Victorian kitchens tend to undergo the most significant changes during home renovations. Often, owners simply come to the conclusion that maintaining authenticity without sacrificing functionality and convenience is impossible.
Thus, the modern stove replaced the wood stove, the refrigerator took the place of the pantry, and the dishwasher completely revolutionized kitchen life. But does this mean that we will not be able to preserve some features of the Victorian interior and at the same time modernize it sufficiently?
Strict and practical, the kitchen in the Victorian era was significantly different from the rest of the house in appearance. The homeowners did not consider it necessary to spend a lot of money and effort on its architectural appearance. Today, this deliberately simple aesthetic can be the basis for creating a clean, solid look, or you can add some recognizable features to an existing interior, authentic or imitated.
Plate
The most distinctive feature of the Victorian kitchen was the location of the stove within the fireplace chimney. If the space allows, find the opportunity to install a wood-burning stove - it will give the interior a feeling of comfort and incomparable charm. It is better if it is located next to the dining table, and cast iron or copper cookware will create the desired ambience.
Decor: completion of the composition
In any composition, the finishing touch is placed with the help of decor. In English interiors it is used everywhere: from furniture parts to trinkets. Victorian designs are often embellished with oriental souvenirs. These include vases, figurines, stone and wooden figurines made from expensive species.
But you should also remember about the functional details:
- Textiles used throughout the room are usually embroidered with oriental motifs, images of animals and plants. As a rule, the plot corresponds to the pattern on the wallpaper. Curtains and their trim should be matched to the tone.
- If Moroccan variegated tiles are used , then you need to select such variegated solutions for other parts of the kitchen or room in the studio. This could be a mosaic in the form of a picture on the wall, a stained glass window in the living room furniture, a patchwork sofa cushion cover, curtain trim, or a chandelier.
- Chandeliers often become the focal point of a dining area or living room. Rougher ones - in a colonial interior, more openwork - in a classic English design - lamps can become the accent of the room. Then neither the apron tiles nor the curtains should draw attention to themselves.
In such a kitchen, you can temporarily forget about a sense of proportion: there can be quite a lot of details here, which distinguishes Victorian design from classic. And even such general details as curtains, sophistication of lines, ornate decor will not be as restrained. And this already gives free rein to imagination.
Sideboard
I would like to immediately make a reservation that such a piece of furniture is capable of supporting the Victorian style alone, even in the absence of a corresponding stove. It does not have upper cabinets located at eye level. Open shelves, more typical of modern interiors, provide easy access to the things you need.
Authentic sideboards can be very expensive and can be difficult to find. But it’s hardly worth wasting money and time on finding and buying such a beauty, especially since it can easily be repainted in a suitable color.
Loaf
Popular English wisdom said: “for presentation, go to a good chef, and for taste, go to a good cook.” After the French Revolution, it became fashionable in Great Britain to hire French cooks (“chefs”) - and they, it must be said, significantly changed the kitchen climate of the country. Only the richest aristocrats could afford such luxury - but precisely as a luxury. The British were at best condescending towards French cuisine, believing that their neighbors were forced to suffer with overly complex delicacies simply because they were deprived of normal meat.
Those who could not afford to send a Frenchman from across the English Channel made do with local cooks. In a small house - say, in the city apartment of a poor publisher, like Mrs. Beaton's household - the cook also washed dishes, cleaned the kitchen and swept the porch. In larger houses, a dishwasher was added to her service. In a large country house there is a small army of servants of lower rank. In this case, the cook herself prepared only cakes, jellies, ice cream and the most delicious dishes, and “simple cooking” fell on the shoulders of the first and second kitchen maids, who, in turn, were helped by the same dishwasher.
dishwasher
The dishwasher position was the lowest (and lowest paid) job available—and also the hardest. The working day began at 6 am with putting the kitchen in perfect order. It was necessary to wash the floors and shelves, sweep the ashes from the hearth and stove and blacken and light the latter. If the housewife liked to take water procedures in rainwater, then the first thing she had to do was boil it. And then she spent the whole day polishing copper pots and pans (with a mixture of baking soda and lemon juice) and washing plates (with soap shavings diluted to a kind of jelly). And yes, it was quite an activity! In the 1830s, plating a la Russe took Europe by storm. If earlier dishes with food were put on the table (in a certain order) and passed from guest to guest (also in a certain order) so that they could serve themselves food, now in all decent houses food was served by servants - and the dishes were changed between changes of dishes. Modest, even pitiful 6 courses during dinner for a small group of guests - and now there is a mountain of several hundred pieces of tableware. And all this before the invention of rubber gloves!
