The Stylish, Vintage Kitchen Item That You Can Snag From The Thrift Store

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For the vintage kitchen, details are everything, from the era-specific paint colors right down to the dishes and cookware. And one piece of cookware, the vintage coffee pot, creates a visual short-hand into an era gone by like few other pieces can. Want to create a rustic cowboy-style kitchen? You'll definitely need a white enamel percolator coffee pot. Or maybe you're going for a Italian bistro look? The moka pot's your thing. Truly, there are any number of vintage coffee pots you can use for decorative purposes. Fortunately, you can find them for scary good prices at a thrift store. 

Finding a vintage coffee pot in a second-hand store feels akin to happening upon treasure during an archaeological dig. This isn't only because they look stylish. These pieces are literal artifacts from another era. Although much of coffee culture today centers around the French or Italian coffee experience, the happy bean that we all love so much didn't get its start in European or American culture at all. 

It came to us first via trade routes through Turkey and North Africa – Ethiopia, to be exact. Until Alfonso Bialetti invented a version of the moka pot in the 1930s, Italians drank coffee the way the Turks did. However, the Europeans had an advantage when it came to making coffee pots. The factories that produced wartime materials needed something to do with their manufacturing capabilities once the conflicts concluded. And non-electric coffee pots, like Bialetti's moka pot, benefited from that, allowing coffee culture to grow worldwide. Truly, when you collect vintage coffee pots, decades, if not centuries of culinary and decorative tradition, are ensconced in one small piece of cookware. 

Thrift store coffee pots doubling as kitchen decor can be as simple or as elaborate as your decor calls for. On the simple side, something like a blue granite percolator pot sitting on top of a white stove and set against a backsplash of blue-and-white country ceramic tiles, offers an easy way for you to create a focal point in this area of the kitchen. Blue granite camp coffee mugs, hanging on copper hooks above the stove, would be a nice related touch.

For those who have a built-in coffee bar, perhaps in a glass-front cupboard right next to the stove, the moka pot or a French press can create a handsome silhouette in the cupboard. If you're looking for something to add to this display, consider this: Vietnamese coffee is often made with the moka pot. A set of traditional ceramic coffee mugs from Bát Tràng, Vietnam, stacked to each side of the moka pot, will bring both styles into the decorative mix. And thanks to the juxtaposition created by the mugs next to the moka pot, this will also create visual interest in your coffee station.

Finally, thrift store coffee urns that are missing their parts still have a role to play in your kitchen decor. A chrome ball urn or a percolator pot can be painted with some white Waverly Inspirations Ultra Matte Chalk Paint and decorated with country kitchen stencils. This repurposed coffee pot can now become the focal point in a rustic fall centerpiece for the holidays. Just flank it with mini pumpkins, and you're good to go.

Vintage coffee pots work in a number of different decor styles. A few, like the percolator coffee pot and the cowboy era, have already been mentioned. However, there are some crossovers, meaning one type of coffee pot, like the percolator, can fit more than one style of decor. For example, in the mid-century modern era, which spanned from about the 1930s to the 1970s, percolator pots were also a thing. Many of them got an upgrade that took them off the stove to bubble and brew and plugged them into the wall to bubble and brew some more. While electric percolators were no Mr. Coffee, it might be said that they paved the way for the modern coffeemaker to come. 

Compared to the moka pot, the French press is old. It first appeared in the early 1800s. If you love French country decor, which has been around since the 1700s, a French press is a logical addition to your kitchen's decor. The glass plunger pot works in both the more laid-back vibe of the French country or French provincial style but still dresses up nicely in the more elegant provincial style.

Finally, the bright and playful paint colors of Turkish, Mexican, or Boho decor styles, practically call out for the pounded copper designs of the Turkish coffee pot. The distinct shape of the cezve, with its long side-oriented handle, is naturally elegant and exotic in appearance. Because of these features, the cezve's style stands out as distinctly different from many other coffee pot styles. You can't help but notice it on a counter.