kitchen tables for small spaces

kitchen tables for small spaces with Contemporary

By https://www.houzz.com/photos/34415578/Contemporary-Kitchen-contemporary-kitchen-other Photographed in Byron Bay, New South Wales, Australia
Date uploaded: July 19, 2017
In the first 1 / 2 of the twentieth century, the ‘kitchen table'was an essential item of furniture for the British working-class family. Its importance is obviously shown in working-class autobiographies which described the important points of domestic life during the first 1 / 2 of the twentieth century.

The kitchen table needs to be placed in its environment to be able to understand its significance. Nowadays we would assume that this was the kitchen. Certainly, in middle-class homes, your kitchen table was there, in the working-class home it had been however family living space. For two thirds of the autobiographers examined, this room was called a ‘kitchen'however for one third it had been called a ‘family area '. Food was prepared and cooked in the family area but it had been unlikely to be always a area for washing dishes. This could be done in a'scullery'or ‘back kitchen '. A separate ‘kitchen'was therefore not a given 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 absolutely was the focal point of the family area and activities took place around or on the table. In the early area of the period, the key light source might sit there. Some uses for the table are familiar; others are now actually rare. It absolutely was at your kitchen table that the family ate together, sometimes in two sittings if the family was large. Though middle-class families now eat meals inside their kitchen, this was not the case before the Second World War. In those days, only the servants ate regular meals at your kitchen table in wealthy households and your kitchen of the lower-middle class suburban ‘semi'had little space for eating at a table.

Food preparation was generally done at your kitchen table as it was the sole 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 utilizing 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 an alternative relationship with your kitchen table because playing games and doing homework could be done elsewhere. In most, the autobiographical sources referred to 24 different uses of your kitchen table. These ranged from eating to more obscure uses such as an operating table to eliminate tonsils.

The uses of your kitchen table varied over time 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 daytime 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 looks of the table can 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 your kitchen table declined in working-class homes following the Second World War but has increased in importance in middle-class homes. The range of living spaces increased in the former along with how many tables, during middle-class homes, your kitchen table grew in importance as did your 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.