Actually being here on this forum, I wonder how my mother ever managed to cook those fabulous meals she made. The kitchen was tiny by today's standards.

Our first house had a DW (one of the first to have a DW), sink on one side of the L, and the stove, a small counter maybe 12" wide and the fridge. Diagonally across we had a small table for seating. At least we did until my parents built a family room with a dining area. Then we even had a "breakfast" bar long before they were the thing to have. We're talking late 50's. However I don't recall my mother adding more storage or counters to the kitchen.

Our second house was poorly laid out by today's standards. You came in from the garage. Right across was a door to a narrow pantry and then you turned left and walked right through the work zone of the kitchen to go to the dinette and the front hall to the living room, tv room and to the bedrooms upstairs.

If instead you went to the right, you'd see a full bathroom in front of you with a coat closet next to it. Then a small hall before the coat closet that led to a door to the backyard and a small bedroom that my mother used as her office. I believe at one point that bedroom had been built as a room for a live in housekeeper.

The kitchen was square and laid out like two L's. On the left side of the short L was our Roper combined cooktop/oven. Turning the L was a desk area for my mother with cupboards above. Next to the desk was the fridge, and then next to that was a swinging door to the dining room.

To the right of the fridge wall was the opening to the dinette. Also to the right of the dinette opening was counter space and then the turn for the second L, which had the sink, DW, counter space and a combination WD in the corner (next to the pantry). So many days I'd come home from school through the garage, open the door and be confronted by laundry on the floor in front of me. But somehow my mother managed!

With the exception of a table smack dab in the middle of a kitchen that wasn't wide enough, my mom's kitchen is laid out pretty well.

It's an "L" and when I was growing up, it followed the Kitchen workflow very well:

Refrigerator + 48" of cabs/counters + 36" wide sink + 36" corner lazy susan (diagonal front) + 50" of cabs/counters + 30" range

There is an alcove on the other side of the Kitchen from the refrigerator/sink that held shelves my dad made with gro-lux lights - my mom loves African Violets and had several trays full of them! She also occasionally had an orchid or two.

No DW, no MW, and no range hood (and you can tell!)

Later, my parents moved the refrigerator to the alcove and the plant shelves to the space where the refrigerator used to be.

They also added a portable DW that fits in the alcove. No MW - yet! At the time, they had to roll the DW over to the sink to use it - it connected to the sink faucet & had a drain pipe that you put in the sink as well/

Later, they got another portable that my dad was able to hook up to the old washer pipes. You then had to walk the dishes across the kitchen from the sink to the DW for both loading and later unloading the DW - and that's the setup to this day. The only addition is that a MW and toaster oven sit on top of the DW today.

A few years ago, they had an attached garage built that connected to the Kitchen to the left of the sink run of cabs/counters. The plant shelves were moved to the Dining Room - it was rarely used.

There is a large counter-height pass-through to the DR from the Kitchen b/w the sink run and the range.

The back door entrance and basement stairs are also in the Kitchen. Pre-garage, the back door entrance was used by the vast majority of people (family, friends, even strangers) as the primary entrance into our/their home. The garage now blocks easy access to the back door, so most people use either the garage or front door entrance - mostly the garage.

There is a pantry in the basement b/c there wasn't enough room in the kitchen. Today, it's used mostly for paper towels, toilet paper, holiday dishes, my gluten-free appliances for when I visit, etc.

I'm the oldest of 6 kids - with only 6 years & 10 months b/w me and my youngest sibling so we always had a houseful! The kitchen table seated all eight of us, but if someone was sitting at the table it was a really, really tight squeeze to pass b/w them and the cabs/counter and refrigerator (when it was not in the alcove) - bottom line is that if you needed anything, you asked the person sitting directly in front of what you wanted to get it for you!

When we were preparing big meals (e.g., Thanksgiving or Christmas), we would move the chairs out of the Kitchen to give us room to work.

It's a little better now b/c it's only my mom (my dad passed away a few years ago) and she has taken all the leaves out of the table so it's basically a 4-person (6 if you squeeze) table. The leaves, of course, come back out when we're all visiting!

BTW...there are permanent stains over the range and on the wall adjacent to it (there's only about 3" of empty space b/w the wall and the range) b/c of no hood. We were all tasked at one time or another with scrubbing the cabinet above the range, the ceiling, and the wall - but over time they all became permanently stained. When the cabs, ceiling, and walls were painted, my dad had to seal it first so the permanent grease spots wouldn't bleed through. There always seemed to be a layer of gunk, no matter how much we scrubbed!

