Vintage Kitchen Decor Ideas

Are you the kind of person who’s heart beats just a little faster when you think about a kitchen with butcher block countertops? Do you love a touch of nostalgia in your decorating? Are you wondering how to make your kitchen look vintage? I wanted to share some vintage kitchen decor ideas I use to bring a touch of that vintage style into our space, and there are plenty of ways! Sometimes it’s just about styling and adding those sweet little touches.

Vintage Kitchen Design with Vintage Kitchen Decor Ideas

There are a lot of elements to vintage kitchen design that can elevate your space. Marble-look or Butcher block countertops, white or wood cabinets and subway tile are timeless looks in a vintage kitchen. Also, using pieces of furniture like sideboards, hutches and other things as kitchen pieces (like islands) can really bring personality into the interior design of your kitchen. Open shelving and and wallpaper are another way to really add a vintage “wow” factor.

Lighting Fixtures

There are many things you can add to a space to create that vintage feel. One of them is lighting fixtures. Adding a rewired antique chandelier can give you not only a cottage feel, but look beautiful and add a gorgeous focal point. You can find gorgeous and ornate chandeliers at places like flea markets, antique shops and on FB Marketplace. I recommend having them checked by an electrician and rewired if needed as bad wiring is too much of a fire hazard to let go.  Pendant lights in over sink areas like globe pendant lights have a vintage feel and has a pretty glow when washing the dishes at night.

Furniture or Other Items as a Kitchen Island

Be creative and use antique or reclaimed furniture pieces in the kitchen! We recently swapped out the converted bathroom cabinet island for a vintage workbench so we had more prep space. We love the wood tones from the vintage wood and it has a bit of vintage charm with the black wrought iron welded base. It even still has the hole where there was a large clamp.

Add Kitchen Accessories for a Colorful Palette

When decorating with white kitchen cabinetry and  wood countertops, it makes everything the perfect backdrop to act as a canvas to add bold color or even pastel hues to brighten up the space! Adding small accents of color like blue mason jars of colorful flowers,  cups and bowls with fun patterns and  you can add either a sweet vintage look , a farmhouse kitchen feel or even a retro feel depending on the accessories.  Vases and lots of fun things can be found in thrift stores, antique malls and even garage or yard sales.

 

Vintage-Inspired Sink and Faucets

A white sink can give your space a more country/cottage and rustic vintage feel while a farmhouse sink with a big apron can actually make a space have a little more of a modern kitchen vintage feel. Even the faucet can make a sink feel more or less vintage. This faucet below definitely reads more “old” feeling.

While this faucet below gives it a more modern feel. A brass towel bar is added as a place to hang a towel to dry it out after drying the dishes.

Even a fin tea towel can add color or something like a sweet pig creamer filled with marigolds on the windowsill has some fun, eclectic and vintage vibes.

Vintage Appliances

While new appliances made to look old like a cast iron oven  or a Smeg fridge can really bring in a vintage vibe, it’s ok to have new ones too for a modern vintage look and stay in budget!

Vintage Inspiration

When it come to adding vintage inspiration, think about adding textures and items like wood, vintage silverware and storage containers that help bring in the vintage feel.

Use items like  a vintage glass milk container to hold spoons, or a retro -looking (clean) jam jar to hold sugar at the coffee station! These stacked cutting boards get regular use and hide an outlet.

Vintage bottle racks make it easy to store your favorite mugs and look great.

Bring in Vintage Flair with a Backsplash

To tile or not to tile? With a vintage style kitchen there is no correct answer! Backsplash tiles were typically subway tiles in old homes, but they can also be beadboard (and they make beadboard wallpaper now!) or even cute wallpaper in a more retro style kitchen.  It makes a backsplash affordable at any level!

Add open shelves as an accent wall

Open shelves unto themselves can not only serve a purpose of storage, but look pretty too. You can even style your shelves with items from the grocery store with cool cans. Shelving can range from pre-made selves to dimensional lumber.

Whether your home is new or old, I hope these vintage kitchen decor ideas have inspired you to add some vintage flair to your own kitchen!

If you liked this post, you might also like:

My holiday book on pre-order!

Our wood look ceramic tile installed