The 'Best' Kitchen Design Tips from 1970s Bon Appétit Issues
It's spring, which in certain bourgeois circles means it's time to undergo rituals of cleaning and redecorating. As participants in consumer culture, we at Bon Appétit have a lot of opinions on said subjects. The same is true of our forebears, who edited one of my favorite of this magazine's many long-moribund columns: "Great Kitchens, Great Cooks." This series ran in the mid-70s, before unceremoniously morphing into "Great Cooks" sometime late in the decade, abandoning the kitchen-design conceit. So what was Bon Appétit's idea of a "Great Kitchen"? We gleaned some tips from these 40-year-old pages to give you an idea.
Alexas Urba1/6One Word: Orange.
"The kitchen is the focal point" of 28-year-old "businessman, law student, and bon vivant" Douglas Keil's home. "The bold designs and earth colors...reflect an artist's delight in things simply, yet satisfying. The natural textures of decorative basketry, the brown mossy carpeting and rich ceramic tile floor areas blend naturally with the view of nearby wood oak woods."
2/6The Bigger The Island, The Better
"Efficiency with the feel of fine furniture is how Sandy described what she wanted. So the Krasnows used oak, laying down plank floors and installing piano-hinged cabinets. Their new 11-foot butcher block counter, with marble inset at one end for pastry-making, became a divider between cook space and dining room."
Bon Appétit3/6It's All About the Backsplash
"Stella's beautiful and efficient kitchen reflects its owner's personal attention, right down to the strawberry drawer pulls and the door handles that are grapes, pineapples, green peppers, and corn made of brass."
4/6You Can Never Have Too Many Bright Colors
"Brenda's culinary command post is a cheery apple-green, citron-yellow, and white room done in virtually maintenance-free ceramic tile and Formica. With its uncluttered counter tops, it looks as shipshape as the galley of a luxury yacht."
5/6Who Needs Decor When You Have Jars?
"Unlike the rest of the house, which was restored to its original 1920s condition, the kitchen underwent a major modernization when the family purchased the mansion seven years ago. An enormous squared-off room, painted and tiled in Terry's favorite blue and yellow, it is a delightful example of remodeling to the owner's special needs." [Note: The jars are never mentioned in the article.]
Photo: Brian Leatart6/6When All Else Fails, Decorate With Baskets.
"In the heart of the Mehta household, the efficiency of built-ins mingles companionably with the comfortable clutter of a country kitchen....Dozens of baskets hanging overhead on open rafters...suggest the warmth and energy of an Indian bazaar."