My experiences growing up showed me how important the following are:

• Adequate aisles
• Effective venting over the range
• Plenty of workspace
• A good workflow
• Keeping entry traffic out of the Kitchen as much as possible
• Pantry on the first floor

In the apartment my family and I lived for my first twelve years (1950's), the kitchen was very typical. It was a long room with cupboards and appliances lined up one after the other. Straight ahead was a big window. There was a refrigerator, cupboard covered with years of white enamel paint, a sink with a cabinet underneath, and a front loading washing machine and a stove. There was also room for my toy box. At Christmas time in place of the toy box, my father set up the Lionel trains on a folding plywood table in that kitchen. It was a fairly big layout. But most fascinating to my brother and me was the little closet with a bowed out door located under the window. My mother never used it; it was always empty. My mother always had cheery curtains on the window and I remember her sponge painting the walls blue on white I think.

My mom still lives in the house I grew up in, very small kitchen by today's standards. I think it is about 12x12 , mismatched appliances because nothing breaks at the same time. Things are put where they fit. Table right in the middle of the "work triangle" and you are constantly bumping into the chairs if anyone is sitting at it. Sheet vinyl floors that she was happy to have replaced with new sheet vinyl a few years ago. I think she may still have the wood look have paneling. No one uses the front door, everyone uses the kitchen door and she doesn't mind or think twice about dishes in the sink, items on the counter, etc. It has been years since I have been able to visit because I have a severe cat allergy and she has turned into the old cat lady. Great memory of Sunday meals after church and a great reminder that the kids are not going to care how pretty or how functional you home is :)

Until I was ten we lived in so-called communal flat..so we shared the kitchen with another family. The neighbors had their own big hutch and we had our cabinets.they were modular..pale creamy yellow Formica I think. We shared a stove and a sink. And maybe a kitchen table..but I think the neighbors preferred to take food to their room. Because we were family of six, you know:) It was easier to get away from us:)

I liked the concept of having neighbors because I was a kid. The more the merrier!

I think my parents and grandparents were pretty happy though to move into a separate apartment when they could at last. The mobile Formica cabinets went there with us, and my Grandpa who was very handy made a pantry to store all sorts of stuff that was mostly cooked/conserved at home. Jams,pickles, sauerkraut..We made our own cottage cheese. well, not "we"-I mostly washed the dishes, helped prepare food for the holidays(salads, baking) and went food shopping..)) Consumed a huge amount of time by the way. Took four people almost everyday just to get somewhere this milk or sunflower oil or butter or normal vegetables. Lines and all. But since I was a kid I was pretty patient..I didn't understood why grown ups get so mad and nervous in these lines LOL.

The floors were wooden. but not parquet as in the main rooms, so we just washed them. Again, not "we"-floors were my brother's responsibility.

Now I realize-that was really well organized kitchen..:) I admire my folks, I really do.

Thank you for that trip down the memory lane..:)

My mom's custom 1969 house had a state of the art Jenn-Air electric cooktop with a built in downdraft vent, a black glass Thermador double oven (self cleaning), a goldenrod Kitchenaid dishwasher, and a goldenrod Amana refrigerator. The cabinets were pecan slab doors. They were fans of Sunset magazine and wanted a Clifford May/Eichler style. The good news is that when she sold the house in 2013 mid-century modern was back in style. The Jenn-Air cooktop is the only original appliance that survived 45 years; it taught me that downdraft vents are NOT a good idea. I hope the new owners keep the pecan cabinets; they were in good shape for being 45 years old, matched the style of the house, and could never be replaced.

Wow.
Beechum., where did you grow up? It sounds so interesting.

My mom was a trend setter. :) She had steel blue, metal cabinets. She built the house in 1964, so this wasn't 70s stuff! She had linoleum floors, but changed them somewhere along the line to a shag carpet. (ew. in the kitchen!) She always had a DW and garbage disposal. It was an eat-in kitchen, but we had a full, formal dining room we didn't use much. I thought everyone did, because everyone around us had the same thing. That, and a window overlooking the pool.

She had one counter that was butcher block, but I can't remember what the other counters were. She had a tall pantry with roll-out shelves, which was evidently radical. A desk in the kitchen where they sat and read the paper. UCL, of course, everywhere. I didn't know kitchens came without it.

My mom was a great cook, but never really liked it. She tended to agonize over it. Although, she was very big on healthy meals, etc. Although we did get a lot of snacks like space food sticks, shake-a-puddin' etc. Nummy crap food. Radical, in that she didn't cook her veggies to mush like many raised in the 40s and 50s. She was glad when she went back to school and work (I was in 6th grade) I liked to cook. We dined out a lot.

I liked that kitchen.

I don't remember our first kitchen very well, as I was 5 when we moved. I remember there was a table in there, and it seems pretty big in my memory. Oddly enough, I can remember running my fingers over the T-H-E-R-M-A-D-O-R letters on the stainless steel front of the range. The floor was the ubiquitous brick pattern linoleum.

