For An Adorable (And Practical) Kitchen Storage Upgrade, Look To This Vintage Trend

Many home cooks know the struggle that kitchen storage can be. Things can be especially dire without cabinetry under the kitchen sink, leaving behind ugly exposed pipes and nowhere to hide necessary but unsightly cleaning products. Storage solutions like under sink organizers help, but sink skirts could be the finishing touch to hide it all away.

Simply put, a sink skirt is any fabric that one hangs underneath a sink in order to conceal the otherwise open space. They were originally used in rural 18th-century homes to close off open spaces and add a touch of personal style to any otherwise plain room with a sink — think bathrooms, mudrooms, and of course kitchens.

Traditionally, one would sew a sink skirt themselves from fabric and cotton piping cord, but sink skirts can now be purchased at a variety of lengths and widths. Many modern skirts are held up with hook and loop tape (popularly known as Velcro), though small curtain or tension rods are also an option, especially on a kitchen sink flanked by cabinets or appliances.

Sink skirts are one of the vintage kitchen design trends we want to bring back. Thanks to their origins, sink skirts are an obvious choice for a retro prairie look, but they can also fit in with contemporary kitchen design.

For people with bold stylistic vision, sink skirts can be an especially great way to add a pop of color to the room. This is also one of the best ideas for small apartment kitchen decor; a bold accent color can brighten up the entire space. Sink skirts can therefore pull double duty, concealing unappealing cleaning supplies and storage solutions behind a bold, attention-grabbing color.  

If a trendy kitchen is important to you, sink skirts also offer more versatility than cabinetry. High-end cabinets are one of the pricey kitchen upgrades not worth the money or effort, because styles change faster than cabinets are replaced. With a sink skirt you can easily swap out fabrics, colors, and patterns as they fall in and out of fashion.

While any kind of fabric will technically work as a sink skirt, it's worth first considering the kitchen environment. A kitchen sink skirt is likely to get splashed with dirty dish water, cleaning supplies, cooking ingredients, and potentially even raw meat juices as you cook and clean in the kitchen.

The skirt should ideally be easy to clean at home, so consider using a machine-washable fabric. It might also be beneficial to pick a skirt made from waterproof or water-resistant material, which will help prevent stains.

For frequent laundering, you may want to consider mounting a kitchen sink skirt with a tension rod instead of hook and loop tape, which can become less effective over time. A tension rod, however, should keep its strength and allow you to easily change a dirty sink skirt for a clean one, without gradually wearing down the hooks and loops holding it up.