The Historic District

I was researching old sofas, chesterfields, couches etc. I found some info that suggests a "chesterfield" is different because it refers to the arms and back being of the same height so it is sort of closed in, like a booth, and a lot of really old english ones were done in leather and fit the description. I think the term later morphed into meaning the same as a couch. for the most part that style sort of fell out of fashion and most modern couches have arms lower than the back. Some may make the differentiation and some may think they are both just a different term for the same thing. Would others here think of a couch being different than a chesterfield?

My theory is that in older times with wood and coal the heating wasn't as consistent as we are used to , so in a cool room one may appreciate that his/her seat was a bit more closed in because it would be less drafty. with modern heating systems we don't really have to cope with drafts to the same degree. Perhaps that led to more open arm designs.

We are getting closer on our kitchen. The base cabinets are to be done by 6/4, hopefully our flooring is in by then. Over the last month we gutted, rewired, insulated and drywalled and paninted the new space. We included a new window to match the house. I built and Arts and Crafts doorbell cover in white oak. Lots of 12-14 hour days to get to where we are.

The worst is over - now the fun begins!

Wow, total gut job! Can't wait to see the finished product.

NH, I see there has been some major rearranging of this space. It looks like from the framing on the left side the original window was much smaller and the wall stretching to the corner on the right. An outside door had been removed making two longer walls, also a chimney plug. Was this the original kitchen when built?
That wall paper screams fifties to me as well as what looks to be linoleum, the positioning I can’t make out. Are we looking down onto the floor or on a wall? If a wall was it used as a backsplash? Do you think the kitchen you inherited was the first reconfiguring of this space or were there layers of history behind those cabinets?

Gothichome wrote:NH, I see there has been some major rearranging of this space. It looks like from the framing on the left side the original window was much smaller and the wall stretching to the corner on the right. An outside door had been removed making two longer walls, also a chimney plug. Was this the original kitchen when built?
That wall paper screams fifties to me as well as what looks to be linoleum, the positioning I can’t make out. Are we looking down onto the floor or on a wall? If a wall was it used as a backsplash? Do you think the kitchen you inherited was the first reconfiguring of this space or were there layers of history behind those cabinets?

The house had a major renovation from a victorian to a bungalow around 1903. I detected at least three other kitchens in the house, such as three sink locations. Eight wallpapers and three layers of flooring plus the birch hardwood. There was a 1978 built in china cupboard we removed, it was the original attic stairway location. The photo showing the open door to the basement, you can see the stairs going up all though all covered over in the attic. Another photo shows there had been a partition removed that ran between the attic stairs(former china cupboard) and the chimney. I hope I didn't make this too confusing. Our cabinets are now due in on June 4th. The Marmoleum is supposed to be installed soon. At this point we are just waiting.

The photo showing the partition won't load right now, oh well. I'm sure it's me.

Nh, yes I remember the story, They lifted the roof off and and moved away the first floor and made the second story the first, or was it the other way around? But fair to say it has been knocked about over a 120 years. Your efforts today is a reworking of the third kitchen location?

The lathe is so pretty on its own in a rustic way, it reminds me of an old barn.

Were these other sink markings large kitchen sinks or just little ones? Sometimes every bedroom had its own little sink. For example, every dorm room in the Victorian-era college I attended in the '80's had the little original sink in it.

I'm a bit torn on IKEA kitchens. I built one in the mid-2000s and that ended up less than ideal. In hindsight we should've skipped the adjustable feet and built our own sturdy bases - now all the lowers are crooked and warped. The fronts are solid pine, not everyone's taste but very sturdy. I'm also royally peeved that they didn't sell the tracks for hanging uppers in Austria at that time, they'd have made installing the uppers a breeze!

The drawers are terrific, very sturdy and glide like a charm!

Some of the aspects that have been criticised here are inevitable in Europe, unless you splurge for a completely bespoke kitchen in the upper 5-digit region.
Rule #1: carcasses are chipboard
Rule #2: kitchens (post-1960) are frameless
Rule #3: each unit is individual, i.e. has four sides and a back

I recently disassembled a quite expensive Scandinavian kitchen from 1987 and it fulfilled all those criteria. The main difference to most European kitchens was that it didn't have recessed hinges but neat little brass ones. I salavged the entire kitchen and might replace my parents' mishmash of 1980s and 1960s cabinets one day. The fronts are solid natural pine with raised panels, very Scandinavian 1980s but I like it and so does my mom. It does have a light stale cigarette odour but I hope to get rid of that. The place I got it from had been lived in by non-smokers for at least 15 years but the smell is still there. The original appliances were mostly gone, except for the cooker hood (chocolate brown) and smallish built-in fridge. The dishwasher is new-ish but someone went through the trouble of covering the front with peel&stick pine decor. One part that won't be used is the built-in stainless oven with ceramic hob, my parents want gas and there's no wiring for an electric hob either.