Sometimes it starts with family keepsakes, hand-me-downs from the women in your past.

A kitchen towel from the 1950s, printed with bright red tomatoes. A wooden cutting board from the ’20s, so worn its slim edge is frayed like cloth. A primitive bundt pan from the 1890s, made of tin, slightly rusted now. That’s how it started for me, thanks to my mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.

Other times, you’re drawn to a design style — 1950s kitchenware is hot now; actually, ’50s anything.

That’s how it started for two Milwaukee-area antiques dealers who also are collectors, Sara Wright and Laura Burger.

The ’50s style is followed closely by ’30s and ’40s design, both in their personal preferences and in consumer demand, they say.

Nostalgia also feeds the demand, Wright says, referring to the 1950s.

“It was a pretty happy time,” she says. “A lot of bright colors, the age of innocence, rock ‘n’ roll, drive-in movies.”

While the appeal of vintage kitchenware springs from many sources, people who turn a few nostalgic pieces into a growing collection eventually face modern-day reality: how to display your prizes without creating clutter? How to incorporate them in your kitchen without losing essential work space?

The following display ideas are from area dealer/collectors, an interior designer and a nationally known authority on culinary collectibles. Some of their tips take little time to replicate, using just a hammer and some nails.

Setting a period style

Wright, who bought a 1930s bungalow in 1998, designed a 1950s diner-style kitchen around the retro culinary items she owns. The kitchen is yellow and red with plenty of chrome. It’s one of several period rooms in her Shorewood home.

To display collectibles in her kitchen, she uses a period towel rack in chrome, two industrial-style chrome restaurant racks with open shelving, and a period white-metal storage piece, called a pantry.

Among items on display: a ’50s Osterizer blender with a chrome beehive base, a wall-mounted Coca-Cola bottle opener, period kitchen towels, cookie jars and several sets of ’50s nested Pyrex milk-glass mixing bowls, white inside and finished outside in red, green, yellow and blue, along with nested Pyrex casserole sets, plus several refrigerator sets. The latter have lids and were used to refrigerate, bake and serve food. Often sold with refrigerators, they were made from the ’30s through the ’50s.

Wright owns I Saw Designs, specializing in Art Deco through Mid-Century Modern furniture and collectibles.

Of her penchant for the 1920s through 1950s, she says: “I’m very drawn to chrome and leather — shiny metal stuff intrigues me the design was thought about, it’s high design.”

Remodeling for display

Creating display space for her kitchenware collection was one of the reasons Burger recently remodeled the kitchen of her Wauwatosa, Wis., home.

An antiques dealer and estate-sale handler, her personal collection ranges from the Victorian era to the ’50s. She especially likes 1930s to ’50s utensils, pottery and soft goods, such as towels, potholders and tablecloths.

“The colors are so joyful, especially in the dishes and china. I love the fruit motifs, especially in the kitchen chalks (the word for contoured plaques of apples, peaches and other kitchen symbols).

“And the wooden handles of rolling pins, pancake turners, potato peelers — painted red or 1940s green. I just love that distinctive ’40s creamy green.”