round kitchen table

round kitchen table with Contemporary

By Architects & Building Designers Photographed in DC Metro
Date uploaded: July 19, 2017
In the initial half of the twentieth century, the ‘kitchen table'was an essential item of furniture for the British working-class family. Its importance is actually shown in working-class autobiographies which described the important points of domestic life during the initial half of the twentieth century.

Your kitchen table must be put into its environment to be able to understand its significance. Nowadays we may assume that this was the kitchen. Certainly, in middle-class homes, the kitchen table was there, however in the working-class home it absolutely was in the main family living space. For just two thirds of the autobiographers examined, this room was described as a ‘kitchen'however for one third it absolutely was called a ‘family room '. Food was prepared and cooked in the family room but it absolutely was unlikely to be a place for washing dishes. This would be achieved in a'scullery'or ‘back kitchen '. A dedicated ‘kitchen'was therefore not a given in the working-class home and plans for the initial council houses in 1918 had ‘living rooms'and ‘sculleries'but no ‘kitchens '.

For many it was the table – the only person in the house. It was the focal point of the family room and activities took place around or on the table. In the first the main period, the key 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 family ate together, sometimes in two sittings if the family was large. Though middle-class families now eat meals in their kitchen, this was false 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 since 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 using 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 doing offers and doing homework could be achieved 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 eliminate 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 following day. Food preparation was a day activity, as 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 appearance of the table may also help alter the ambiance of the living room. On Sunday, the weekday tablecloth (or newspaper) may be replaced with a wiser 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. The range of living spaces increased in the former alongside the number of 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.