Seeking parlor kitchen storage around fireplace ideas
@bob: i have been checking back hourly to see when you would spot that line:-)
i think it is great you have them from the former occupants of the house and can add provenance to them. when i was a teen, some of us dug a bottle dump on an old estate in islip (the former Harry B. Hollins estate; he was an associate of JP Morgans) and i still have the bottles; they are pre 1900 and i am trying to find the proper resting place for those back on Long Island. so i do understand the desire to display things like that and i was very aware that those reached back to another period. I used to have some old Minwax Wax Tins (unopened), from the 20’s or 30’s; if i still had them i would offer them to you.
stevecym
in General Discussion 5 years and 10 months ago
6
Please log in, in order to post replies!
6 replies
true | 5 years and 11 months ago
I’m looking for creative ideas on how to add more kitchen storage in a parlor kitchen with a fireplace and the standard, 3 tall windows. It’s been hard finding examples that don’t add new windows or mess with the fireplace. We also want to preserve the door separating the staircase hallway from the rear parlor so you can see the entire length of the home when entering the house up the stoop.
I’m tempted to change our design approach altogether since our hopes of functionally remodeling the space and preserving details seem at odds. New approach: a) restore as much as possible of the home’s original details then b) have our new kitchen look more placed in the beautiful old shell, not integrated.
brokelin | 5 years and 11 months ago
One way to do that, whether you go with completely with the kitchen placed in the old shell idea (which idea I like) fully or partially, is to use freestanding furniture pieces in some places rather than built-in cabinets. These pieces can be old wood case pieces, new wood ones, or metal and glass pieces. They are useful for storing dishes and food (and pots, depending on the size of the shelves in the piece). Glass panes can be covered on the inside with pretty paper if the doors have glass and you prefer the contents not to be visible.
Places pieces like this work well are: (1) placed between 2 windows, (2) placed between the doorway to the hallway or and the wider doorway to the next room, if you have such doorways, (3) on the wall on either side of the fireplace, or (3) placed in front of of the bump-out of a bricked-up fireplace (though I think your fireplace is still there). A limited number of such pieces works best, combined with built-in units.
Or you can build simple custom wood pieces in these spaces for storage such that they don’t look like typical k itchen cabinets. Building them to a depth of less than the standard 24-inch deep lower kitchen cabinet is possible, and will leave more open space and look less like typical kitchen cabinets.
Open shelves built into the space on either side of a chimney (whether the fireplace is bricked-up up or still there) also work for some storage.
For an island in such a kitchen, you can purchase an antique wood store counter or similar piece (a massive one or smaller-scale one), or have a custom-sized one built, to set down like furniture and a use as a free-standing island, or permanently attached to the floor if you want to incorporate a sink or an appliance into it.
NeoGrec | 5 years and 11 months ago
I agree with brokelin. We have a large heart pine Welsh dresser in one of the alcoves adjacent to our fireplace. It holds all our dry goods, linens and a bunch of cookware.
RobertGMarvin
in General Discussion 5 years and 11 months ago
Our kitchen is in the original ground floor rear location, so our experience differs from the OP, but if you want a free-standing piece of furniture it’s hard to beat a late 19-teens–1930s “Hooser” cabinet. We laid out our kitchen around two of them. [135 Midwood 4 (1) LR](//muut.com/u/brownstoner/s2/:brownstoner:Nth3:135midwood41lr.jpg.jpg) [135 Midwood 2 LR](//muut.com/u/brownstoner/s2/:brownstoner:Nmm9:135midwood2lr.jpg.jpg)
stevecym | 5 years and 11 months ago
you will be lucky if you are a minimalist and don’t acquire things. but if you are like i am with my shop and all that stuff or like bob is who seems to have saved some old tins and product advertising from his childhood (see his photo), you will find that it makes a lot of sense to go up. it took us a while to get there here, but everything we have brought in now reaches almost to the ceiling (our ceilings are lower than in the brooklyn houses). and i used to make cases for people and on top of selling them on the idea of going higher, i always liked to put a shelf like counter to the front of the bottom unit just like shown in bob’s photo; even one to the side for setting out refreshments (i mean booze) and such for guests. you can then have closed “boxes” on the bottom and open shelves on the top.
also, you do not need a guy like me to design and make these units. you can purchase knock down cabinets from ikea (hd used to carry them) and place the bottoms out yourself, add a counter and stack other units on top. i bet ikea makes their counters to that dep th already, so know ripping it down. perhaps cut the length. about the only concern i see for someone trying to do this on their own is scribing the back of the cabinets to the walls if they are visible at the ends and i sometimes am concerned about people anchoring into crumbly mortar to secure things to the wall as if something comes down, someone will get hurt (when we anchor to crumbling mortar, we insert epoxy into the hole and then set the anchor).
bkallday mentions freestanding. we have now gone that route here, but it can be hard to fit some of these things to a space, both size wise and aesthetically (which is why it took us a long time). knock down cabinets come in 12, 15, 18, 21…. 36″ widths. very handy people can even modify these, depth wise i mean.
steve
RobertGMarvin
in General Discussion 5 years and 10 months ago
Stevecym– regarding my having “saved some old tins and product advertising from…[my] childhood” The containers in the photograph of my Hoosier cabinet are things left behid in our house by the previous owner who lived there from 1927 to 1974. I think they’re all pre-WW II. I’m old, but not THAT old. No offense taken though–we DO like old things.