Kitchens by Riland

Antique kitchen units are typically free standing units collected from 1930s and beyond. Many antique furniture collectors love keeping their iceboxes, baker’s cabinets, dishes, jelly cupboards, and pie safes among other valuables. There are many antique kitchen units available through internet websites and at antique shops. Even though iceboxes were in the beginning used to keep foods cold, they make perfect antique kitchen units. Close in size to a modern day freestanding pantry cabinet, antique iceboxes have several compartments to store not only food packages but also dishware. Exteriorly, an antique icebox somewhat looks funny because of the large metal hinges on each door.

The other types of antique kitchen units are baker’s cabinets, which date back to 1898 when an Indian Kitchen cabinet maker, a Hoosier, started making them. Baker’s cabinets are self-contained freestanding wood baking units. The base part of the unit has drawers on one side and closed shelves on the other side. The hutch or upper part of the baker’s cabinet has in-built containers for storing jars of spices and flour. In between the upper and lower cabinet sections there is a countertop that can be used to mix and roll out dough.

Jelly cupboard and pie safe antique kitchen units are equally freestanding kitchen storage units like the baking centers but without the countertops. A pie safe is somewhat shorter and smaller than its baker’s unit counterpart and features tin cabinet door panels with attractive punched star-shaped designs. Pie safes generally feature a row of tiny drawers at the top and mostly 3 shelves meant to hold baked foods.

Antique jelly cupboards are more or less like pie safes because they also have small upper drawers and 3 inner shelves. However, the major difference between jelly cupboards and pie safes is a scalloped piece of lumber decorating the back of the jelly cupboards. Antique jelly cupboards of the American culture date back to 1860s.

Many freestanding antique kitchen units don’t have handles and knobs. However, one can use new door openers to replace the old unit hardware although you might be forced to apply an antique finish to them to augment an apt aged look. Antique kitchen units are mostly ideal for defining and re-creating the look of an old farmhouse style kitchen. This creates an epoch feeling when inside a kitchen with antique kitchen units. To accompany freestanding antique kitchen units, a vintage farmhouse wood table is the ideal décor.