LOVE those old archival movies.
And movies which feature a particular house also.

But what I'm wanting to add here is that in the earlier years of time/motion studies, the Gilbreths were big names. Lillian Gilbreth and her hubby, played by Clifton Webb in the movie about their family, CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN. Yeah, I bet that your local library still has a copy of a book she wrote--and which I devoured as the Gospel in the late '50s....MANAGEMENT IN THE HOME. She (and probably he too) laid out the methods to make up beds, set dimensions for standardizing cabinets and work surfaces, typewriter keyboards and so on. If you want to see what they were thinking and telling designers how to make the home more efficient and economical of space/energy, then go find a copy of that book. Unfortunately, my old copy was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. I might have to look for another copy. :)

I LOVED that. It was such a fun trip down memory lane. Hello moccasinlanding. I didn't know there was anyone else on this forum who experienced Katrina along with me. Are you in MS or LA?

I look forward to reading the entire plan and watching the movie when I have a little time. Thanks for sharing!

I did find it interesting in my quick skim to see that the layout provided ample space for "two women" to work. Says a lot about the cultural norms of that time.

I'll have to look for a copy of Mrs. Gibreth's book as well.

WOW! I want some of those built-ins! My aunt had a kitchen with many of those features, built in about 1952. I loved baking with all the bins and revolving shelves.

Drawers instead of cupboards, indirect lighting, task centers, dual-level sink ... I'm downloading the movie and will be watching it several times.

I loved it too!

Loved the credit for "Functional House Dresses" -- watch for it.

Those cupboards were great -- the style as well as the configuration. And all the bins.

I liked the short shelves too for some items. And the compactness. Small kitchens are the best!

I want that kitchen. I love the bins for flour, sugar, potatoes, and onions. So functional! I badly wish I had installed a rack of bins for those things in my island. It's such a pain to have to shelp over to the pantry or the garage to get potatoes. There is never a great place for those things. Too late now. I love the compost hole too although disposals are the substitute now.

Do any of you watch things like that and just long for simpler days and simpler times like I do?

After watching that, it feels like we have seriously regressed in the area of kitchen design. Each one of us wracks our brain, planning, planning, planning for the most functional kitchen possible (re-inventing the wheel apparently) when really the evolution of kitchen design should have taken us in a direction where many of these design elements were just standard everyday kitchen fare.

Instead consider the 80's builder's grade oak kitchen with zero functional storage (usually not even any rollouts!)that so many of us are tearing out. THAT is how far we've come? THAT is kitchen evolution? That's about 100 steps backward! What happened? I can't imagine that it's simply that not enough people cared so it just slipped by the wayside? Why did this not "catch on"? Hmm....

Fun! My parents built our home and we moved into it in the early 1950s. They purchased and installed a stove just like the one featured in this video....I'd totally forgotten the stew/soup container on the back of the stove until I watched the video. My mom used it all of the time to make soups and stews.

This does make one wonder what designers have been thinking about for the past 5 decades!

I want to watch the movie but right now, in the middle of my rip out/put back together I don't want to take the time. The first layer of floor was a newspaper Dec. 28, 1950 telling of a terrible blizzard. We also had a terrible blizzard the day I started demolition. So, every 60 years, if there's a blizzard, this kitchen gets remodeled? The kitchen that I tore out was nothing like the one in the article above. The U shape was there but the corners were just open and there was a peninsula jutting out into the room. I needed a flashlight and breadcrumbs to find anything in them. It probably was very functional in its day, but not so much now. My house was built in 1880 and the kitchen used to be a porch. I was aiming for the 1940-1950 atmosphere for my remodel. I read quite a bit and followed the http://retrorenovation.com/ and decided that I wouldn't go whole hog on the retro idea. I opened up the U and ditched the peninsula. I like it a lot already and it just got cabinets yesterday.

Here is a link that might be useful: Retro everything

That was some kitchen! Did you notice that it was set up with zones, and no mention was made about the work triangle?
I wish I had seen this earlier. I would have loved to incorporate some of the ideas into my new one. :-)

that was no neat! loved it. so much looked so familiar - lol.
who knew someone back then thought all drawers were the way to go! and I loooove the LS in the corner counter top cab. that'd sure make that corner counter area more usable.

I also really like the board that pulls out for extra working space.

gotta love those dresses too!

This was fun, thanks for sharing the link Kathec!
That was a neat kitchen. I would just make it a bit bigger though just because we have a full house and I like a little more breathing space. :o)
I think it is interesting that once upon a time people believed that making a home for one's family was a valuable and worthwhile pursuit. Valuable enough to study and innovate based on efficiency anyways.
I think we've really lost something there. I don't understand why we couldn't have given women more opportunities and choices in life and yet maintained a respect for the role of homemaker at the same time. Oh well.

That's fantastic! Thanks, Kathec!

I especially like the garbage hole with raised compost bucket in an easy clean cabinet, with an exterior emptying door. My big objection to through counter compost buckets is that most of the designs I've seen have holes that are too big, and make it too easy to make a big mess in a tall cabinet. This is great!

