because it contains all the shades in the spectrum and is the closest approximation to light, it has an affinity for all colors. Food and accessories become more inviting against white, which sets them off as a mat sets off a painting, and they in turn help to relieve it by reflection. (For instance, an orange ceiling makes a white kitchen seem warm and sunny.) White lends itself to many different effects and enables you to change color schemes at will by a switch of accessories. Designer Valerian S. Rybar combined white in cabinets and equipment with cool blues and hot red-orange tones to make his kitchen, opposite, a decorative setting for informal entertaining. It also is thoroughly practical, for everything is easily cleaned.

White kitchen is enlivened by an ingenious mingling of the cool and warm tones of the spectrum. Blue glass mosaic mural with colorful Italian larder motifs is echoed in striped curtains, orange bulletin board and blue tile floor, with subtle color in the all-over blue and green design on white plastic countertops. In the adjoining pantry, left, a bright blue wall with brass clock carries through the dominant color. Here, fold-away cooking units and a dishwasher provide a supplementary work area. The kitchen cooking center is separated from the dining area (used for after-theatre suppers) by a heat-resistant curved glass screen which blocks noise and cooking odors. The wood-and-marble-topped work cabinet, raised on legs to give lightness to the design, also acts as a buffet for informal parties. Cabinets and sinks by St. Charles. Refrigerator, dishwasher, cooking tops and built-in ovens by Frigidaire. Panelyte countertops by St. Regis. Amtico vinyl tile floor.

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source: House and Garden Magazine | February 1958

Ingenuity can often substitute for money in today's kitchen planning. An unconventional design carried out in budget-priced materials produced this kitchen, a self-contained cooking and serving citadel that is the hub of a big modern living room. Structurally, this is a straightforward carpentry job that could be duplicated in other materials, either expensive or inexpensive. The walls are ash plywood attached to wood studding and the cabinets are birch plywood. Walls and cabinets were given a satin finish: a coat of 50 per cent white lead and 50 per cent turpentine rubbed down after 24 hours with a rag dipped in linseed oil. The circular countertop was custom-cut from a sheet of Formica. Vinyl tile covers the floor.

 The equipment is arranged so that the large pieces, refrigerator and wall oven, are at the flattened ends of the arc and the smaller appliances are fitted into the more confined space in between (a point to allow for when planning a circular kitchen). This floor plan saves on materials and makes it easier to prepare meals and serve them indoors or on the terrace (reached by a door opposite the open end of the kitchen). Two ceiling spotlights and strip lights over work surfaces illuminate the kitchen. Flame was chosen as an interior color because it goes well with soft wood tones and provides a surprise element of stimulating color when the pass-throughs are opened for meals.

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source: House and Garden Magazine | September 1956

Kitchen has connected areas for laundry, bulk storage, cooking and eating. Washer-dryer is beyond sink area. Large freezer, broom closet and case-goods storage are in a walk-in closet behind wall ovens. Pans are kept in two-way cabinets between ovens and sink. The breakfast corner in foreground has a grill built into the counter-top. Sliding glass panels beneath hanging china cabinet permit serving to terrace.

Breakfast corner extends the kitchen counter space and links it to the living and dining rooms. The tiled counter zigzags around the wall, ends beneath two-way storage cabinets and pass-through which serve the dining room. Living room and breakfast corner share a two-way fireplace, pass-through bar and sink. Wood, glasses and liquor are stored by the bar.

Cooking center  is arranged in a wide bay with a triangular island to keep it free from busy traffic. Sink with disposal is next to refrigerator. Counter has a big built-in chopping block.

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source: House and Garden Magazine | February 1956

A custom-built cooking island stands at one end of living-dining room. The owner planned the details of the island and the cleanup area (where food is stored and dishes washed behind concealing doors). "I used lessons I learned from time and motion studies to save work." he says. "You don't have to move a step to talk to anyone and everything is at hand." 

