The Old-School Kitchen Feature You'll Never See In Modern Homes Again

Although warm and cozy "grandma kitchens" are trending in 2026, there's one vintage kitchen feature you'll probably never see in modern homes again. If you guessed a rotary phone mounted to the wall, you're correct. Today, you'll likely only see rotary phones in museums, maybe near the dinosaur fossil displays. Or you might find them at theme parks, vintage dining settings, and on TV sets. However, during the mid-20th century rotary phones were common fixtures in American homes. 

See, back then there was no internet or smartphones and having a single landline was common in American households. Since families tend to spend the most time in the kitchen, often together, Americans would mount the rotary phone there. I grew up in the '90s in Brooklyn, and while my family did not have a mounted rotary phone, we did have a landline touch-tone phone in the kitchen. Having a phone in the kitchen helped connect families, like mine, to the world. Sometimes, I'm nostalgic for the loud, unfiltered conversations the whole family shared by the phone.

Since 2017, my family has not had a landline phone at home and has maintained a wireless household for nearly a decade, and today, most, if not all, rotary phones have disappeared and are likely not returning. Why is this the case, you ask? Well, for one, technology happened. As more families adopted cordless and touch-tone phones, and eventually mobile and smart phones, rotary phones with their fixed landlines became obsolete. And not just that, Americans are using their phones less and less for calls. Today, texting has become the predominant form of communication. The majority of younger people prefer texting over making phone calls.

So while vintage kitchen items are suddenly trendy again, this most likely will not include rotary phones, at least not in a typical modern kitchen. You may soon see rotary phones mounted on the walls of restaurants that have embraced the "grandma-core" dining trend. And let's say you're interested in giving your kitchen a retro-style renovation. One way to design a retro kitchen of your dreams is to mount a rotary phone to a wall in the space and use it as nostalgic decor. It won't ever ring but it'll look pretty cool in your kitchen and help stir conversations.