I'm also agog with the size of the flour bin. Having built in storage for a whole sack of flour is fantastic!

Oooh I loved that k itchen! All that clever stor age! I loved the bins and the revolving corners. I would have loved to incorporate some of that design into my k itchen. I have a vague recollection of some of those type of bins in my grandma's k itchen.

When we moved into our h ouse (built in 1941), we had one of those stoves in the base ment. My DH got rid of it when we did a mini rem odel in 2000. :^( I thought the recessed soup pot was really cool, but he just thought it was old.

Thanks so much for sharing that!

(I purposely put spaces in certain words, so those pop-ups won't pop-up. They are driving me batty.)

"(I purposely put spaces in certain words, so those pop-ups won't pop-up. They are driving me batty.)"

I wondered why you did that! good idea!

Thanks so much for posting that film link.

When I build my dream kitchen it will have 30 inch deep counters and wall storage down to the counters housing all those bins.

Given that "shoulder to hip" is the ideal ergonomic storage location - isn't it weird that conventional kitchen design deploys most of that space to an empty backsplash recess??

Ooooh...love it. Very efficient indeed. Love the pull-out tea towel rack. Fabulous pictures.

Have noticed that the pull-out work surface is chair-height, not stool height. Now there's a change in today's kitchen!

The processing of a bushel of veg is a good reminder of the working kitchen concept for gardens. Do you young'uns even know how a food grinder attaches to such a board?

Although the food processor has replaced our old food grinder, at our place we still use a clamp-on apple corer attached to a breadboard to process the bounty of our apple trees.

I wonder what that young couple did for seating when they had 3 kids as well as the inlaws at dinner?

KatheC:
Thanks for posting this!

Took the time to watch the movie wishing I would have seen it two months ago. I'd incorporate some of those ideas into my dream kitchen...........if it weren't too late. So many of those ideas are really great and still apply to today's kitchen.

Kathe, they did say that there was a dining room!

I was thinking about this kitchen earlier. What did it in was modernism and industrialism. You know those bins were all supposed to be made by the farmer and family in their "spare" time.

Thank you so much for sharing! Amazing organization and functionality. Wish I would have seen this before the remodel. I'm going to watch the movie now...

Thanks for sharing, kathec, that was so much fun to watch. There were so many great ideas, such as great ergonomics and zones, that seem so today and yet someone thought of them more than 50 years ago. Pity these ideas didn't carry through the years of kit*chen de*sign.

Did anyone notice that the base cab*inets were drawers and not doors?

I got a little teary while watching, too. I have a close twin to that Sunbeam mixer shown in the film. It was my mom's. She gave it to me when she bought a KA about 15 years ago. I have her KA mixer now, too, but I can't give up the Sunbeam. It still works and I have too many fond memories of making cakes and brownies with my mom using that mixer.

I'm so glad you enjoyed the movie and it inspires some wonderful modern kitchens.

Needsometips08 you're right about reinventing the wheel when it comes to kitchens. I've had the frustration of owning 3 builder basic oak kitchens, urgh, all designed by people who don't cook. You'd think these guys would get a clue (after 60 years) and design the kitchen first and everything else after.

And since I didn't write it in my original post the magazine article I mentioned was in Kitchen and Bath Ideas January/February 2010 page 12 "Kitchen Layouts" written by Andria Hayday.

Kathe

Thanks for sharing. I even made my DH watch it. Amazing storage ideas!

That was so much fun to watch. Thanks for posting it.

"Did anyone notice that the base cab*inets were drawers and not doors? "

yep. I noticed that right away. I'll need to review it along the way to see if anything I can use down the road. i don't really need the storage bins tho. I've had the same 5lb bag of flour for yrs. it's in the f reezer... lol!

maybe I could put dog food in one...milk bones in one...

Kathec, I feel your pain on the builder's oak kitchen. (I'm on the verge of finally tearing mine out, since the builder had obviously never washed a dish or cooked a meal in his life. Such a waste.)

*Loved* the video and sent it on to numerous friends and we all agree that we've gone backwards in kitchen design. It's ridiculous that "all drawers" is still considered revolutionary ;-)

(I also look at my friend's vintage Frigidaire Flair and realize that not only does it cook the pants off my 80s cooktop, but it's also better laid out with a wide burner spread and double overhead ovens.)

I live in hope that since home cooking is on the rise, good kitchen design might be making a come back ;-)

I loved this and sent it to several people. Did anyone else catch that there is storage for a 40 lb sack of flour that feeds into the flour bin? I've never even seen a 40 lb sack of flour! Crazy. Really fantastic ideas--thanks so much for sharing.

Love that flour bin ;-) My friend caught that the compost/garbage bin could be accessed from outside the house to go slop the pigs! Talk about easy composting ...

I got a kick out of that 40lb flour bin too! Our convenience foods have gotten bigger, like cereal boxes, cans, and anything Costco, but the average homeowner doesn't bake like they used to.

Or maybe we do, we just use gluten free or whole wheat or spelt. White flour is the devil ; ).

Kathe