square kitchen table

square kitchen table with Transitional

By Interior Designers & Decorators Photographed in San Francisco
Date uploaded: July 19, 2017
In the very first 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 very first half of the twentieth century.

The kitchen table must be put in its environment in order to understand its significance. Nowadays we would believe that this was the kitchen. Certainly, in middle-class homes, your 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 referred to as a ‘kitchen'however for one third it had been called a ‘living room '. Food was prepared and cooked in the living room but it had been unlikely to become a place for washing dishes. This will be achieved in a'scullery'or ‘back kitchen '. A separate ‘kitchen'was therefore not confirmed in the working-class home and plans for the very first council houses in 1918 had ‘living rooms'and ‘sculleries'but no ‘kitchens '.

For a lot of it was the table – the only person in the house. It was the focal point of the living room 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 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 in their kitchen, this was not the case before the Second World War. During those times, 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 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 deploying 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 an alternative relationship with your kitchen table because doing offers and doing homework could be achieved elsewhere. In most, the autobiographical sources known 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 the following day. Food preparation was a daytime activity, as the playing of games took devote 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 could also help alter the ambiance of the living room. On Sunday, the weekday tablecloth (or newspaper) may be replaced with a better 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. All of the living spaces increased in the former alongside the amount of tables, whilst in 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.