Decorating with Vintage Kitchen Collectibles

If you want to add color and personality to your kitchen and to your table there are many vintage kitchen collectibles that will fulfill your design vision. It’s easy to take a generic kitchen and transform it with collectibles into a warm and unique space without spending a lot of money.

Open shelving or glass fronted cabinets are great places to display collectibles in your kitchen. If your cabinets don’t reach to the ceiling you can use the empty space above for display.

Even a builder’s kitchen can be inexpensively transformed with collectibles. Decide on a period to recreate. Perhaps you want a Colonial look complete with lots of crockery and wood tones. Maybe a sweet 1930s vintage kitchen warms your heart. Or you can bring your ranch house kitchen back to its 1950s roots. Once you have an era in mind you can collect and decorate accordingly.

These popular dishes and textiles will get you started:

Blue Willow dishes have been produced for more than 200 years. This transferware pattern is printed in blue on a white background. Design details include a pagoda, three people on a bridge, a weeping willow, and two birds in the sky. Blue Willow dishes have been popular for generations in homes, restaurants and diners. It’s possible to build a handsome collection without spending a lot of money. Cobalt blue glassware, also highly collectible, complements Blue Willow well.

Luray dishes will add beautiful pastels to your kitchen’s color scheme. Introduced in 1938, the dishes were produced until 1961. The Luray dishes that are easiest to find and most popular come in the pastel shades of green, pink, yellow and blue. These dishes are guaranteed to put a smile on your face when you come into your kitchen.

Crockery mixing bowls add vintage charm to your kitchen and are useful too for food preparation. Yellow ware bowls, with their substantial heft and earthy colors, are the perfect accessory for a Colonial period kitchen.

Figural cookie jars are a popular collectible and what could be better in the kitchen? You can display your collection on top of your cabinets as long as you don’t forget to keep a filled cookie jar on the counter.

Vintage utensils can add visual interest when displayed in your kitchen. The most collectible have green or red painted wood handles. Display your collection on rows of hooks hung on the wall or beneath a shelf or fill a stoneware crock placed on the counter.

Brightly colored vintage dish towels and tablecloths can create a rotating display in your kitchen. These textiles add splashes of color and kitsch to the room. You can even use them to create curtains for your kitchen windows.

Finish off your kitchen with a vintage scatter rug or two. The period look that you want will help determine the type of rug that’s appropriate. If you’re hoping for a country or colonial look consider adding a small braided rug. Hooked rugs can even look contemporary if the image on the rug has the right vibe. A painted floor cloth or small linoleum rug will work in a 1930s or 1940s style kitchen.

Antique shops and online sites are good places to hunt for vintage kitchen collectibles. Often you can find pieces at garage sales but be sure to get there early or other collectors and dealers will scoop up the treasures. Decorating your kitchen will become a quest that will fill many a weekend. In the end, you’ll have a room that reflects your personality and is filled with the things you love.

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