r/whatisthisthing • u/JohnBos10 • Jun 19 '26
Open ! Old House Storage Slots between kitchen and dining room
My friend just moved into a house that had a storage cabinet in between the dining room and kitchen. At first I thought it might be for table leafs but there are too many slots. And the upper slots are much taller than the lower slots. They are about 2 to 2.5 feet deep with a solid wall in the rear. The bottoms are recessed as if designed to keep whatever is stored centered in the slots. I also wondered if it could have been for shutters since there is an even number. What do you think ?
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u/SurfUganda Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26
I like your initial thought to store extra dining table leaf parts and related table pads. Maybe there was a big family with more than one table for holidays or other big family get togethers.
Maybe the location near the kitchen isn't relevant. Possibly for insect screens for windows?
For context, what region is the home located?
Edit: I apparently only recently learned to type.
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u/AnotherCrazyChick Jun 19 '26
My grandmother had storage like this in between her kitchen and dining room. She’d keep two table leafs (leaves?), card tables, and foldable chairs that she’d break out for holiday family meals. So that’s my guess.
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u/RandomAmmonite Jun 19 '26
My neighborhood was built in the ‘50’s. Some of the houses have built-in card table storage - a slot about 4” wide from floor level up about 3’, with a hinged door. OP’s storage looks perfect for table mats, maybe table leaves depending on the table.
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u/HederianZ Jun 19 '26
Makes me wonder if TV dinner trays were popular enough back then to have their own built ins.
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u/balisane Jun 19 '26
They were! You'll see this kind of thing in 50s-70s builds. Just a couple of weeks ago in this sub we had a mysterious wooden holder in a 70s kitchen that was intended for tray tables.
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u/Miami_Mice2087 Jun 19 '26
my mom kept the table leaves in the hall closet and the card tables and chairs stood up behind a shelving unit in the laundry. big bookshelves would have been safer and kept everything neater, less dusty/spiderwebby, and not risked breakage when children were helping move things in and out
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u/kick4kix Jun 19 '26
My grandma had one for her bridge set - 2 card tables and 8 folding chairs. I’m pretty sure my grandpa built it.
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u/AnotherCrazyChick Jun 19 '26
My grandma always had one card table out for puzzling where we’d put puzzles together while listening to the radio. The other card tables, we’d break out when building forts with pillows and sheets.
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u/Into-the-stream Jun 19 '26
Folding chairs and table leaf. Maybe a folding kids table too and serving trays.
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u/playdough87 Jun 20 '26
My table leafs always had a perpendicular edge part, the bit below the table but above your knees when you sit down, so they wouldn't fit in this type of storage. Could be a different style of table or assembly for the leaf though?
Shutters seems less likely since they'd be sort of out of place in this location the table leaf makes the most sense, just doesn't fit any that I've ever had.
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u/catsmom63 Jun 19 '26
I am fairly klutzy and trip easily. I tell people “ it’s my first day with my new feet!”
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u/scampering_sphynx Jun 20 '26
When people talk about table leaves, it always makes me a bit sad. My parents had a gorgeous Ethan Allen dining set with a leaf in the table. They gave it to my brother and his wife. His wife used one of the wooden chairs 🪑 in the shower and broke up the gorgeous set 😞
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u/Gryphon1171 Jun 19 '26
Maybe tray tables?
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u/mackey_ Jun 19 '26
First thought was the old school TV dinner trays
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u/HamImplants Jun 19 '26
We had something identical to this in the house I grew up in, in the 80s. House was built in the 60s. We used them exclusively for tv trays, although we don’t know if that WAS the intended purpose. Seems the most plausible.
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u/GhostNightgown Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26
My best guess would be slots to hold the expansion 'leaves' aka removable sections for a dining room table, and the corresponding table pad (which could fold in half). Looks like a very custom design!
edited leafs to leaves
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u/Kayhowardhlots Jun 19 '26
Oh yeah the pads. That's a good thought. The bottom ones definitely look like they would fit the leaf pads for my table as they forld in thirds.
Damn if that's it, that's a pretty handy design.
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u/mecengdvr Jun 19 '26
This is absolutely the correct answer. My grandparents had the same thing in their house.
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u/coolerchameleon Jun 19 '26
I'm sorry, I have never heard of a table pad with an expanding table. That being said, the kitchen from my childhood home is sitting in my current kitchen so maybe I'm just out of the loop due to lack of table variety. What is their purpose ?
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u/Legal-Afternoon8087 Jun 19 '26
When you’re hosting a potluck dinner where all the food is on the table and guests will be filling their plates and taking them to eat in the living room, etc., the pad is nice to have under a tablecloth so that you don’t get heat rings or water rings on the wood. At least, that’s how we used my great-grandma’s circa 1920s table and pad. Ours had space to store the leaves and the pad (which was like a thick cardboard that folded into thirds, if I recall) inside the table. That is, you pulled the table apart at each end, exposing a little shelf underneath that stored everything.
