Edwardian Kitchen
An Edwardian dolls house kitchen needs to be scaled to reflect the size and stature of the house it is occupying. In large, grand houses, there might be a separate scullery, washhouse, buttery, pantry and butlers pantry. In smaller houses the kitchen would have to fulfil all these functions.
Up until the First World War, most houses were large enough to accommodate a separate kitchen and scullery and one maid. As electricity and piped water became more commonplace the kitchen changed from being a place of backbreaking time consuming manual labour to a room where food was prepared. The Edwardians took kitchen hygiene very seriously. Walls were light, bright and washable. The ceiling was white and was washed or white washed every year. The walls surrounding the sink and stove tended to be tiled or covered in galvanized zinc. Furniture had rounded corners to aid cleaning and to prevent dust and grime collecting.
Kitchen floors would be covered in easy to clean linoleum and scullery floors covered in stone flags.
 The sink might have been in the kitchen or in the scullery. It would have been made of stone or porcelain with one or two sloping wooden draining boards. If there was room there might be a separate slop sink and troughs for cleaning vegetable and fish. A separate hand basin would be there for the kitchen staff to wash their hands. Wooden plate racks hung above the sinks.
The largest and most cumbersome item in the kitchen was the range. This was used for heating, hot water and cooking. They may have had several ovens, an open fire, a grill and a boiler. Cooking with gas and electricity did come into being during the Edwardian Era.
A large, scrubbed wooden table would occupy the centre of the kitchen. This is where the food was prepared and where the kitchen staff would eat. Part of the table might be covered with cool marble, ideal for pastry making, otherwise there might be a separate marble topped pastry table elsewhere in the room.
Cooking utensils and crockery were stored in a dresser. This was usually built in and stood against the wall. The top half of this unit would comprise of wooden shelves whilst the bottom half compromised of cupboard space for storing larger items, Earthenware and pans.
Food was kept in the larder, the coolest area in the kitchen. Shelves were covered in metal or marble. There might be separate areas for meat, milk and dry goods.
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