Why Your Kitchen Looks Like That

A century of American kitchen design, from the dawn of electricity to the kitchen island.

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By Rachel Wharton

Rachel Wharton spoke to designers, architects, cabinet makers, organizers, historians, and appliance experts to find out why our kitchens look the way they do.

Nov. 21, 2025

The American kitchen did not begin life as an enormous room where Carmela Soprano might check the mail at a marble-topped counter, or where everyone at the dinner party wants to hang out.

During the first century or so of American life, kitchens were usually hidden down a hallway at the back of a house, crammed into a basement, or banished to another building entirely, if you had the land. “We didn’t put them where you could see them,” said Dawn Viola, a Colorado kitchen designer who specializes in historic home preservation.