The Thrift Store Trend That's About To Revolutionize Your Kitchen Storage

Once upon a time in the not-so-distant past, having a kitchen that looked a bit like a hobbit hole, with mismatching cupboards filled with old crockery and recipe cards for home-baked bread, really was something reserved for storytime. Sleek kitchen designs, with their sometimes unorganized open shelves, overtook the cozy kitchens of our imaginations. However, there are storage issues with modern kitchens and their near-cupboardlessness. Clutter is obvious. Storage space is lacking. Suddenly, the English kitchens that inspired those hobbit-like cooking spaces have perhaps, unsurprisingly, come back into vogue as desperate home gourmands try to find a place to put their measuring cups.

The popularity of freestanding kitchens, which include the cabinetry pieces that have become so ubiquitous, is a convergence of a couple of different trends. British and even early American kitchens embraced a decorate-as-you-go motif, and those styles are starting to get noticed again. Additionally, recent thrifting trends and an inclination toward cottagecore decorating styles also count among the reasons why we're seeing so many kitchens with cabinets that are unattached from the wall. It's safe to say the unfitted, or freestanding kitchen, is as much of a mash-up of decorating ideas as it is a convergence of trends.

The return-to-our-roots trend has been widely reported on. Martha Stewart has covered it, as has Country Living. Plus, Better Homes & Gardens, countless influencers, and regular homebodies on social media make up a good amount of that list. It's safe to say that freestanding cupboards have officially arrived and are here to stay. And thank goodness, too, since most of us could use more storage space in the kitchen.

A kitchen that features freestanding pieces looks best if just one wall is dedicated to built-in designs. This would be the wall where the stove or sink is. Your DIY freestanding pantry and other items can then fill in the rest of the space as needed. For example, a waist-high butcher block table with shelves underneath replaces the kitchen island prep area. The shelves below the butcher block hold cookbooks and oft-used cooking kettles.

Next on our hypothetical freestanding kitchen walk-through comes the vintage step-back cabinet, or an armoire with shelves and drawers. Be warned, however, that these thrifted pieces might've needed a makeover after coming home. A beat-up, stained finish could be replaced by a couple of coats of paint to make it look like a shabby chic piece. In other words, it's okay if it looks used — all the better, even. Inside, you'll find dinner linens and the heirloom china that's used only for special occasions.

A sideboard or cabinet with a built-in desk provides a place to put some extra lighting, in the form of a desk or table lamp. One of the drawers in the unit has become the junk drawer, filled with measuring tapes and carpenter's pencils, along with notepads filled with musings about this year's garden. And if your home has an open floor plan, the sideboard can easily be moved to act as a barrier between the kitchen and living room if need be. The kitchen's unfitted pieces make such a switch not only possible, but easy.

It's easy to look at a freestanding kitchen, decorated in a comfortable and cozy style, and admire how curated it looks in pictures. The truth is, though, this is actually a style that didn't develop from aesthetic intention as much as it did from practicality. People brought pieces into their kitchens as their budgets allowed for and as their storage needs demanded. Modern decorators are benefiting from this decorating approach once again. They bring individual cabinets, sideboards, and even rolling carts with shelves into the space when they're running out of places to put things.

Nowadays, there's an additional practical element, aside from adding more storage space to a kitchen. It's a lot cheaper to switch out freestanding cabinets or hutches when they become out of date than it is to rip out all of the built-in cabinets on the wall. When one of the pieces in your unfitted kitchen starts to look outdated or just worn out, it's easy enough to replace it.

Finally, kitchens with unfitted furniture provide a way to give your kitchen an interesting focal point, which also says something about you and your personal aesthetic. They give you an excuse to fill a glass-fronted cabinet with collectibles that make your heart sing, like your antique uranium glass, Beatrix Potter figurines, and vintage cookbooks. You can also store your extra dishes and silverware in one of the attached drawers, which is both a welcome and stylish bonus.