Turn Kitchen Clutter Into Charming Decor With This Vintage Design Trend

Using a cluttered kitchen can be a maddening experience. Without a dedicated home for pans, seasonings, measuring cups, or even more routine items like cups and plates, it can feel impossible to find what you need when you need it. But you may be able to turn the frustrations of a cluttered kitchen into a less chaotic positive.

Make your kitchen clutter into part of the decor by putting it on display. Obviously, scattered piles here and there are not very chic, but organizing the elements of your kitchen into storage solutions that double as display spaces can add a certain vintage charm.

It's been common since at least medieval England for kitchens to store certain items out in the open, likely for ease of use. In modern times this stylistic trend is often associated with the concept of English countryside kitchens, though open kitchen storage was a common feature of the Victorian era. In the United States, people across class lines often had open kitchen storage, from mansion kitchens like those seen on HBO's The Gilded Age, to those of middle-class merchant housing and tiny urban tenements.

Kitchen cabinets like the ones we're familiar with became common in the early 20th century, which put open kitchen storage in the vintage decor category. While closing your dishes away does reduce their dust exposure, glass-front cabinets — one of the 90s kitchen trends making a comeback — can protect your plates while also displaying them.

Another common expression of this design trend is hanging your pots and pans from hooks or nails in the wall. Level this up with a dedicated rack hanging from the ceiling, which doubles as storage and a kitchen centerpiece. This tip is particularly useful for display-worthy pieces, like vintage French copper cookware (which can be worth a fortune).

It's good to take the time to reorganize your kitchen every few months, and this is especially true with open storage. With nowhere to hide an unattractively cluttered mess, regular upkeep and refreshing is key. Changing things around sometimes helps keep your design visually fresh, and perhaps more importantly, organized.