Witchy Kitchen Apothecary Ideas: Your Inner Kitchen Witch is Calling and She Wants You to Decorate
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Do you ever feel the feminine urge to make your kitchen look like the lair of an curmudgeonly swamp witch?
To collect a bunch of vintage glass bottles for various tinctures and remedies? To hang bundles of dried herbs and flowers that you gathered from your garden out back? To cook and concoct things by candlelight for magic or just for the mood, and to grind and smash things in your mortar and pestle… just to feel something?🙃
The average kitchen witch might not be that intense, but you can't deny the catharsis of a good mortar and pestle smashing.
This is all the fantasy of the witchy apothecary style kitchen.
And today, I'm giving you some decor ideas and inspiration for creating your own little sacred kitchen sanctum for your magical deeds. Or in my case, a sacred kitchen sanctum for reheating the food deliveries I order way too often. Double, double toil and takeout. 😉
Would you rather watch than read? Here’s the video! ↓
Inspiring Witchy Apothecary Kitchens
@kevrosehome
The home of @kevrosehome was very much inspired by the show Outlander, which blends nicely into the apothecary look because the main character, Claire, was a healer and eventually a doctor, so of course she was accused of being a witch. Because in the 18th century, the only explanation for why a woman could be intelligent, capable, and interesting would have been witchcraft… 🙃
That's really what this style is all about. Call it kitchen witchcraft. Call it science. Call it cooking. The kitchen is supposed to be magical, medicinal, and delicious.
Maybe it's my obsession with food talking, but I feel like the kitchen is where the best things in life take place. Concocting a wonderful meal is just the height of human sorcery.
And @kevrosehome very much exudes that energy with her apothecary setup within her overall Outlander style kitchen. Really take a look at the items she's incorporating. The bottles, the greenery, the little oddities. This is exactly what the apothecary aesthetic comes down to: giving off an air of witchy, science-y magic that lends itself to making things that make life better.
@casaardolino
In my opinion, @casaardolino is the queen of witchy, moody decor. And her apothecary cabinet setup is exemplary.
It has it all: the obligatory bottles and jars, some mortar and pestle action, a couple of cloches, a book on botanicals, the collection of various odds and ends, all against a black backdrop. It's making our swamp witch dreams come true.
And she really makes use of this setup. It's not just sitting there looking pretty. She makes all kinds of potions and power-ups, aka delicious-looking cocktails, that make me want to join her. To just materialize in her kitchen to beg for one of her fairy garden gin cocktails like a thirsty parasocial specter…
I won't do that, though. I'll just continue to admire her apothecary situation from afar. I swear.
@witchinthewoods_
What I love about @witchinthewoods_ is she has a fully functioning actual apothecary. She makes skincare and candles, and who knows what other kind of magic she has brewing in there.
It's an absolute haven, and it further tempts me to pursue my candle-making dream. But unfortunately, my little studio apartment kitchen wouldn't be able to hold a candle (😉) to @witchinthewoods_’s full-blown apothecary workshop. Maybe someday.
And beyond her beautiful space and the magic she does in it, I really like the messaging of her content and her mindset around witchery. As someone who isn't spiritual in the slightest, I connect to the history, folklore, and feminist symbolism of witches, not really the spiritual side.
But I can get down with her explanation of things. It feels approachable, empowering, and grounded. I highly recommend you peruse her content just to take in her point of view along with her beautiful apothecary!
So, those were some inspiration accounts that you can look to for ideas. Now, let me show you some decor pieces I found that would be perfect for a witchy kitchen apothecary!
Apothecary Bottles & Jars
When creating an apothecary kitchen, the more glass bottles (especially the pretty little vintage-looking ones) the better. That's one of the things the Instagram accounts I just showed you all had in common: bottles upon bottles, layers upon layers of glass filled with potions or empty with potential.
Maybe that really is the beauty of an empty bottle. The potential of it. Whether you see a bottle as half empty or half full, its potential for both or neither is undeniable.
Look at me getting philosophical about empty bottles. Welcome to Moda Misfit, lol.
Bottles are just a fundamental part of the visual language of the apothecary style. Any little vessel of any shape and size will do. Variety only adds to the collected, authentically-gathered-over-the-ages look. You want it to give off the appearance that you've been alive for eons. And each bottle tells a story.
Cabinets & Chests
Now, you may be asking, "Steffi, where do I put all of these little bottles for my potions and tinctures?" I'm glad you asked. You display them in an apothecary cabinet or chest, of course.
This really is another pivotal aspect of this style. When you think about what a historical apothecary looked like, you think of labeled drawers in wooden cabinets, little spots to hide things, compartments for herbs and remedies.
