Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
dingoaint

What is this cabinet (as seen on CL!)

Fori
11 years ago

This cabinet is advertised on craigslist in my area and I do not need it but it is strangely attractive to me. Why??? What IS it? Is it a kitchen cabinet of some sort? Like a less practical Hoosier type? Is it just a china hutch?

Comments (6)

  • palimpsest
    11 years ago

    To me it looks like a 1960s colonial revival hutch that was based upon the Ethan Allen Room Plan furniture of the same period. Room Plan was sort of modular and you could combine pieces in all sorts of ways.

  • lindac
    11 years ago

    I don't think it's as early at the 60's....

  • Fori
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    But it's so homely! haha. It's just so weird. It is labeled "Empire", whoever that was. Maybe it's because I'm short, but those high drawers strike me as ridiculous.

    Thanks!

  • jemdandy
    11 years ago

    It's a "kitchen cabinet". It was a common fixture in small rural farm houses. Its design ranged from "nice furniture" to something made out of scrap shipping crates. One of these sat in our kitchen in the early 1940s. After WW2, wall hung, metal cabinets became popular and replaced the storage of the old cabinets. Many kitchsns in our area sported these new wall cabinets with a matching table below with counter top. The old kitchen cabinet was moved to the back porch where it served a to store less glamorous, but essential farmstead items.

    A flurry of 3-bedroom ranch style homes began following WW2 and these featured built-in cabinets leading to the style of today's kitchen. The old kitchen cabinet was no longer wanted. A similar item in the form of a china cabinet and hutch may be found in dining spaces.

  • Fori
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    Hmmm it does look a little faux-antiqued. So I'll go with reproduction kitchen cabinet meant for the living room?

    I'm not going in for a closer look!

  • lindac
    11 years ago

    I'll call it a "leaverite"....as in Leave 'er Right There...
    Probably a media cabinet...8 tracks in the drawers, turntable and tape deck behind the doors.
    Not a kitchen cabinet.....