Updating Antique
Kitchens & Baths
by Walter Jowers
I take completely different
approaches to kitchens and baths in
an old-house renovation job. First, my
kitchen theory: Except for a few
period details—such as a fine antique
cabinet, or period-inspired patterns in
cabinets and countertops—putting
anything that resembles a pre-World
War II kitchen into a house makes no
sense.
Gut the Kitchen
Before the mid-1930s, when mass
production and marketing of standardsize
cabinets and appliances began
influencing kitchen design, kitchens
were torture chambers. They were full
of separate, free-standing cabinets and
tables, even free-standing sinks as big
as Buicks. Work surfaces were all
different heights. The icebox was on
the back porch. The phrase "slaving
over a hot stove" was fitting, since the
lady of the