It’s hard to believe that the kitchen was not always the heart of the home, but there was a time when if you were born into certain circumstances your kitchen was neither seen nor heard. Kitchen trends of old meant that an invisible workforce toiled away keeping the ovens alight and transformed produce from your kitchen garden to your dining table.

Pantry shelves were adorned with jars of preserves to sustain you through the leaner months. Refectory style tables doubled up as prep tables, shoe cleaning stations, gun maintenance, and dining tables for the below-stairs staff. Back then, kitchens were the engine room, and in common with engines, smokey, sooty, busy and definitely not places to play host or to linger longer than necessary unless you had a task to perform.

Today, kitchen trends have changed to see the space combined as a social gathering point, office, homeschooling classroom and gyms… the kitchen has truly become the heart of the home.

A decade of domesticity and the dinner party

The 1950s kitchen trends brought us colour, linoleum, Formica, time-saving gadgets, and a decade of domesticity. Director Mike Leigh brought to life an unforgettable soiree in his 1977 stage play, Abigail’s Party. Best remembered for the tragic comedy it neatly illustrated social change as we began to see our homes as social spaces.

Serving hatches were de rigueur for any self-respecting hostess as guests were most definitely not welcome in the kitchen, and dining rooms were the only place where eating took place.

Shop a decade of domesticity

Create a mid-century feel in your dining room with a classic sideboard.

 

 

Showcasing home cooking

We have much to thank Britain’s “First Lady of Food,” Elizabeth David, for revealing a culinary world of ingredients and ways of cooking that changed kitchen trends forever by removing the need to be stuck out of view from your guests. 

David’s 1950 book, A Book of Mediterranean Food, called for generous bowls of freshly cooked seasonal food, showcased in style. Wooden utensils were now on show in large terracotta pots and essential ingredients openly displayed in bottles of deep green olive oil and artisan-made bowls resplendent with lemons and fresh garlic. The kitchen became a room to share, and a place everyone wanted to be.

Shop the look

Keep your kitchenware and ingredients on display using open shelving.

 

The Room of Requirement

In JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series, the Room of Requirement is a secret room within Hogwarts Castle that only appears when a person is in great need of it. It’s known to be equipped for every need and can take an infinite number of forms. 

Much like our kitchens have done over the past year. 

The events of 2020 have seen the kitchen well and truly regain its position as the engine room of the home for it has been schoolroom, office, boardroom and pilates studio. We’ve added and subtracted chairs accordingly, cleared away remains of breakfast and lunch before our Zoom meetings and cooked together at the end of the day.

We have shared birthdays across cities, countries and continents from our kitchen tables and found solace in sharing food and simple domesticity albeit via a screen in the most important room in the house.

Over the past year, our kitchens have provided every meal. If you have joined the sourdough kitchen trends, you will have (literally) prepared your daily bread, a ritual we would barely have believed ourselves capable of… but needs must. 

In 2021, it is as though kitchen trends have circled back in time. We have turned our attention to our own cupboards, larders and pantries, and rediscovered the value and joy in using our garden produce to fill the shelves – and rediscovered the joy of spending time together in the heart of the home.

By Alison Hill