cheap kitchen table sets

cheap kitchen table sets with Traditional

By Kitchen & Bath Designers Photographed in Chicago
Date uploaded: July 19, 2017
In the first half the twentieth century, the ‘dining table'was an important item of furniture for the British working-class family. Its importance is obviously shown in working-class autobiographies which described the details of domestic life during the first half the twentieth century.

Your kitchen table must be placed in its environment in order to understand its significance. Nowadays we may believe that this was the kitchen. Certainly, in middle-class homes, the kitchen table was there, in the working-class home it had been in the main family living space. For just two thirds of the autobiographers examined, this room was described as a ‘kitchen'but for one third it had been known as a ‘family room '. Food was prepared and cooked in the family room but it had been unlikely to be always a area for washing dishes. This could be done in a'scullery'or ‘back kitchen '. A passionate ‘kitchen'was therefore not certain in the working-class home and plans for the first council houses in 1918 had ‘living rooms'and ‘sculleries'but no ‘kitchens '.

For a lot of it was the table – the only one in the house. It was the focal point of the family room and activities took place around or on the table. In the early area of the period, the main source of light might sit there. Some uses for the table are familiar; others are now actually rare. It was at the kitchen table that the household ate together, sometimes in two sittings if the household was large. Though middle-class families now eat meals inside their kitchen, this was incorrect before the Second World War. At that time, only the servants ate regular meals at the kitchen table in wealthy households and the kitchen of the lower-middle class suburban ‘semi'had little space for eating at a table.

Food preparation was generally done at the kitchen table as it was the only real work surface in an era before units. The table was used as an ironing board and for washing up in homes lacking a sink. People sat, sewed and read there. Memoirs of working-class childhood recall playing at the table and utilizing it for selection of games from Ludo to ping pong. Homework will be done at the table too as overcrowded bedrooms lacked desks, heat and adequate lighting. Middle-class children had a different relationship with the kitchen table because playing games and doing homework could be done elsewhere. In all, the autobiographical sources described 24 different uses of the kitchen table. These ranged from eating to more obscure uses such as for example an operating table to get rid of tonsils.

The uses of the kitchen table varied as time passes and reflected the distinctive weekly and daily routines of the working-class home. Ironing would occur either on washday (usually Monday) or the next day. Food preparation was a daytime activity, whilst the playing of games took invest evenings and at weekends. Uses of the table were also seasonal: warmer weather and lighter evenings meant children played outside and grown-ups chatted on doorsteps. Changing the look of the table could also help alter the ambiance of the living room. On Sunday, the weekday tablecloth (or newspaper) might be replaced with a smarter cloth signifying the special nature of the day.

The centrality of the kitchen table declined in working-class homes after the Second World War but has increased in importance in middle-class homes. The range of living spaces increased in the former alongside how many tables, during middle-class homes, the kitchen table grew in importance as did the kitchen itself. Present-day usage of kitchen tables thus reflects a convergence in domestic culture between the 2 classes, though contemporary advocates of the ‘farmhouse kitchen'rarely acknowledge its antecedents in the working-class living room.