Oh Those Revival Kitchens!

Designed by architect Joe Metzler of SALA Architects (www.salaarc.com), this kitchen is in an addition to a Prairie house. The room has work stations, like those in a commercial kitchen; as a result, the large space is organized and cozy. Photo by Christian Korab. Christian Korab

If this new kitchen looks more like a throwback, it’s because salvaged woodwork, hardware, and even glass wall tiles from the owner’s grandmother’s (now-demolished) home were incorporated. Leslie Tomlin

Cabinet design and fabrication by Nancy Hiller: www.nrhillerdesign.com Leslie Tomlin

A kitchen designed for accessibility and ease of use was part of an addition that included a mudroom and large dining deck, for an early stone ranch house in Kansas. Jill & William DeMartino

Wide aisles, multiple counter heights, hands-free faucets, and more make this period-inspired kitchen fully functional for all. Jill & William DiMartino

Only a Revival kitchen would so exuberantly embrace the design vocabulary of a past master: Charles Rennie Mackintosh. A coterie of today’s best artisans worked on the project. Ed Massery

The kitchen is a 1921 American Foursquare house in West Virginia. Ed Massery

In a Massachusetts kitchen for a ca. 1910 house, the designers eschewed reproduction in favor of organic, site-specific design and fine craftsmanship. Eric Roth

The kitchen island is a room divider and base for load-bearing columns. (Henry Stone Builders, Washington, MA and John Everdell Design/Build, Medford, MA.) Eric Roth

arts and crafts kitchen revival kitchens

Patricia PooreAuthor

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.

Oh Those Revival Kitchens!

Like this one in a Prairie house in St. Paul, Minnesota, today’s Arts & Crafts Revival kitchens are all about bringing fine materials and details into a room that has become the center of the home.

Patricia Poore