If there were a small number of kitchen maids in the house, the dishwasher also washed and peeled vegetables, and in other cases, cooked. But the dishwasher’s duties did not end there - she was charged with plucking poultry, cleaning fish and skinning small animals like rabbits. Well, since the Victorians loved to have all this disgrace served head on, they also liked to pick out their eyes.
After a year or a year and a half, the dishwasher could be promoted to second kitchen maid and transferred from the damp and dark dishwasher to the unbearably hot kitchen. Getting up at the same 6 in the morning, she prepared the table - filled the bowls placed on the table with flour and sugar, checked whether there was enough salt in the salt shaker, prepared vegetables and herbs for decoration, laid out all the spoons and knives that could be used for the cook and the first maid. needed in cooking - and she put out special wooden pallets on which she had to stand while working. Despite the heat from the stove and perhaps the hearth, the stone floor remained unbearably cold. The second maid also heated the flour, set the dough, and perhaps, if the first maid was busy, even baked bread. She also had the task of installing “ice caves” for soufflés and cooking meat on a spit.
Relationships with the opposite sex among servants were categorically discouraged. A butler, gardener or groom could still start a family, but for female servants, marriage almost always meant dismissal. To prevent this from happening, the housekeeper guarded the girl’s honor like a kite. Often literally - the only way to get into the maids' rooms was through her bedroom. And yet, service was for many young girls a way not only to earn extra money, but also to find a husband.
For those who really intended to build a career, the position of second maid was an excellent opportunity to learn a lot - from the first maid and cook, and also from the French chef, whom the owners’ guests could take with them. In the city, you could even go to a hotel - for a relatively small fee, 5-10 shillings, the Savoy chef allowed you to watch his work.
After two or three years, the girl could try to find a job as the first maid (or “second cook,” as she was also called) in another house. This transition was especially critical for city women - after several years of working in the damp, cold basements of London, many inevitably developed pulmonary diseases.
The first maid was responsible for all the “simple cooking” for the dining room and the cooking for the classroom and nursery. In addition, it was the first maid who cooked for all the other servants, who could be no less picky than the owners of the house.
By and large, good nutrition was almost the most serious advantage of working in the service. A roof over your head – on the one hand, yes. But on the other hand, only servants of the highest rank, such as a housekeeper or butler, lived in at least somewhat decent conditions. Footmen and maids, working not only in the kitchen, but also “upstairs” in the house, settled in for the night in spartan surroundings. Good masters gave their servants a bed (the girls usually shared it), a rug (the carpets ended where the service wing began), a sink for washing, and a hanger. The box with which the girl arrived for service was usually locked by the owners until dismissal - it was believed that personal belongings tempted the servants to further “collect garbage.” The wages of servants were also more than modest (in the 1880s: from a measly 12 pounds a year for a dishwasher to 70 pounds for a professional cook), and the more painful was the need to spend it. You had to pay for your own tea and sugar – and for your clothes and shoes. But here's the food! The servants did not eat such exquisite dishes as the masters, but the products, as well as their quantity, will impress even the modern reader. The Audley End servants ate an average of half a pound to a pound of meat per day (a modern Briton eats an average of 225 g, and a resident of Russia - 166 g), and ate it with huge amounts of butter, made in their own butter churn from the milk of local cows. All servants were also entitled to beer - half a pint for lunch, a pint for lunch and another half pint for dinner. Both women and men usually refused beer, preferring to take “beer money.” The senior servants - the housekeeper, cook, butler, valet of the master and the mistress's maid, usually about half a dozen people - were allowed to drink four bottles of wine a week.
Cook's office. On the left wall there is a window, covered on the reverse side by a shelving unit (photo above). Through it, the cook monitored the work in the kitchen.
