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Re-making A Victorian Kitchen There was nothing pretty or comfortable about Victorian kitchens. In middle and upper class homes, the kitchen was reserved for the servants. Families never spent time there and, in fact, rarely visited the kitchen. The typical Victorian kitchen in a house like ours had a zinc sink, a work table, a cast iron stove (fueled by coal), and a couple of cabinets. Very basic.
Zone 1: we threw out the old shelving, then replastered the crumbling wall. The cabinets we mounted were era-appropriate kitchen hutches that we took apart, then we mounted the tops. We also installed two Victorian shelves between the hutch tops. The cabinet bottoms remained a problem because we didn't know how to marry them and we didn't have a good countertop
Zone 3: we moved the radiator from this wall into the corner of zone 5. This gave us room to put our fridge against the wall. But the fridge jutted out far into the room.
Zone 5: we moved the radiator here (a smaller one to replace the huge one). This is the original kitchen door. It was a real problem, because it wouldn't stay screwed into the door frame (which had been chewed to hell) and it had no insulation, so the kitchen got really cold in the winter. Floor: we took up the several inches of linoleum and found the original pine floor, which was too torn up to sand, so we installed a new oak floor.  Phase II: 2004-2006: Upgrades 
Zone 1: we found an eleven foot stainless steel counter at a salvage warehouse. We thought it looked really cool, like circa 1920, when stainless became a popular material in American kitchens. We leveled out the two hutch bottoms, then trimmed them to look similar, using chrome hardware and a marble We also installed two Victorian shelves between the hutch tops. Zone 5: we replaced the old kitchen door with an insulated, windowed door that let more light into the ktichen. No more cold drafts! We also put an era-appropriate light over the sink.
Phase III: 2008-2009: Vision realized Zone 1: we removed the two open shelves and replaced them with a glass-fronted cabinet. The arch-top was Jill's idea. The leaded glass is vintage. I framed themas doors. We placed new lights under the cabinets for the counter.
Zone 2: We expanded the hearth of the fireplace to accommodate our new 6-burner range. Then we installed professional-grade ventilation inside the chimney, with recessed lighting and an alumnum (recessed) hood. Zone 3: we moved our fridge into zone 4, then installed a vintage cabinet to balance out the room. We also installed a small window seat next to the cabinet. Zone 4: we modified the built-in to hold the new fridge, then completed the built-in with glass-fronted doors.
Zone 5: we replaced the old kitchen sink with a new vintage-style farm sink and Victorian style faucet. We wanted to dress up this corner and make it a bit more useful. We tiled the sink surrouned with vintage subway tiles. Then we installed stained glass for privacy.
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While most houses in our neighborhood had their kitchens in the basement, ours was always on the first floor at the back of the house. When we bought the house, the kitchen ceiling was caving in, as was the wall behind the eleven-foot-long shelf the fraternity had left behind. The fireplace was covered over with sheet metal. The floor was four inches thick with old linoleum. As the floorplan below shows, it was a challenging space to work with--becasue we have four doors in the kitchen, two windows, a fireplace, a built-in cabinet, a sink, and a large radiator. It took us 9 years to rehab the kitchen in three phases. 
