How to Warm Up an Old Time Kitchen with No Insulation

Those of us fortunate enough to own old time homes don't feel quite so lucky when winter rolls around. Minimal insulation and overall draftiness means that the house ~ especially the kitchen and bathrooms ~ are always a bit too cool for comfort.

Old time kitchens and bathrooms often abutted or were made out of old porches situated in the back of the house. With screwy access and retrofitted heating & electrical systems, lack of access means that insulating the floors and walls of these rooms might be impossible without a full scale gutting. If you have a chilly old kitchen like I do, here's a few ways that you can warm up that old kitchen if installing insulation is impossible to do.

1. Place an area rug beneath the kitchen table. Area rugs do a great job of warming up the floor of a kitchen, especially beneath the kitchen table and seating area. I use a braided rag rug myself, but any types of thick rug with pad with do.

2. Install foam insulating pads behind outlet covers. To stop the draftiness coming from the uninsulated walls, foam inserts behind all the outlet covers and switch plates will help.

3. Weatherproof the kitchen door. If your kitchen opens into what used to be (or still is) a covered porch, weathering proofing the interior door can block cold air from entering the kitchen.

4. Plug the gaps behind your cupboards. Another peculiarity of old time kitchens is that the cabinets were often installed directly on the exterior walls. Any openings in back of the cupboards should be plugged ~ we use an expanding foam product to insulate and stop the drafts, though caulk or even strips of old rags will work.

5. Close utility doors when not in use. if your kitchen leads into utility rooms such as laundry rooms, sculleries, a pantry, or butler's room, closing these doors when not in use will prevent heat from escaping outward and prevent cold air from coming in. If these utility rooms are really cold, think about weatherproofing their doors as well.

6. Beef up the insulation in the ceiling. Even if you can't reach the walls, you should be able to access the crawl space above the kitchen ceiling for added insulation. If you don't have interior access to this space, enter via a gable vent instead.

7. Replace your windows. A few years ago, we replaced our old aluminum double pane sliding windows in the kitchen for Energy Star double hung wood windows. The new windows did an amazing job of warming up the kitchen and stopping much of the draftiness. It also qualified for an energy tax credit which was a nice bonus for us as well.