The accumulated kitchen

If you fancy a tradition style kitchen with an offbeat, antique element, the accumulated kitchen provides a great opportunity for sourcing and reinventing various, old and inexpensive pieces of furniture.

Many major kitchen manufacturers now offer superbly designed "traditional" ranges with freestanding star elements such as pantries and island units, most at bespoke prices. These products offer the ergonomics of a fitted kitchen together with the individual charm of reproduced period style pieces and are well worth considering if your budget runs to it. Many of us have more nostalgic dash than hard cash!

Patiently collecting an antique inspired kitchen allows you to compose a unique space with intelligence and imagination to achieve a genuinely accidental charm. The columns, antique style knobs, pot and linen hangers and elegant broken line of a top class "country style" kitchen reflects its roots in a free standing assortment of articles.

Ironically, assembling the original version is relatively cheap.

Period rooms evolved gradually to answer the changing needs of the family. Your accumulated kitchen should have that same relaxed organic flavour, seeming to have evolved with the ages. This is not to take away from the appeal and efficiency of fitted units. Far from being a 1950s invention, fitted kitchen units were just as prevalent in great country homes of the 18th century as freestanding kitchen furniture.

Matching, fitted pieces staged around a kitchen create a keen sense of uniformity and can carry a number of discreetly integrated appliances.

If you want the best of both worlds, consider a terrace or two of high quality streamlined fitted units, interspersed with some unusual freestanding pieces. Don't be afraid to mix periods. If the quality and design is right, the furnishings will sit well together whatever their age.

Old style kitchens were often comprised of a variety of different cupboards (often prized elements from various eras), a free standing sink, a free standing cooker or stove, a scrubbed table as the essential work surface, and in many cases the king of kitchen furnishings, the dresser. Naked hardwood might feature in a grander kitchen which was comprised of a warren of rooms, pantries and washing areas for servants to carry out various tasks. A simpler home would tend toward painted pine. Many of us find it hard to fathom, but pine was almost universally painted in the 19th century. A bare pine kitchen is actually a modern development despite its supposedly "rustic" appeal and painting up a variety of pieces rather than vouching for naked timbers can provide a useful visual harmony.

The weight of furnishings in a vintage kitchen tends towards the ground. Where there is shelving, is tends to be open shelving, which is why metres of wall mounted units in a woody, Victorian kitchen can look somewhat incongruous. During the 19th century chinaware became more affordable, and was openly displayed, making dressers very popular. Glazed cabinets retain the airiness of open shelving, without the hassle of dusty, greasy dishes lingering on an open shelf.

Curtains in the place of blind doors are an almost extinct practice, but under a sink or over a set of crudely built, deep shelves, a machine washable curtain makes an attractive and economic choice.

Elements of character in your kitchen can demand more work. The pieces should be sturdy, worm-free and consider just how will you clean up the mess if you send a slop of beef gravy down that gorgeous burr walnut façade? Some freestanding pieces of furniture such as pantry cupboards are raised up on legs, a delightful look. However, be prepared to flail around under such items with the vacuum pipes on a regular basis. If you decide on say an old wooden filling cabinet as a pot cupboard (a classic cheat), and it abuts another elderly unit that's out of plumb, there will be a gap between them that can quickly start to fill with an avalanche of lost food and waste. A clever carpenter can address variations in worktop depth and even surface heights, but even slender vertical gaps between units are bad news. Incidentally, unless you crave an authentic dose of 19th century food poisoning, work surfaces must be durable and lend themselves to meticulous hygiene. Scuffed layers of lead based paint may look charming, but could prove lethal.

An old cupboard may have served any number of purposes in its former life, and the variety of sizes and shapes available in junk shops and auctions is endless. Wardrobes or linen presses can serve in a kitchen as a larder or anything you fancy. This is going to be an important working item in the busiest room in the house, so check your dimensions before grabbing a huge, unwieldy piece of furniture and keep your sentimentality under control with an eye to practicality.

Will the doors open without cracking passersby in a narrow kitchen space? Can you get even get your booty through the front door? Does it logically fit the space?

Old dressers are often too big for the dimensions of a modern kitchen, so expect to pay a premium for highly desirable compact pieces.

Corner cupboards and wardrobes are very useful in an awkward space, but check the cupboard forms a true angle, as some were custom built to fit an irregular wall. School cupboards and butcher's blocks are also very popular and retain their presence and usefulness in the most orderly kitchen.