Antique Hoosier

Antique Hoosier in my kitchen, before

I have a wonderful antique Hoosier that I bought as a local shop, Hill Street Mall,  last year. I didn't even realize what it was when I bought it because the flour and sugar bins had been removed. I have high hopes of someday restoring it to it's former glory. For right now though I think I would just like to be able to get it out from under the pile of junk that has accumulated on and around it.

If you didn't know, Hoosier cabinets were the quintessential kitchen cabinet from the turn of the century until well into the 1930s. Kitchens of the time had no built in cabinets so everything was stored on wall shelves or in freestanding furniture like the Hoosier.

The Hoosier Cabinet Company of Castle, Indiana was perhaps the most well known of the time. They were perhaps one of the first companies to advertise credit terms for their cabinets, with only $1 down and a $1 a month, any husband could afford to give his wife this state of the art piece of furniture to ease the drudgery of kitchen work.


Here in one place were to be found the sugar, flour, coffee and spices, all in lovely matching jars. Most models of cabinets had some sort of built in spice rack; some had handy cards posted on the inside of the upper doors giving times to roast meat and a grocery list to help keep up with what you needed to order.

 The Hoosier company also made a unique stool. Upright the lady of the house could sit to work at the Hoosier and thus rest her feet. Turned upside down it became a stable step ladder for reaching high places.


I highly recommend Hoosier Cabinets by Philip D Kennedy. I learned a great deal about the different styles of cabinets and the different cabinet making companies from this book.

antique Hoosier after 15 min

And now I know you are waiting for this picture! What did I get accomplished in a paltry 15 minutes? Well, a fair amount. I made a pile of stuff to give away, which opened up space to move things back from the edge. I was able to shift some things around up top so I could put more up there and close the doors. And I moved a box of tools that was sitting there to the porch, where tools should live.


Happy 4th Everyone!