Our next house was a lovely old 1760 cape, and the kitchen was an entire wing off of the back. It was about 16 X 18, and after my mother had it renovated, it was a pretty efficient layout, with the work area in the correct order. On the other side, there was a long window seat (to cover the heating pipes) an old Hoosier cabinet, and a nice old kitchen table. Mom wasn't a great cook, but kept us fed. My older sister took an early interest in cooking, and I was willingly dragged along, so I become a pretty good cook in my own right. Mom was only too willing to turn us loose so that she didn't have to cook! When I was 12, I was given the considerable honor of making the pumpkin pies for my aunt's (another fabulous cook) big Thanksgiving dinner. I was one proud kid when everyone raved about the pies, made from pumpkins from our own garden. I've made pies from fresh pumpkin every year since then (50 years of pie making).

No account of childhood kitchens would be complete without mentioning Granny's kitchen. She, too was a good cook, and had a large and well-appointed kitchen for the day. Her counters were a pale blue tile, while the rest of the world had Formica with the aluminum edging. She had a swinging door into the dining room (something I incorporated into our new house), and an area to sit down while doing prep work (another idea I stole). I can still picture her hulling strawberries while we waited, begging like Golden Retrievers until she slipped us one. One amazing feature was a large greenhouse directly off of the kitchen. She didn't grow herbs (spices were limited to pepper and salt in the 50's), but it was a magical place, and every visit, she would help us make plant cuttings, and on the next visit, our living treasures were rooted and ready to go home with us.

It's also interesting that all of these kitchens had multiple windows, with nice natural lighting. Our last two kitchens were dark and uninviting, so we opted for lots of windows and no upper cabinets in our new house. I hope someday there will be grandchildren to develop memories of our kitchen!

How wonderful to read about every one's kitchen memories. Like Mushcreek I don't remember the first kitchen very well. It was a large farmhouse kitchen with the table in the middle. The house was in the country and more than the kitchen I remember the huge yard and daddy's expansive veggie garden. We had to move due to his job and ended up in a small city. The house was built in 1920 and my mom still lives there. The kitchen is small, 12 x 12 and there is a door on every wall. For many years the sink was a cast iron one that hung on the wall. No cabinets underneath. On the other side of the room is a built in cabinet, inset doors, with those lovely hinges and turn latches. Due to arthritis she sadly had to replace those a few years back. It had the linoleum from the 40s, that has since been replaced. Subway tile half the way up the wall. That is still in place. On the other two walls sit the frig and stove. No counter-tops to speak of. Very much an unfitted kitchen. That small table from the first house sat in her second kitchen for 40 years until she decided to get a new one. I now have that small table in my basement waiting to be refinished and once done it will in my kitchen. The funny thing is, the kitchens were/are a farmhouse style and the table feels more Scandinavian. It's a lighter toned wood with with drop leafs and straight tapered legs. But she had it before I was born and it has always been the "kitchen table" so I want it in my kitchen. :)

Oh and somewhere along the way I remember having a frig that was decorated with blue paint applied with sponges. All other appliances I remember being white.

My childhood kitchen was in the early 60's style. Birch cabinets with slab doors, stained brown. White formica with gold flecks counter top with a metal edge. Brown appliances, the color was "coppertone" I think? Yellow flooring, probably linoleum. Decorative plates on the walls, copper jello molds hung on the soffits. Later, in the 70's wallpaper was put up, counters changed to formica in a butcher block look, and a Z brick back splash.

The house we lived in until I was 8 was extremely small with the washer and dryer in there as well. Cheap cabinets. No air conditioning. They added a small addition to the kitchen for a table area. I remember it had louver windows all across the back of the space that you would crank to open. After that, we lived here and there mostly in apartments after my parents divorce. So really no fond memories. My parents remarried when I was 12 and they built a small house in the country when I was 14. My mom never let me help in the kitchen. Anytime I would try to do something she would take a utensil out of my left hand and say it looked awkward and do it herself. I didn't learn to cook or really appreciate it until I got out on my own.

I do remember the all pink bathroom, though. :-)

"...White formica with gold flecks counter top with a metal edge ... copper jello molds hung on the soffits..."

Yes, we had those as well (except the soffits)! The copper molds were hung on the wall. (May parents' house was built in 1960.)

The cabinet colors also varied. I remember one time they were turquoise (70s?). Now they're white.

My mom still has the Formica counters - although many spots no longer have the flecks b/c of wear and time. There's only one place where there's a cut in the counter and it's very small. I have to say those counters lived through a lot with all 8 of us - and they are still functional, if not pretty anymore!

