kitchen tables for sale

kitchen tables for sale with Contemporary

By Design-Build Firms Photographed in Austin
Date uploaded: July 19, 2017
In the first half of the twentieth century, the ‘kitchen table'was an important item of furniture for the British working-class family. Its importance is clearly shown in working-class autobiographies which described the important points of domestic life during the first half of the twentieth century.

Your kitchen table needs to be put into its environment to be able to understand its significance. Nowadays we might assume that this is the kitchen. Certainly, in middle-class homes, the kitchen table was there, in the working-class home it was in the main family living space. For just two thirds of the autobiographers examined, this room was called a ‘kitchen'but also 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 may be done in a'scullery'or ‘back kitchen '. A separate ‘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 all it was the table – alone in the house. It had been the focal point of the family area and activities took place around or on the table. In early part of the period, the key source of light might sit there. Some uses for the table are familiar; others are now rare. It had been 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 in their kitchen, this is incorrect prior to 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 because it was the sole work surface in a period before units. The table was used being 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 winning contests and doing homework could be done elsewhere. In all, the autobiographical sources known 24 different uses of the kitchen table. These ranged from eating to more obscure uses such as for example an operating table to eliminate 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 these day. Food preparation was a day activity, as 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 look of the table could also help alter the ambiance of the living room. On Sunday, the weekday tablecloth (or newspaper) may be replaced with a smarter cloth signifying the special nature of the day.

The centrality of the kitchen table declined in working-class homes following the Second World War but has increased in importance in middle-class homes. All of the living spaces increased in the former along side 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 both classes, though contemporary advocates of the ‘farmhouse kitchen'rarely acknowledge its antecedents in the working-class living room.