high kitchen table

high kitchen table with Contemporary

By Kitchen Designers & Remodelers Photographed in Edinburgh
Date uploaded: July 19, 2017
In the initial 1 / 2 of the twentieth century, the ‘kitchen table'was an important item of furniture for the British working-class family. Its importance is actually shown in working-class autobiographies which described the facts of domestic life during the initial 1 / 2 of the twentieth century.

Your kitchen table must be put in its environment in order to understand its significance. Nowadays we might think that this was the kitchen. Certainly, in middle-class homes, the kitchen table was there, but in the working-class home it was however family living space. For just two thirds of the autobiographers examined, this room was described as a ‘kitchen'but for one third it was referred to as a ‘family area '. Food was prepared and cooked in the family area but it was unlikely to become a area for washing dishes. This might be performed in a'scullery'or ‘back kitchen '. A dedicated ‘kitchen'was therefore not certain in the working-class home and plans for the initial council houses in 1918 had ‘living rooms'and ‘sculleries'but no ‘kitchens '.

For several it was the table – the only person in the house. It was the focal point of the family area and activities took place around or on the table. In the first part of the period, the main light source might sit there. Some uses for the table are familiar; others are now rare. It was at the kitchen table that the family ate together, sometimes in two sittings if the family was large. Though middle-class families now eat meals within their kitchen, this was false ahead of the Second World War. During those times, 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 work surface in a period 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 deploying it for number 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 doing offers and doing homework could be performed elsewhere. In every, the autobiographical sources known 24 different uses of the kitchen table. These ranged from eating to more obscure uses such as for instance an operating table to remove tonsils.

The uses of the kitchen table varied with time 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 day activity, whilst the playing of games took place in 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 appearance 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. All of the living spaces increased in the former along with how many tables, while in 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 two classes, though contemporary advocates of the ‘farmhouse kitchen'rarely acknowledge its antecedents in the working-class living room.