Making the Most—or Least—of Kitchen Appliances
The Literal camp tries to conceal technology. The Interpretative approach acknowledges the microwave oven and the dishwasher. Here is specific advice on how to conceal, restyle, or flaunt your refrigerator, stove, and dishwasher in a period-inspired kitchen.
Manufacturers of kitchen appliances are busy accommodating those who want their kitchen appliances to disappear.
Old-house restorers often seek to hide modern incursions, but the market also serves those with newer homes who prefer a built-in look for the room that’s become a family hangout. Options are numerous.
TAKE REFRIGERATORS. Never mind the technological advances that have made them energy efficient and far more versatile. Looks have changed, too.
You can buy glass-front units that lend an aura of an old-fashioned grocery store or restaurant. There are also shallow-depth units that take customized cladding and doors, plus enamel and nickel fridges that that recall Victorian-era stoves, and even retro 50s refrigerators in popsicle colors.
Or you can opt for refrigerator and freezer drawers that disappear into cabinets. (Perhaps the large fridge can be banished to the pantry or back hall.)
DISHWASHERS have been standardized, quiet, and easy to hide for a while. Even those in the middle price ranges have flat fronts with hidden controls, and almost every maker offers a panelizing kit. Like refrigeration units, dishwashers, too, can, be hidden in pull-out drawers, an attractive option for a second unit or for households of one or two people.
WHEN IT COMES TO STOVES, it’s hard to decide: antique or reproduction, English or French, commercial or frankly modern?
The stove can be the focal point of the kitchen. Then again, an unobtrusive range top and wall oven can take a back seat to a room furnished in hardwood and tile.
Modern conveniences are nice—many people find it hard to say no to a self-cleaning oven, so if you want modern convenience with old-fashioned styling, consider reproduction. Many companies today also refurbish antique originals.
Patricia Poore is Editor-in-chief of Old House Journal and Arts & Crafts Homes, as well as editorial director at Active Interest Media’s Home Group, overseeing New Old House, Traditional Building, and special-interest publications.
Poore joined Old House Journal when it was a Brooklyn-brownstoner newsletter in the late 1970s. She became owner and publisher and, except for the years 2002–2013, has been its editor. Poore founded the magazines Old-House Interiors (1995–2013) and Early Homes (2004–2017); their content is now available online and folded into Old-House Journal’s wider coverage. Poore also created GARBAGE magazine (1989–1994), the first unaffiliated environmental consumer magazine.
Poore has participated, hands-on, in several restorations, including her own homes: a 1911 brownstone in Park Slope, Brooklyn, and a 1904 Tudor–Shingle Style house in Gloucester, Massachusetts, where she brought up her boys and their wonderful dogs.