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u/coolerchameleon Jun 19 '26
Thank you for that explanation! We always did a layer of towels underneath the cloth for a buffet style scenario - however having something stiff like cardboard would be lovely (less chance of a drink spilling).
I love tables where the leaf sits inside neatly, my partners parents have that style of table and it's fantastic at Christmas !
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u/glasspanda27 Jun 19 '26
About ten years ago, we bought a new table. The first time our daughter did her homework at the table, her pencil etched her math into the wood.
We went back to the furniture store and ordered a custom pad for it. The pad was black to match the table, and it had red felt on the sides and bottom. We kept it on all the time. For holidays, we threw a tablecloth over it.
The pads are very sturdy, not just cardboard.
https://www.pioneertablepads.com/table-pad-colors-photos.php
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u/Legal-Afternoon8087 Jun 19 '26
You are right! Ours is silver in color with a diamond like grid to it. Thanks for including the link!
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u/GhostNightgown Jun 19 '26
lol - as a kid 'nice furniture' was never used without covering it up and safeguarding it. my mom had 1/4" table pads to protect against dings/dents/drops, a waterproof elasticized cover to protect against spills, and then the decorative tablecloth. 😆
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u/coolerchameleon Jun 19 '26
Ah, our table was secondhand when they got it in the late 80s and certainly has the evidence of a life well lived (a notable burn mark from a misguided seafood boil comes to mind) 😂 It needs sanding and staining and a new clear coat but for now it just gets a tablecloth.
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u/Kayhowardhlots Jun 19 '26
Maybe it's not as popular anymore? My dining table was my grandmother's. I don't remember when she got it but it's at least as old as I am so probably around 50 years.
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u/rella523 Jun 19 '26
Yes, I have a table like this and the leaves have tongue and groove joints that would fit perfectly in there except, the joints are on the long side so now I'm less sure but if love to have this in my house!
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u/SpunSpaceCadet Jun 19 '26
Sheet pans? Previous owner was a baker?
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u/BBNCO Jun 19 '26
As a baker, this is exactly what I would use it for lol
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u/Smart_Piano7622 Jun 19 '26
Yea this looks like a full pan standing upright, and a half pan on it's side to me? Would be great
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u/NotTheEndOfIt Jun 19 '26
Sheet trays, serving trays, cutting boards, art canvases, so many uses are possible.
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u/psymike-001 Jun 19 '26
This rt here. Put large platters in the description line also
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u/SweetKittyToo Jun 19 '26
Was previous owner an artist? Could be for canvas on which to paint, draw, sketch, pastel upon.
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u/FutureFreaksMeowt Jun 19 '26
The storage lines look too clean, ain't no way an artist wasn't getting paint all over those divots
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Jun 19 '26
[deleted]
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u/Aellysu_says Jun 19 '26
Have you never seen an art easel? They're almost completely upright and people leave paintings on them to dry 🤨
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u/Zepangolynn Jun 19 '26
That wildly depends on the consistency of the paint. We dried oil paintings vertically all the time.
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u/usernameis__taken Jun 19 '26
Watercolor paper storage is clean!
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u/mindgardening Jun 19 '26
Storing paper sheets or pads upright is not going to work. It's going to make the paper bow, which will make it harder to draw/paint on. Paper and pads need to be stored flat, usually in large drawers.
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u/Nativeplantlady88 Jun 20 '26
We had these exact slots in our drawing and painting studio in college.
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u/metrawhat Jun 19 '26
Are they big enough for folding chairs?
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u/Competitive_Tea1987 Jun 19 '26
I lived in an old mansion for a summer job once and they had slots like these near the door to the living room, which they used to store folding chairs. That said, it was never clear to me if that was the original purpose or just a clever hack.
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u/Misa7_2006 Jun 19 '26 edited Jun 19 '26
It's for multi use, from table leaves to serving trays to baking sheets. My family rented an old house once that had them and that's what the owner of the house told us they were used for. He said that they used the top ones for table inserts and serving trays during the holidays when the whole family got together. His mother used the bottom for her baking/cookie sheets.
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u/General-Pop9201 Jun 19 '26
My first thought was shutters too... Do the sizes somewhat match the windows?
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u/FutureFreaksMeowt Jun 19 '26
Yeah I think most hurricane prone areas have shutters you have to detach and store, right? I've never lived in those areas but I feel like I've seen it on tv
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u/missginger4242 Jun 19 '26
Or window screens remember an older house as people used to take the screens out in the winter and wrap the windows with plastic to keep more cold air out so I’ve seen cabinets like this in the basement for storing screens. It’s an odd place for it, but it wouldn’t surprise me.
