retro kitchens - Nostalgia or Shredder Material? #8

Today is a special day. At The Parrish Museum in Southampton, New York, there currently is running an exhibition on Raymond Loewy, the most prominent industrial designer of the 20th Century. Raymond Loewy designed everything from cars to silverware to broiler ovens during his five decades of work.  The 1950s proved to be a period of great interest in the kitchen for Raymond Loewy as he designed many useful products for both efficiency and his new, modern, aesthetic. The "Raymond Loewy: Designs for a Consumer Culture" exhibition includes today's talk at the Museum, at which I, along with several other speakers, will speak on American kitchens today. My topic will be "Comfort in the Kitchen." The exhibition is ongoing through May 27.

I will also be talking about design blogs! If you were at this event, please add your comments to this post. Tell us about the exhibit, what you learned, how you feel about kitchens, your kitchen, etc. Whatever you'd like to add, I'd love to hear from you! And, if you are new to blogging, don't forget to visit the sidebar to your right where you will discover my favorite blogs you will surely want to visit.

So, for today's kitchens, rather than the typical 60s-70s kitchens I show, let's go to the 50s! And, take a look, once again, at these kitchens from the totally fab blog, Fabulon.

I will update this post after I know I have survived my talk and tell you about the day.  

UPDATE: It was a great day...lots of interesting information from Alice Ross  who talked about the history of cooking, bringing along lots of antique, amazing, equipment, including many antique cooking "gadgets" which was fun to see. I ended up not really following my notes and just talking away about how to create a comfortable kitchen, and how I see trends forming where the individual will become more confident in their kitchen design than ever before, with a professional to guide, thanks to having so many choices available and seeing the many different ways, online, that people are designing and decorating their kitchens. I see a renewed confidence coming down the road. It really was a privilege to be a part of this program, and I thank the Parrish Museum for inviting me. The Museum itself is a wonderful building...see image below.

Comments

[Su]

My mother-in-law's kitchen in Wolverhampton, England, is in the same style as the Fleetway. The house was built in 1961, and the kitchen has not been updated.

The cupboard doors etc were maroon (covered with mid-blue Fablon in about 1980), the sink is fibreglass, the taps are some kind of plastic, white with dark red tops, and unbelievably useless, and on the wall next to the cooker there is one panel of moulded pale blue plastic tiles (which are melting ungracefully). The worktop is dark grey.

I can't stand the place, but I have had the tapered wall cupboards in several of our homes, and they are in fact quite practical, they don't seem to dominate the kitchen as much as plain rectangular ones.

[Thombeau]

Ooooh, you KNOW I am liking these!