These 1970s kitchens were far out

Relaxing kitchen

Relaxation was the main goal of this 1970s vacation house, and the kitchen followed suit, with “white walls and neutral carpeting against the soft glow of light-toned wood, punctuated by deep earth tones and the sparkling touch of chrome on the Breuer dining chairs and kitchen stools,” according to House Beautiful editors.

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Kitchen fitted with old and new

Polished bronze and white lacquer are balanced with period details like re-created ogee-edged marble counters, a garden-view window seat and a restaurant range. Featured in House Beautiful’s April 1979 issue.

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A zinnia kitchen

Zinnia red walls and wood cabinets are brightened by a straw ceiling, light-reflecting foil wallpaper and the circular skylight, which floods the kitchen with daylight. Featured in the April 1970 issue of House Beautiful.

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Country kitchen

In remodeling, the kitchen roof was raised, slanted upward and skylighted over the slickly equipped working area, but the pine-paneled ceiling gives the lofty room all the visual snugness of an old-time country kitchen. Featured in House Beautiful’s May 1975 issue.

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A cook’s dream

The handsome galley on this houseboat is a cook’s dream with a deluxe Princess electric stove with three rotisseries in the oven and a stainless steel double sink. Featured in the August 1972 issue of House Beautiful.

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Bright kitchen

You might have to take out your sunglasses to view this kitchen in a house on a former apple orchard near Morristown, N.J. It was “alive with designer Susie Lowenstein’s bright, clear palette,” according to House Beautiful in the 1970s. “A ‘color freak,’ she used yellow for the kitchen, purple and red in the living room, and orange graphics in the dining room.”

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Manhattan kitchen

Alan Buchsbaum and Howard Korenstein of the Design Coalition, the architects remodeling this Manhattan kitchen in 1975, were aiming for spatial excitement and drama in the whole apartment, they told House Beautiful. In the kitchen, they chose shades of blue for the interiors of the open cabinets and the hoods over the butcher-block table and built-in range. “When your scheme is dominated by one color,” they said, “there has to be lots of texture variation.” Their variation came in the form of large, unglazed tiles for the floor in the same chocolate as the smaller glazed tiles, as well as the open cabinets that put food and pots and pans on display.

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Efficient design

This 1970s kitchen was a “recipe for efficiency,” according to the House Beautiful editors back then. “Here, architect Charles Mount designed an up-to-the-minute kitchen on an Oriental theme,” they wrote. The kitchen also boasted the “latest in appliance and color trends. Almond-toned cabinets extend across four walls. Black laminate covers counters. Pipes pull out smoke; black glass doors gleam on refrigerator and dishwasher. For cooking — glass ceramic cooktop and microwave oven.”

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Famous Finnish design

Famous Finnish design team Armi Ratia created mix-and-match wall coverings in the late 1970s that “blended the best of country charm with contemporary chic,” House Beautiful editors wrote then. Pictured here in 1979 is Kristina Ratia in her Connecticut kitchen. The kitchen is papered in the grid pattern “Arithmetic III,” with fabrics to match.

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Dream kitchen

“When Mikki Durishin-Williams and her husband, Tony, began planning their new dream kitchen, they knew exactly what they wanted,” House Beautiful wrote of this all-red wonder in 1979. “Above all, it had to be superbly organized — since Mikki is kept very busy running a dance class and a gourmet catering service called The Happy Cooker.” The central work island was imperative, House Beautiful editors wrote, because it served as a cooktop, a work space and a casual eating counter. The kitchen also had a mini-office, pantry and clean-up areas, “visually connected by graphic floor stripes.”

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Tree house kitchen

This kitchen, featured in House Beautiful in January 1979, was built inside a glass-encased, multilevel “tree house” perched on the side of a hill overlooking Lake Sammamish outside of Seattle. The kitchen, placed on the house’s highest level, was “designed to be the focal point of all activities,” according to House Beautiful editors. “It is at the center of the plan and has visual contact with all the spaces on the living level,” they wrote.

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Showcase kitchen

House Beautiful featured this kitchen, from the Junior League of Greater Bridgeport Designer’s Showcase in Fairfield, Conn., in 1979. “... Green growing things, Thonet stools and a custom-built butcher-block working-storage-serving table inlaid with Portuguese tiles — these add the welcoming warmth and color of a living room to a St. Charles kitchen that’s functional as a machine,” the editors wrote.

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