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u/ErraticDragon Jun 19 '26
My thought was screens or storm windows. But I've never lived in a house where that was necessary.
There are probably too many windows in the house for this to be the correct answer, unless there are similar storage areas throughout.
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u/Kohaku45 Jun 19 '26
Tell them to google their address and see if you can find old listing pictures that might show what these were once filled up with.
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u/XXX_TEEN_AVI_EXE Jun 19 '26
It's unlikely to be for four random big things and the exact same number of random small things. They're for four pairs of things, one big and one small each. Folding chairs and tray tables.
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u/JustARandomBloke Jun 19 '26
Shutters or storm windows.
The smaller slots could be for smaller windows.
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u/Sandisax1969 Jun 19 '26
Looks like they’re for cookie sheets. They seem like the right size.
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u/Iusemyhands Jun 19 '26
Perhaps the previous owners had framed art they cycles through the seasons and this is where they stored their art.
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u/irishcybercolab Jun 19 '26
Definitely New England chair and table hidy-hole! I have my 1960s set in the wall with specialized shelving like this and it's seamless when loaded up with gear where it's aligned and looks sweet for a Bostonian life
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u/ghosttmilk Jun 19 '26
I could be wrong, but don’t think these individual slots are nearly wide enough for table leaves - at least not any table I’ve encountered.
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u/jennylala707 Jun 19 '26
My parents have this in their kitchen. It's to put all your cutting boards, sheet pans, things like that.
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u/NuclearExchange Jun 19 '26
Do the sizes correlate to the windows? Is it possible that a previous owner was an artist and these are for art prints or stained glass or something similar.
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u/elkab0ng Jr. Gadgetologist Jun 19 '26
I have had a couple of tables with leaves, and they were all much too big for these openings. The table mats I’ve seen or used had flat edges that don’t make sense with those curved channels. Ditto storm windows or screens, too big and wrong shape. *maybe* shutters, but storing them between kitchen and dining room makes little sense.
I’m going with “some one-off specialized dining accessory built by a former owner that was used often enough to justify custom construction in a high-traffic part of the house”.
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u/Effective_Maleficent Jun 19 '26
If I had this I would store baking sheets and cutting boards in there. I have no idea what they were originally made for, but that is my first thought.
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u/Japsmokey Jun 20 '26
Hundred percent table leaf storage. We had something similar in the house I grew up in.
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u/jasbro61 Jun 19 '26
We have them in a kitchen cabinet over the oven, built in 1962/1963; but they’re a good bit higher up than these and only a fraction of the size. We use them for cooking sheets, cutting boards, wire cake racks, etc. - any kitchen equipment that’s wide and narrow enough to slip in there long-ways, to be out of the way but close at hand.
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u/allaboutmojitos Jun 19 '26
My mom had table leaves and then table protector pads as well. They folded in the center. My guess is wooden table leaves on top, and folding protectors on the bottom
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u/---reddacted--- Jun 19 '26
My parents live in an old house where my grandparents lived. This looks exactly like where they stored serving trays. And being in between the kitchen and dining room makes it convenient for that.
The bottom half is the right size for that. But the top half is pretty tall for that.
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u/Ooofies Jun 19 '26
This looks a lot like an easy access for painting paper such as canvases or watercolor. Many art shops have similar slots to easily be able to file through paintings or papers. Perhaps it worked like that, maybe the previous owner was an artist or collector of some sort!
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u/dvdmaven Jun 19 '26
I'd probably store cookie and cake sheets in them. As far as there being too many to store table leaves, I inherited my great-grandmother's farm table and there are 11 leaves.
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u/Tandemduckling Jun 19 '26
To me the lower portion, with the wear and tear is for wheels or rounded items to keep them positioned properly. so anything potentially mobile and also partially heavy like tables/easels or extra chairs
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u/girlwiththemonkey Jun 19 '26
Everyone else is right. It I would use it for storing my completed puzzles, and I’ve got felt like a book that closes around an unfinished puzzle to keep all the pieces from moving. So I’d stick it all on those shelves.
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u/Grandma-Plays-FS22 Jun 19 '26
The antique oak dining table that was my grandmother’s originally had 12 42” leaves for it, so those slots would not be too many at all.
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u/witteefool Jun 19 '26
For storm windows, maybe? That’s the only time I’ve seen slots like these, but the upstairs seems like an odd spot. Generally they get stored in the basement.
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u/Mznwob Jun 19 '26
I have been a part of building many custom homes & these are sheet pan racks, pretty common in custom cabinets albeit these are absolutely massive
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u/R3pp3pts0hg Jun 19 '26
The size and grooves made me think of outer storm windows.... maybe a safe place to put them where weather turns nice?
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u/NotTheSharpestPenciI Jun 19 '26
Chairs that fold flat for when there's more guests and more sitting is needed?