Detachable hood is hung over grill before broiling steaks. It fastens to stain- less steel vent above cooking island which expels smoke and odors from both the grill and countertop burners through floor duct. 

Built-in stove unit supplements the charcoal grill in food preparation. In the fore- ground is a part of the chopping block. The entire unit is planned for serving either a swimming party lunch or elaborate dinner.

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source: House and Garden Magazine | February 1956

Mr. and Mrs. Samuel W. Foster of El Centro, California, might well have reversed the old saw, 'a little kitchen makes a large house.' Since the kitchen you see opposite was the first part of their house to be built, the Fosters literally lived in it for several years while construction continued. Today Mr. and Mrs. Foster and their three small children are as likely to gather for a barbecue or to grill steaks at the kitchen fireplace as they are to sit down around the dining table, and little wonder. The Fosters' kitchen has a cheerful open fireplace, a banquette that would be appropriate in a living room, year-round air conditioning, and a decorating scheme as tantalizing as the Mexican tamales that are often prepared here.

So that many cooks could work here without confusion, architect Burton Schutt neatly divided the kitchen into four centers for dining, cooking, food preparation, and washing up. While fireplace chefs turn the meat, another member of the party can prepare vegetables and a salad without ever crossing paths. Since several members of the family frequently do want to cook at the same time, the Fosters consider duplicate equipment more a matter of necessity than luxury. For this reason, eight countertop burners were installed in a peninsula near the center of the kitchen. Two nearby wall ovens let the cook watch several operations at the same time. There are also three sinks, plus a dishwasher, so that many activities dovetail but never overlap. Although the Fosters cook exactly in the center of their kitchen, odors are immediately drawn off by two fans in a hood over the burners. This hood also conceals spotlights that beam light down on the cooking surface to supplement soft illumination produced by nearly 90 white Christmas tree bulbs in a freeform ceiling cove.

Because of the extremes in temperature along the California- Mexico border, the Fosters kitchen fireplace was not just a happy impulse. It is actually used for extra heating on cool summer evenings and in winter. To prevent warping in the extreme hot- to-cold climate, kitchen cabinets are made of thick plywood. In the summer, the kitchen, two maids' rooms, and a service porch (used as laundry room and for the freezer) are kept pleasantly cool by a three-ton air conditioner. Part of the charm of the Fosters' kitchen is that it blends in so compatibly with its surroundings. All of the colors are taken from citrus fruits and Mexican tamales, as familiar to the Imperial Valley as are the desert plants and wide sweep of alfalfa visible through the kitchen windows.

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source: House and Garden Magazine | September 1953

From blueprint to blue color, the kitchen in our House of Ideas has been meticulously planned to reduce work and to increase visual pleasure. Excellent equipment is the secret of its efficiency. Color is the key to its visual appeal. As a color lesson, it demonstrates the virtue of subtlety. The colors here are not demanding, they do not shout for attention; their impact, instead, is soft and relaxing. The first impres- sion is of white-even the split bamboo blinds have been rubbed with white paint. Next you will probably notice the bright accents: the citron yellow plastic backs and seats of the kitchen chairs. This is the same yellow, incidentally, that figures so importantly in the rest of the house. Then come the blues: soft Wedgwood blue on the plastic countertops, a similar blue on the dial panel of the range. Open the cupboard doors; you will find blue-and-white china sparkling against blue shelves and walls. Open the refrigerator and you will find blue trimming inside of it too. At the base of this dulcet color medley lies a floor covered with gray linoleum, patterned to look like terrazzo, and gray also appears on the plastic top of the kitchen table in a matchstick pattern. An air of Regency elegance is supplied by brass pulls on wall cabinets.

Attractive-looking though our kitchen is, its gilding does not obscure the fact that it covers not a lily, but a room for work. Its three main centers of operation indicate the nature of the work. In one center is grouped the equipment necessary for food preparation and serving, in another, the laundry equipment, while the third, a section of counter and cabinets with an auxiliary sink, is organized for activities such as flower arrang- ing and other domestic odds and ends.