This is where form meets function. These not only evoke the aesthetic of an old apothecary, they also serve as functional storage that simply helps you keep your kitchen organized. And aesthetically, they would give even the most basic modern kitchen a sense of old-world architecture - on a small scale, of course, but impactful nonetheless.
It's the impact of visual storytelling. And this should feel like a time travel story involving witchery, medicinal science, and food science. You basically want it to look like you are not only a powerful sorceress but also a learned scientist and/or doctor. Because really, an apothecary is an old-timey word pharmacy and pharmacist, and it wasn't just a cute aesthetic. It actually served a purpose.
Now, we may not be doctors and pharmacists here, but whenever I'm exploring an aesthetic, I like to keep in mind that there's actual historical depth to what we're exploring. There's history, folklore, meaning behind all of the aesthetics I cover. And the history here is rooted in curiosity, experimentation, healing, and ancient knowledge passed down from generation to generation, and stored in little cabinets like these.
Mortars & Pestles
Now, remember that mortar and pestle catharsis thing I mentioned earlier? These beautiful mortars and pestles that would not only serve their purpose of smashing and grinding things and making me feel better about myself, but they can also be beautiful pieces of art that contribute to the overall picture of your apothecary style kitchen.
There's true beauty and artistry here. It's not just bowls and sticks. It's craftsmanship and history. To this day, the mortar and pestle imagery is used for pharmacy branding. It's not just a random item. It's an age-old symbol.
One of the things I really love about this aesthetic in particular is the ancient, time-tested power that it really taps into. Think about how millennia upon millennia, the mortar and pestle has endured as a tool for ages. Back when they figured out that bark from a willow tree alleviated pain, a mortar and pestle was there to grind it up thousands of years before it would eventually become aspirin.
That's the history you're putting on your kitchen counter.
And from there, it's still simply useful for grinding cooking ingredients, medicinal herbs, recreational herbs 😉, and just for acting as a beautiful piece of decor… that's fun to smash things in.
Cloches
Now, this wouldn't be a proper Moda Misfit post if I didn't have an array of cloches to recommend to you. I said in my last YouTube video about the Practical Magic home that there's just something inherently whimsical about a terrarium cloche.
And since I cover a lot of fantasy aesthetics on my YouTube channel, I tend to feature a lot of cloches. So, at the risk of being repetitive, here I am again. But honestly, when talking about a style that is so witchy and sciency and poetic in its fantasy of the apothecary, I would be remiss to leave cloches out.
I mean, I can't help it if cloches just naturally conjure up feelings of magic and science and poetry. That's just not my fault! Because they look like something you'd find in an old-world laboratory, a witch's hut, and/or in the background of a dark fairy tale. Cloches check all the boxes here.
Dried & Pressed Flowers
Ever-so-pretty dried and pressed flowers are another fundamental visual for this style. Hanging bundles of dried flowers and herbs, pressing botanicals in an old book, and maybe taping them in a journal with your notes about them, or simply just enjoying them for their beauty.
And there are so many ways to experience a dried or pressed floral moment. Sure, you have the classic hanging bundles, but you could also get a gorgeous resin vase like this. What a lovely way to immortalize your flowers.
For me, when it comes to florals, the less mortal, the better. Give me vampire flowers that never die. And whatever your existential experience of flowers is, when decorating a witchy apothecary style kitchen, it really just comes down to feeling and displaying a connection to the earth.
Flowers are like our little ambassadors to Mother Nature. And their presence keeps us tethered to the natural world, whether they're freshly picked, dried, pressed, or encased in resin. …Which I hope Mother Nature is okay with.
Decorative Accents
Then there's the little touches that you can put here and there in your kitchen to further communicate these witchy vibes. Antique scales for weighing ingredients, little decorative spoons that would make stirring your tea just a little more delightful, books on botanicals and medicines, and a very liberal use of crystals throughout.
In a witchy kitchen, pretty much any open space can and should be filled with a crystal or a dark, vaguely menacing orb. I mean, if a piece of decor looks like something that the Goblin King in Labyrinth would own, then I think you're on the right track for this look.
And then you can really transform your kitchen with something as small as vintage cabinet knobs and drawer pulls. The little details really make all the difference.
By placing little decorative touches in the gaps between your vintage glass bottles, kitchen tools, cloches, herbs, and flowers, you're adding more dimension to the witchy story you're weaving in your kitchen. It all comes together and makes magic, and that's obviously the goal here.
So, those were some decor ideas and inspiration sources for creating a cozy, witchy, enchanted, apothecary style kitchen!
If you want some more ideas, watch my Practical Magic video I just came out with recently. Of course, the Practical Magic kitchen is one of the most iconic kitchens of all time, so you'll get some more ideas that definitely align with this apothecary style kitchen, plus a bunch of non-kitchen ideas as well. So, give this a watch next!
