The Simple Kitchen Decoration Hack You Can Find At Almost Any Thrift Store

Kitchen organization poses a dilemma unlike any other room in your home. Bookshelves, entertainment centers, dressers, and sink vanities all default to designs that are both beautiful and functional. Pretty glass hand soap dispensers and cute little boxes to hide your TV remotes exist in abundance. However, kitchens often get excluded from this treatment. While Ikea offers an abundance of functional and durable kitchen storage, much of it is streamlined and utilitarian in comparison to secondhand kitchen decor.

Thrifted silver dishes offer a fast, inexpensive way to instantly infuse your kitchen with sophisticated cottagecore charm. Think beautifully embossed chargers, trays with delicate handles, and small chafing dishes with latticework sides. After a good polish, these items can artfully display your favorite collection of seasonings, canisters of coffee grounds and herbal teabags, or small bottles of disinfectant spray and neatly folded microfiber cloths. Your kitchen sponges and dish soap would also look more appealing on a thrifted silver plate than on the counter next to the sink. Anything you use regularly will look much more intentionally arranged on vintage silver.

The best places to look for affordable vintage silver are thrift stores and local estate sales. Antique stores may also have less expensive items, depending on the type and style of antiques usually sold in your area. Generally speaking, the pieces you find will be silver-plated items from little-known brands, which is a good thing for this project. If you find rare hotel silver, which is a thrifter's holy grail, you'll want to have it appraised rather than storing bottles of dish soap in it.

Once you have your pieces gathered, be sure to polish tarnished silver with vinegar and baking soda to make it shine to its full potential. Next, you'll want to look at the items you plan to display to make sure they don't contain anything corrosive that will ruin your thrifted pieces. For instance, if you plan to keep a little bottle of hand sanitizer in a pretty rose-embossed tray, line the tray with felt to protect it from drips.

If your kitchen doesn't already have a warm, old-world feel, you may want to snag some vintage glassware and wooden items in addition to the silver. Try putting your favorite Trader Joe's seasoning blend in a crystal salt shaker or displaying your serving spoons and whisks in a miniature wooden wine barrel. Mixing and matching these elements with the silver will help your space feel more cohesive.