Newswise, the most interesting item in the kitchen is the range with its magical electronic eye. This device, which rests in the center of one of the surface units, literally measures the temperature of the food cooking in a pan; it maintains the necessary amount of heat by automatically turning the cur- rent off and on as required. Thus the cook need never worry about burned foods and scorched pans again. In addition, the range also has another surface unit which heats red-hot in exactly 30 seconds; a deep-well cooker which lifts out so that it can be replaced by a surface unit (making four in all); two ovens and an automatic electric clock and timer.

Equally handsome and just about as miraculous in its way (even though we have come to expect the miraculous in kitchen equipment) is the roomy refrigerator with a special place for every kind of food and container. It boasts a freezer compartment with separate controls, shelves that roll out to simplify loading and, best of all, an automatic defrosting sys- tem that not only removes the frost but disposes of it. The two-cubic-foot freezer is supplemented by another upright freezer, located in the laundry wing.

Efficiency in this kitchen is also abetted by a front- opening, top-loading dishwasher, wall cabinets that need no pulls because the doors extend below the lowest shelf and can be opened from the bottom, and direct lighting on counter- tops. For laundry, there is an electric washing machine with built-in scales, a companion dryer that sings 'How Dry I Am' when the clothes are ready; and a portable electric ironer that folds to fit into a counter-cabinet. The gray plastic table and citron-yellow chairs serve as an informal family center, for people have a habit of congregating in this room.

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source: House and Garden Magazine | July 1953

As our way of life becomes more informal and appliances get better-looking and more efficient, kitchens are again becoming the center of family life. The one shown here, planned by General Electric, is a good example. Its hub is a U-shaped island which contains an automatic laundry, Disposall, sink, dishwasher and storage, together with a bar and a soda fountain. When you work behind this counter, you face a reversible dining-games table and can talk easily with people sitting at it. Food is prepared on counters which form an L along the two back walls and incorporate the stove. Storage for food and utensils is under these counters and also in wall cabinets of a new type whose counterbalanced doors swing up at the flick of a finger. Refrigerator and freezer are next to the service entrance. An attractive architectural feature is the way two wide, shallow steps lead down to the living room. At one side is a built-in bookcase-desk, complete with telephone and housekeeping files; at the other a stone fireplace. If your kitchen is in full view of your living area, take a tip from this decoration. Bar, bookcase and furniture could all be of rare woods, their surfaces impregnated with plastic to resist heat, acids, alcohol. Fabrics could be nylon, Fiberglas or plastic yarns which are so easy to clean you can choose pastels without worrying. Indirect over-all lighting between redwood beams gives a sense of outdoors.

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source: House and Garden Magazine | June 1951

TWICE IN YOUR LIFE you will want a small house: when you marry (this is likely to be a budgeted house); and again when your children marry (the budget probably won't matter so much as your tastes). Mr. and Mrs. A. J. Brock's house in Fairfield, Connecticut, is the second type, planned for easy maintenance, pleasant living and based on fine GE equipment. Victor Civkin was the architect. GE equipment is at Wanamaker's, New York, The Dayton Company, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

WIDE WINDOWS flood living area of this three-purpose (kitchen, laundry, dining) room with sun, filtered through light Citron yellow Fiberglas curtains. Work center is separated from it by bar and serving counters, over which it is practical to pass drinks and food. Door to outdoors makes it easy to eat out in summer. Stairs lead down to Mr. Brock's dark room and wood-working shop.

