May, 1 9 10 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



193 



The Small Kitchen of To-day; Its Planning and Equipment 



By Robert Spencer, Jr. 



SMALL kitchen may be likened to a com- 

 pact little work shop or laboratory. To 

 be a success it must be built rightly, then 

 equipped rightly. 



Right building means right planning. 

 The location of the kitchen should give 

 it enough sun-light to keep it sweet, not so 

 much as to make it needlessly hot. The prevailing summer 

 winds shouki carry kitchen odors away from the house- — - 

 notinto it. The small kitchen may be relatively long and narrow, 

 amply windowed on one side or approximately square, 

 never deep and narrow with windows only at one end. 



The smaller the kitchen the greater the need of a small 

 connecting dining-room or alcove for the maid. 



As to pantries they can be dispensed with entirely under 

 certain conditions in the modest home. If not, one pantry 

 can be made to do double duty. If a kitchen be of the 

 "pantrv^less" type at least as much shelf, drawer, cup- 

 board and work-counter room should be provided as in the 

 average kitchen and cook's pantry combined. This can be 

 done in a space loxii or even 6x12 feet. While some 

 very cleverly arranged "kitchen cabinets" are ready made, 

 they scarcely provide sufficient shelf and counter space, al- 

 though wonderfully convenient additions to the old kitchen. 

 Six feet of side lighted wall space will accommodate a 

 "built-in" combination of shelves, work table, etc., equal 

 to the shelving and countering of the average small pantry. 



The refrigerator may be 

 built into the kitchen or in 

 one of the pantries or set in 

 a space provided in the entry. 

 In either case it should have 

 an outside icing door, not 

 only for the convenience of 

 the ice man, but in order that 

 it may serve (where there is 

 no cook's pantry) for cold 

 storage of perishable supplies 

 when not iced. 



Side 1 i g h t- — -preferably 

 from the left — should fall 

 upon the range. The kit- 

 chen chimney should be large 

 enough for a ventilating flue, 

 preferably at least a foot 

 square in cross section. For 

 a coal range the vent flue 

 must be separate from the 

 usual 8x12 smoke flue. For 

 a gas range, one flue will do. 

 Whether a range having its 

 own sheet-iron hood is in- 

 stalled or not, a wire lathed 

 and plastered hood covering 

 a space larger than the top 

 area of the range should de- 

 pend from the ceiling to 

 within six feet-two or three 

 from the floor — to gather 

 and lead to the vent flue the 

 heat and fumes of cooking. 

 The kitchen smk should be 

 set under the windows — 



against an outside and preferably a sunny wall — or side- 

 wise to an outside wall — never at the back of a kitchen 

 lighted from one side only. 



In my own practice 1 prefer to locate the sink against an 

 outside wall where it may receive some direct sunshine 

 every clear day. There is a common belief that no supply 

 pipes for kitchens or bathrooms should be in outside walls. 

 Hence the common practice of locating sinks elsewhere. 

 If the plumbing Is properly specified and honestly installed 

 there need be no fear of frozen water supply pipes in or 

 against outer walls. It is merely a question of proper 

 furring — boxing and hair felt or other insulating covering, 

 and a moderate degree of warmth at all times in the kitchen. 

 It is a very common mistake to so place the sink that it 

 can have but one good-sized drain-board. There should 

 be always two of them, each from three to four feet long 

 and two feet wide — so made and set as to be easily re- 

 moved at any time and not permanently fitted and attached 

 either to the sink or wall, unless they be of enameled iron, 

 slate, marble or "Carrara" glass. 



For the average small kitchen the sink should be not less 

 than 20x32 inches; 22x36 inches is ample in enameled iron. 

 Enameled iron sinks should be set on wall brackets. Sinks 

 of "vitreous ware" usually have cast iron legs which may 

 be painted to match the woodwork or coated with bronze 

 or aluminum paint. The water supply should be through 

 a combination hot and cold water cock with a single 



5^-inch faucet having enough 

 projection for hanging a tea 

 kettle while it fills. 



In the up-to-date small 

 house, "piping hot" water — 

 too hot for the hands — is 

 almost always on tap, being 

 heated from a coil in the 

 boiler or furnace in winter, 

 and from a small coal heater 

 in summer with a large stor- 

 age tank out of the way in the 

 basement, instead of in the 

 kitchen, where it occupies 

 valuable space and tends to 

 keep the kitchen always hot in 

 warm weather. 



In a very small kitchen, 

 chairs are often in the way. 

 At the same time the wise 

 woman will sit at her kitchen 

 work as much as she can. 

 Therefore folding wall seats 

 and swinging counter seats — 

 such as are found at coun- 

 ters in some retail stores — 

 can often be installed to 

 advantage. 



The refrigerator may be 

 built into an outer wall of 

 the kitchen or kitchen entry, 

 cook's pantry or serving 

 pantry — provided it is fitted 

 with an outside door through 

 which the ice chamber may 

 be conveniently filled. And 



The first floor plan of a $7,000 suburban house at 

 River Forest, Illinois, with a minimum kitchen 

 and no pantries 



