Well, it’s the kitchen my parents still have!
They’ve lived in the same house for my whole life, and the footprint of the kitchen has not changed in that time.
My dad built the house in the 70s, so when I was a kid, the kitchen’s theme was yellow and brown; yellow linoleum floors, yellow walls, and brown cabinets.
It was the 80s by the time I was old enough to have an opinion about home colors, and at that point, the yellow and brown color palette of the 70s seemed hopelessly outdated to me.
So, I never remember liking the way our kitchen looked. When I was in my last years of high school, though, my parents redecorated, and the color scheme got a nice update.
(The yellow linoleum floors made an exit too.)
Probably the best thing about that kitchen is that my dad built tons of storage into it. There are tons of cabinets and drawers; I wish I had that many in my kitchen!
The other really nice thing is the large butcher block counter peninsula. I kneaded countless batches of bread dough on there when I was a teenager.
Oh, and I liked the double oven as well. It’s very handy when you want to have fresh-baked rolls for dinner along with something else that needs to be baked.
When I first got married and adjusted to a single oven, I remember I kept inadvertently planning two baked items for dinner.
Twenty-three years later, I’ve adjusted fairly well. Although oddly enough, last week I was making some cinnamon bread late in the day and I forgot that I wanted the oven for roasting some potatoes.
Whoops.
I decided to skip the potatoes because once your loaves of bread have risen, they really need to take precedence over everything else.
It changed every three years, but the house we lived in starting when I was 12 was the one I lived in longest. There was nothing very remarkable about that kitchen. It was before islands and granite countertops and all made kitchens a big deal. There was a tile flour, stainless steel double sink, microwave over the electric stove, average-sized pantry, and a breakfast bar on one side. Nothing in that kitchen would really inspire much envy for me now, except maybe the pantry.
Ha. Tile floor. Our flour was made from wheat, I’m pretty sure. 🙂
Orange. My dad liked the original 1960s orange so much that when it needed repainted, he bought Allis Chalmers tractor enamel to repaint it.
Even the phone was orange. Rotary phone … kinda wish I had that beast in my possession.
Also, the dryer was in the middle of the east wall of cabinets (an interior wall) and the washer was on the end of the south wall of cabinets (an exterior wall) and they were yards apart. That has never made sense to me.
All that aside, it was a great kitchen. Big double enameled cast-iron sink, big double oven in a range, big corner pantry, plenty of storage. With my current homeowner expectations, I don’t want to be doing laundry in the literal middle of the kitchen, by any means, but it was a very workable setup.
Painting a kitchen with actual tractor paint is just so great. I bet it was durable too, and easy to clean 🙂
The whole house was good except the placement of the kitchen was awkward. It was like a hallway. You went from the front room then you had to go through the kitchen to get to the back part of the house. I can now imagine how much that would drive my mother nuts! If the oven door was open you had to wait to walk by!
It was narrow and quite small with a blue (it was the 70s) cooker, a row of orange fronted cupboards, then a sink on the wall opposite the window which I always thought strange. But bizarrely the kitchen I have in our rented house has the sink on the wall with no window. I hadn’t realised it doesn’t bother me half so much as it bothers my DH as I must have a hidden memory of it being the norm. My dad one Saturday morning installed a breakfast bar and made some stools that were painted blue and my mom covered the seats with 70s floral orange and blue fabric. We thought we were the bees knees sitting at the breakfast bar, very continental!! I’m sure if I saw that kitchen again I’d need sunglasses!!
My current house has the sink facing a wall, and so did my first kitchen.
But the townhouse kitchen had a window by the sink! Maybe one day I will have that again in a house. It’s a nice feature.
My parents were really into an aqua and yellow combination. My Dad actually built the kitchen table, which was…aqua! With plastic bucket-seat chairs, also aqua!
Sonia might like all that color!