There’s the conventional way to brighten up a white kitchen – you know, hang up some foodie artwork, paint an accent wall, maybe add some colorful chairs hanging out around the table. And then, there’s the Diane Keaton way to turn a kitchen colorful, and all without painting the walls or hanging up artwork: Fiestaware. The vintage dishware pattern, which hit the market in the mid-1930s, is like the colorful ceramic equivalent of bell peppers and blueberries — bright, vibrant, and oh so colorful. The original colors of Fiestaware were green, red, cobalt blue, yellow, ivory, and eventually, turquoise, which was added to the line-up in 1937. 

Nowadays, if you want to decorate your kitchen with Fiestaware, like actor Diane Keaton did, you’ll have to rummage through estate sales, second-hand stores, and auction houses to find enough pieces to line your cupboards with them. In Keaton’s abode, abundant amounts of Fiestaware offsets the white walls she embraces in her kitchen. Between the numerous plates, serving bowls, cups, and planter pots, plus the colorful Mexican tile she features on her countertops, the kitchen explodes with color.

This works for a couple of reasons. First, Keaton’s kitchen features lots of glass-front cupboards and open shelves, which allow her to show off her collection. Second, the big pops of color don’t overwhelm the eye, thanks to the neutral negative spaces – the walls, the trim on the cupboards, and the like – that have been kept white. Even touches of wood grain, courtesy of the bar chairs, add to the effect. They are the dark juxtaposition to the walls’ light shade.

True vintage Fiestaware can cost hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars. A simple ashtray runs $150. Some versions of the onion soup bowl – in turquoise – cost upwards of $9,000. Those kinds of investments may not be in your budget. However, if you’d like to recreate the spirit of Diane Keaton’s kitchen, you don’t need to spend anywhere near that much. Your local Dollar Tree’s dish aisle boasts stacks and stacks of colorful ceramic plates that resemble Fiestaware. These are made by the brand Royal Norfolk and come in turquoise swirl, beaded red, and blue burst. There are also Turquoise Swirl Stoneware Bowls, Ceramic Red Embossed Mugs, and assorted Ceramic Soup Mugs with Handles made by the same company and in the same technicolor brilliance. 

If you’d like to take your plate collection one step beyond the solid-colored faux Fiestaware from the Dollar Tree, you don’t need to look very far for inspiration. The Dollar Tree carries patterned plates – daisies, bumblebees, butterflies, and more. To create more visual interest in your display, you could strategically place plates with your patterns of choice among the mock Fiestaware dishes you’ve already added to your cupboards and shelves. In other words, you don’t need to just stick with dinnerware that features one color on each piece. Liven up the display by introducing patterned dinnerware into the mix.

Like Diane Keaton, you’re not limited to just adding a few colorful plates and mugs to the cupboards to brighten up your kitchen. Her colorful tile countertop came as a result of a number of Mexican tiles being assembled from the likes of eBay and even second-hand furniture that were repurposed to cover her counter. Certainly, you can spend some time trying to find half-empty boxes of tile and taking apart tables like the actor’s design team did. However, if you’re handy and craftsy, you do have other options. The broken mosaic tile look has grown in popularity in recent years. This has the potential to mimic at least the colorful and joyous spirit of the Mexican tiles on the countertops. Mosaics allow people to save broken tiles that’d otherwise be earmarked for the trash bin and repurpose them to create timeless kitchen cabinet upgrades, fun countertop patterns, and even give their tables new life. 

You also don’t have to wait to find broken dishes to install a flawless mosaic tile pattern in the kitchen. You can buy more of the patterned plates from the Dollar Tree as well as from yard sales and second-hand stores and create mosaics from them. They’re cheap enough that, even if you pay full price for them, you’re not going to go broke covering your countertops, nor will you be sad that you’ll have to break them to do so.