The cook prepared only “real”, most complex dishes. When breakfast was over, she wrote down the menu for lunch and dinner, and then took it to the hostess for approval. In smaller houses, the housewife herself went down to the kitchen - upon her arrival, the kitchen was scrubbed to a shine, the table was covered with a white tablecloth, and a pencil was placed next to the menu. The maids were always kicked out of the kitchen.
Having finished her morning work—jelly, ice cream, and cake—she was free. If there was no need to prepare for a big party.
The busiest time came at five minutes to nine, just before dinner. The dinner was a grand affair that required second-to-second precision. Five or six courses, guests, the distance of the kitchen from the dining room and at the same time the need to serve food hot... In the “Manual of Domestic Economy” (Manual of Domestic Economy, 1857) J. H. Walsh wrote: “How Napoleon could always gather his troops on in a certain place at a certain time, from whatever distance they march, so a cook who knows his job well can ensure that all the dishes are ready.” Dr. William Kitchener, in his Cook's Oracle, noted melancholy that “nothing can be done perfectly in a hurry, except catching fleas,” but still advised striving for precision by synchronizing the clocks in the kitchen and dining room.
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Kitchen table
The right kitchen table will complete the Victorian look. Such a massive structure has no place in the dining room: it must be placed in the center of the work area. In fact, this type of table is the ancestor of the kitchen island, which no home can do without today. It is better if it is designed in a contrasting color relative to the cabinets.
Layout
A traditional Victorian kitchen is a space with a central work area, simple cabinets and open shelving. A modern interpretation of this look should be functional, efficient and ideal for the keen cook. Features of the Victorian style in this interior are carved window casings and wall cladding with white clapboard.
Wall design
Fabric or moisture-resistant wallpaper with images of flowers, birds and animals are the most used materials when decorating walls. Drawings in the form of stripes or tartan would be quite appropriate. The lower part of the walls is decorated with wooden panels with carvings. The color of the wood must be fully consistent when decorating the kitchen.
Colors used for wall decoration:
- beige and sand colors;
- reddish-brown tones and undertones;
- Light gray shades are used as an accent in a certain space.
One of the most suitable materials used in kitchen finishing is artificial stone. It is customary to decorate a kitchen apron with tiles. Plastic finishing is unacceptable. The cheapest finishing option is plastered and painted walls.
Sink
In the era we're looking at, both sinks and work areas were installed in separate rooms like a pantry. With the advent of the open-plan era, these rooms either became laundry rooms or disappeared altogether. One thing has not changed: a large wooden plate drainer should still be located above the sink in a Victorian interior.
Lighting
Victorian and modern kitchens alike need good lighting, although in the distant past this aspect was even more important as kitchen spaces were often located in basements. Lamps - practical, not pompous - should be placed above the work area. These are exactly the ones shown in the photo: they can be adjusted in height, depending on current needs.
Final touches
If you decide that your kitchen will be traditional, make sure that the style you choose really reigns in its interior. It is very important to pay attention to the appearance of any metal products, including faucets and fittings. Today, many companies produce retro interpretations of these devices.
And remember: the fact that your kitchen has tried on Victorian attire does not at all deprive you of the opportunity to install modern equipment. It’s just that the appliances need to be hidden behind furniture facades so that they don’t introduce dissonance into the image.
Ready to give your kitchen some Victorian charm? Tell us about your experience!
Studio set in English style
Kitchen furniture plays a significant role in such an interior: there is no place for disguises and merging with wall decoration, as is customary in minimalism and functional modern design. Moreover, special attention should be paid to choosing a headset for a studio, where it is possible to implement the most ornate projects.
- A typically English Victorian furniture set will be quite elaborate, but still more restrained than in Rococo or Baroque. There will be more gothic and eclecticism here, but there are also classical features. These are imitation columns, stucco molding, bas-reliefs, overhead moldings and milling.
- This design often uses portals around the stove and hood , which makes the set more elegant and formal. But such solutions are applicable only in spacious rooms.
- Colonial furniture may be simpler but obviously antique. Forged overlays are used here for decoration, but there are no overly elaborate details. The kitchen facades will be more shabby than decorated with gilding. This is where Moroccan tiles or decoration with an oriental theme are more appropriate than white glossy tiles.