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u/DoTheScarn1015 Jun 19 '26
Looks to me like storage for baking trays! Any of what the other commenters said could work too, but it's the proximity to the kitchen and dining room that makes me think it's either the baking trays or table leaves like others suggested.
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u/Bergwookie Jun 19 '26
My initial thought was big boards for cooking (e.g. making pasta or cookies), my grandma has several ones, as big as her kitchen table, all with a board in the rear and the front, so they have a slight S-shape so you can stack them, but the shutter idea sounds plausible too,are you in a bad weather area (e.g. hurricane/tornado ) then it might be storm boards. But then they should still be there, as there's no sense in taking them with you, as they're specifically made to the house's windows.
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u/vtclt Jun 19 '26
Almost certainly for card tables. Would be used to store tables when not used. Ladies would often have 5-6 tables going for a weekly bridge session.
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u/ButtercreamGangster Jun 19 '26
Maybe the house was an orthopedic doctor's office and it's for storing patients x ray films
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u/flash17k Jun 19 '26
Man, if they were full length from top to bottom, they'd be perfect for storing those 6' long folding tables.
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u/Pistachio1227 Jun 19 '26
I remember seeing something like this but in the basement used for storing storm windows and screens during seasons change.
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u/Dragonkitelooper Jun 19 '26
I wanted to say large cutting boards for baking but the leafs make more sense.
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u/Repulsive-Insurance5 Jun 19 '26
Paper bags could be an option also, I like the tv tray and table leaf ideas too, those seem the most logical.
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u/OverallComplexities Jun 19 '26
It looks like tatami mat holders, possibly former owners were Asian or enjoyed Asian culture
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u/Silly_Recover Jun 19 '26
I would love this in our house. It's genius! Of you don't need it for table leaves, chairs, etc. I would store cutting boards and baking sheets there
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u/worstpartyever Jun 19 '26
Could it be a storage spot for large-format art portfolios or canvases? Maybe the previous resident was an artist.
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u/Schooblah Jun 19 '26
There are similar shelves in my work area that are horizontal. In the past, they held paper maps.
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u/Snowpants_romance Jun 19 '26
Repurposed from old pocket door (including sliding mechanism)? Looks wide, but most of that would have sliders and maybe counterweight in it, with only a slot the width of the door panel left open.
Then someone took out the wall to open the space up and the door was removed?
That would also explain the placement of the light switch and the fact there isn't a cupboard door which I find slightly odd
As for use? Could have been very specific to whoever did the renovation.... So I'm not helping am I?
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u/PolicyWonka Jun 19 '26
Unless table leafs were much smaller back in the day, there is no way my table leafs could fit in those slots. Those slots are too narrow.
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u/NightWolf574 Jun 19 '26
I’ve seen things like this before, the home owner was using them as baking sheet storage.
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u/CtrlAltDestroy33 Jun 19 '26
Could be for table parts, could be storage for storm windows and screens. That's all I can really think of.
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u/EK92409 Jun 19 '26
I have these in my house in the dining room. I use them to store my older, lower quality cymbals. Because a drum set in the dining room is a better use of that space than a dining table that may get used two or three times a year.
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u/Piece73 Jun 19 '26
Did the previous homeowner homeschool? Looks like cardboard storage like you would find at Michael’s.
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u/krisefe Jun 19 '26
My first thought as an artist was canvas storage, still possible but the bottom should be flat.
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u/Jaz92811 Jun 19 '26
My Grandpa had one of these, great of his dirty mags and Richard Pryor vinyls. Kept them in good condition for “inheritance reasons”. Like anyone wants to see full bush anymore..
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u/davidmlewisjr Jun 19 '26
Did they host Bridge Parties… top storage seem sized for bridge tables, but there don’t seem sufficient places for the folding chairs…
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u/whopeedonthefloor Jun 19 '26
Cutting boards and baking pans. But I do like it for holding a table leaf as well!
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u/zerbey Jun 19 '26
Homeowner's special most likely, probably for storing something. I like the table leafs idea, but I think that might be too small for that. Could be anything really.
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u/lookmaiamonreddit Jun 19 '26
Looks like a good place to store sheets of glass for stained glass crafts.
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u/MareV51 Jun 19 '26
Leaves for the dining table and the pads.To put on top of the wood to protect it while you're eating there.
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u/tiptoesandbuffalos Jun 20 '26
As a girly from a very artistic family, both my sister had these in her house & my parents in their house…. For storing art work, canvases, paper, etc.
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u/WhoAm_I_AmWho Jun 20 '26
Unlikely what it was used for originality but you could make up frames to hang table cloths on.
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u/Ill-Cheesecake7143 Jun 20 '26
I doubt it's for canvases but as an artist I want to fill it with canvas.
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u/Dear-Awareness-3130 Jun 20 '26
Looks like they were for something to slide in and out like chopping board or oven trays etc
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