Yes, those old formica counters were pretty much indestructible. And the white with gold flecks was a popular look (my husband's childhood kitchen had the same counters) Speaking of pink bathrooms, we had one of those too - pink floor and wall tiles, but the tub, toilet and sink were blue. I guess that was a trendy look back in the 60's when the house was built. I wonder, in 20 yrs will we be smiling at the funny kitchens we have today? Most likely we will, although we all try to make our kitchen remodels look "timeless". Not sure that's really possible.

Oh, Iam702 reminded me of the Z Brick backsplash--it was installed about the same time as the avocado stove.

My childhood kitchen? Small, dark and poorly laid out., circa 1949. The only remarkable things about it were the built in cutting board over the tilt out waste bin and the small cabinet of tilt out drawers that nestled up against the back of the stove at the corner. They were exactly the right size for a carton of cigarettes!

And my mom's cooking was more-or-less a match for the mess of a kitchen: Uninspired, cheap and hastily produced, with the occasional fling at a jazzier recipe from a woman's magazine...usually along the lines of green bean casserole (one can soup one can green beans, one can fried onion rings).

Maybe my kitchen obsession was born of revulsion for my childhood kitchen!

Thank you everyone for sharing your memories. It's so fun reading and learning about how kitchens were set up decades ago.

@Mama_goose, my old kitchen may have seemed romantic but it was smoky and hot. We had a giant pot of boiling water that was always on. My family likes to wash dishes by pouring hot water over the dishes as a last rinse.

We didn't have a dishwasher. In fact, my dad still doesn't use the dishwasher to this day. We use it only during holidays. Otherwise, we hand wash and use the DW as a drying rack.

I'll have to check out Fried Green Tomatoes.

@cpartist, isn't amazing how we adjust to little or no kitchen.

@aprilneverends. Were you living in England? Shared kitchen sounds so different from the US.

@Christine, I grew up in Vietnam. The kitchen I described was my grandfather's house in the capital. We lived with my grandparents. Your mom's metal cabinet sounds cool.

@mushcreek. I wish we have room for a greenhouse like your granny.

@spanish, I guess those home economics classes they use to teach didn't really teach cooking. I can sympathize, my mom tries hard but we always got sick when she cooked. My dad is the cook in the family. He learned it from his mom. My mom learned from books.

I know of someone who's idea of cooking is the one dish she takes to her family's Thanksgiving: Dressing with hotdogs In it.

Talk about revulsion! Glad it's not in my family. Lol.

My parents built our house as a passive solar house in the late 50s in a softened Bauhaus style in Switzerland. Large rooms with large double pane windows and heavy duty wooden sliding doors to the backyard. From my bedroom, I could see over lake Zug towards the Rigi and Pilatus mountains and the Alps proper beyond. Ahh, I do miss my home and those views...

The kitchen was bright due to large windows toward East. It was a fitted galley with red painted plywood sliding doors on the slanted uppers, and another row of white painted cabs above those. All the bas cabs were white. We had a stainless steel counter with an integrated huge triple sink, with the small middle sink housing a removable colander. We used the pullout faucet to wash down the whole counter, including the glossy black tile backsplash. We also had a large "American" fridge, which was needed, as I'm one of 7 kids.

A red laminate counter with a metal edge covered the cabinet run on the other side. All cabs on that side had had drawers. There was a pullout cab that housed oils and vinegars too. and in the center of that counter was the prep area. It had a drawer that stored the kitchen utensils and below that was a pull-out cutting board, underneath that sat a kitchen stool. It actually was very ergonomic, with the large cutting board at the right height for peeling veggies and slicing and dicing. No uppers on that side of the kitchen, instead there was a huge interior window towards a butler's pantry/cleaning/storage room.

I liked helping to cook, but didn't like the clean-up, haha, I still don't. I especially hated to have to buff the dark grey linoleum floor. The polishing had to be done with a loud buffing machine that looked like an upright vacuum, but instead had two large circulating wool pads that polished the floor until it looked shiny for a day or two...

Here an approximate drawing of the kitchen:

The cabs were slanted with integrated wood handles, similar to the cabinets in the photo below, which I found by googling slanted kitchen cabs. I don't think, that I have ever seen such cabs anywhere else. I do like them, they're not so much in your face.

I still do love the Bauhaus and MCM houses. Jeez, I live in a house that has a lot in common with my childhood home: Passive solar too. Lots of large windows (shaded in Summer) towards the south and the backyard.

Plus I'm planning on white cabinets with a dark grey/black backsplash for our upcoming kitchen remodel. Ha, maybe I'll check out red laminate choices versus the butcher block for the island? I wish I could do the stainless steel counters on the perimeter, but I think they're just too much $$$.