The vintage look made headlines this year. Yet country-style decorators were already ahead of the curve reviving antique stoves, hanging 1940s curtains near long-legged sinks and scouting for 1950s-vintage chrome dinettes with red Formica tops. And why not? Efficiency and practicality were key during the 1940s. Ranges and refrigerators made before 1959 were built to last. By the 1950s, manufacturers were fitting out spaces with uniform cabinets in place of the freestanding cupboards and work tables of the previous decades. Their aim was to entice women, who had been working outside the home during World War II, back into the kitchen. But no matter who’s hard at work cooking up a storm these days, the American kitchen of 2006 often looks like a blast from the past.