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