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source: House and Garden Magazine | April 1950

Like many young couples when they buy a house, Charlott and David Wyatt found that it pays to do one thing well and do it at the outset. Mrs. Wyatt loves to cook and enter- tain and her ambition was to have a light, cheerful kitchen where she, her husband and guests could be comfortable while the rest of the house went through its growing pains. So it made sense to concentrate the bulk of the immediate budget in that one room. Costs were kept under control by Mrs. Wyatt's unfeminine strategy of making up her mind first as to what she wanted and sticking to it. And she was completely realistic about both her space and her requirements. "I fooled around, pen in hand," she says, "until the kitchen I wanted came through." Then she worked closely with architect Robert McCracken and RCA Whirlpool to achieve a personal, practical kitchen that has everything on her list: a big, smooth, unobstructed counter; a pivotal work area where she can swing from oven to counter, refrigerator to sink; an island with chairs where people can sit and talk to her without being in the way; and, of course, good equipment. Her requirements in that realm: the carefree qualities of both a dishwasher and a disposer, a combination wall refrigerator-freezer (she was willing to wait until the model she liked was available), two wall ovens, one electric and one gas (to give her the advantages of both types of cooking heat and be independent of possible power failure), an electric cooking top, a washer- dryer and as much compact, easy- to-reach storage as the kitchen could comfortably accommodate.

Pink is Mrs. Wyatt's favorite color and the kitchen, she says, "was the only room where I felt I could use it without upsetting my husband." That the effect is crisp, not sugarplum, is due to the fact that Carnation Pink countertops, floor, shutters and chair cushions are relieved by lots of white in cabinets, curtains, and brick wallpaper, and by the burnished metal hardware. According to Mrs. Wyatt, Chicago gets no award for being dirt-free, so she chose easy-to-clean Robbins vinyl floor tile, laminated plastic countertops. Storage is designed for her 5′ 5′′ height. Cabinets over island hold glasses, seasonings. Pots, pans and dishes are by the cooking top. Especially valuable: a storage wall of stacked cabinets in alternating pink and white with adjustable shelves for good china and silver serving pieces. 

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source: House and Garden Magazine | June 1959

The architects' conviction that the best storage is unseen worked out as successfully in the kitchen (usually the most over-stocked room of all) as in the rest of the house. Walls freed from the usual hanging cabinets and a sparkling blue, gray and white color scheme give the kitchen a sense of space and tranquility, making it an inviting spot for children's dining and occasional family meals. The two sleek work counters (one topped with white Micarta, the other with stainless steel) hold dishes, place mats and cooking necessities in addition to the under-counter dishwasher and warming oven. Food is stored in two walk-in rooms (one refrigerated, the other not) near the service entrance where a package receiver takes deliveries. An equally capacious walk-in china closet near the dining room holds everything needed for table settings, down to the last finger bowl.

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source: House and Garden Magazine | February 1959

The old-time pantry is back-as well stocked as grandmother's was with the wherewithal for festive menus, as redolent as hers with the smells of coffee and spices and fresh baked cookies. But today's version is no longer a separate room. Instead, a line-up of colorful cabinets stores a gourmet's hoard of modern packaged foods and also provides a preparation center where these goodies can be turned into a party spread in a few minutes.

The cabinets are wood, in a rich range of finishes walnut, fruitwood or autumn tone, or solid shades of reds, greens, blues, yellows, beiges or grays. Paul McCobb designed them for Mutschler Brothers Company and inside you will find all the built-in fitments that mark well equipped kitchen storage. Mounted on free-standing uprights of satin-finished aluminum, these versatile cabinets can be set up any place you please against the wall or in the center of the room and in any combination of open shelves, closed cabinets, work areas of different heights-with or without a pass-through. You can substitute an undercounter freezer for a base cabinet if you like, since they share with kitchen equipment the same standard unit of measurement. And if you want your wall to serve as a room divider you can get matching panels to finish the ends.

H&G's own pantry wall, was designed in a combination of six colors to make a wonderful splash in an all-white kitchen. White plastic laminate was our choice for the countertop, but you might prefer wood or stainless steel. We planned the whole arrangement as a companion to the freezer wall we pioneered in September-portent of a new era in kitchen design. Another portent: the decorative, un-kitcheny look of cabinets raised off the floor on high legs (easier to clean under, too) and the handsome effect of open shelves where you can display good-looking accessories and open spaces where you can suspend onions and cheeses from hooks screwed into the top.

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source: House and Garden Magazine | December 1958