Look Carefully In Thrift Stores — This Vintage Kitchen Staple Is A Valuable Find That Saves Space

It's not unusual for a homeowner to buy an obscure kitchen gadget as a decor item. It's far more uncommon to put the item into practical use. An old-school, bulky manual scale brings a vintage look to the kitchen, for example, but you'd likely choose your smaller, sleek digital scale for actual weighing. So, when you find an older gadget that looks amazing in your kitchen decor and also still functions as it was meant to, you've hit the vintage kitchen item jackpot. Such an item is a vintage, wall-mounted coffee grinder, which can be just as useful, attractive, and space-saving today as it was when introduced a few hundred years ago. It's one of the best 'holy grail' thrift store finds we've seen, and it won't clutter up your counter.

Europeans had been using primitive forms of coffee grinders for several centuries before American Thomas Bruff patented a wall-mounted model in 1798. Metal toothed nuts were the grinding mechanism in Bruff's device. Coffee beans were ground as the user turned a large crank handle, with the ground coffee collected in a drawer or chamber below. Grinders were primarily made for retail stores, where customers enjoyed watching their beans being ground, until late in the 19th century, when models for home use were widely introduced.

Early grinders were made of materials such as brass, cast iron, and wood. More decorative grinders emerged over the years. Many grinders were made with a glass or ceramic (such as Delft Blue) chamber for holding the coffee beans. Wall-mounted models enjoyed their greatest period of popularity from the late 1800s through the 1970s.

In addition to thrift stores, estate sales, and antique shops, wall-mounted vintage coffee grinders are widely available from online sources, like Etsy and eBay, in a variety of styles. Manufacturer names to look for include the Landers Frary and Clark, the Enterprise Manufacturing Company, and Arcade Manufacturing Co. — with its best known grinder being the Arcade No. 3 model. It's not unheard of to find a model several hundred years old, but among collectors, grinders from the late 1800s to early 1900s seem to be most popular. These pieces are perfect for jumping on the cafécore kitchen trend with a stylish yet functional device. Of collectible grinders, wall-mounted models are actually cheaper (costing up to $150) than their larger free-standing counterparts, which will run a few hundred more. Especially if you plan to make functional use of your grinder, be sure it has all its parts and is in working condition; though, you may be able to find replacement parts online. 

Picture the vintage charm of including a wall-mounted coffee grinder in an at-home coffee station to jumpstart your productivity in the morning. Or consider making your vintage grinder a decorative centerpiece. Is it easier to put coffee beans into an electric grinder and push a button to get ground coffee? Sure, but just as those customers of old got a thrill out of watching beans being ground in the store, imagine the satisfaction of turning that crank by hand and grinding coffee beans the way your ancestors did.