Your kitchen walls sits in a blank and expectant state. The kitchen walls are the largest of the rooms in one of the busiest area of the house. The kitchen walls can collect the grease from all of your cooking efforts, as well as collect the fingerprints from all of your culinary endeavors more fast than you can prepare your own spaghetti sauce.
Yet, the same kitchen walls has the power to transform your kitchen into twice as large a space, or one that is warmer to the touch, or one that display your personality and your home’s personality. If you ignore the kitchen walls, you will miss an opportunity to make improvements to your kitchen. However, if you pay attention to the walls, they can help you create the kitchen that you desires to visit daily.
The best part about transforming the kitchen walls is that you will not have to perform a full renovation of your kitchen. Additionally, you will not have to commit to purchasing any kitchen remodeling idea with a large budget. A few idea will provide you with blank walls that perform other essential functions for your kitchens.
The following ten idea will allow you to turn your kitchen walls from blank areas to functional walls that will earn your kitchen its status as the heart of the home.
Ten Creative Ways To Decorate Kitchen Walls
1. Open Shelving
One of the best idea is to incorporate open shelving into the kitchen. This idea will change the look and feel of your kitchen once you accept that some of your kitchen items does not need to be stored behind doors.
Whether you choose to create your own shelves with sturdy bracket or use premade floating shelves from materials like oak or walnut, the open shelving will allow your favorite cookware to become part of your kitchen’s décor. However, you must edit the number and type of items you place on these shelves. Limit your items to the product that you use weekly.
Additionally, leave some open space between each group of items on the shelf so that your kitchen wall has some visual space to breathe. Small kitchen that use open shelving will benefit from this idea as it allows the kitchen to appear larger. However, you will have to perform additional cleaning of these shelves as the items placed on these shelves is more likely to accumulate the mess that your kitchen create.
2. Full Height Backsplash
Another idea that will provide benefit to your kitchen is installing a full height backsplash on the walls of your kitchen. These backsplash will protect your paint on the walls and provide additional style to your kitchen. Additionally, you can choose between hand painted tile of geometric designs or large format porcelain that mimics marble or concrete surface.
Backsplashes are easy to clean and will reflect the kitchen lights that bounce off the splashes in the evening. This idea may seem small for your kitchen improvements, but once you install such a backsplash on your kitchen walls, it will feel custom to your kitchen.
3. Pegboard Storage
Another idea is to install a pegboard in your kitchen.
Pegboards are often located in the workshop in the homes of the men in the house. However, if you paint the pegboard a soft sage green and install it above the prep area in your kitchen, it will coordinate with the other décor in the room. Use S hooks to hang common cooking tool on the pegboard so they are within your reach while you cook.
The pegboard is flexible so that you can rearrange the pegboard to accommodate change to your cooking skills. Additionally, a slim ledge along the bottom of the pegboard allow room for spice jars that you use in your cooking. In apartments where you cannot make permanent change to the kitchen walls, a pegboard will give you additional kitchen storage so you can store your cooking tools.
4. Mirrors
Another idea is to incorporate mirror on the walls of your kitchen. Mirrors will trick your eyes into thinking that your kitchen is much longer than it is. This idea is helpful for kitchens that are narrow in their design, or those without kitchen window.
Use two tall arched kitchen mirror that are installed against the walls. One mirror will reflect the light from a window in the kitchen, while the other mirror will create the same visual trick of adding to the height of the kitchen. Choose mirrors that have a slim metal frame so that the kitchen fixtures matches in your kitchen.
Using mirrors also allows you to keep an eye on the children while you are focused on the vegetables that you need to chop for dinner. Place the mirror away from the cooktop in your kitchen to limit the amount of grease that you must clean from the mirrors.
5. Magnetic Knife Strip
Another idea is to install a magnetic strip on one of the kitchen walls.
This strip will allow you to display your knife on the wall so they are out of the way on the countertops. Additionally, the magnetic strip will allow you to keep them within eye sight. Japanese style kitchen knife will look best against a white kitchen wall, or German steel knife may add weight and seriousness to your kitchen décor.
Alternatively, the magnetic strip can be hidden behind a slim walnut board that hides the strip from view. This strip will allow you to gain additional counter space in your kitchen. Additionally, you will no longer have to search for your knives in the cabinets.
Install the magnetic strip high in the kitchen so that young children cannot reach it. This placement will allow you to solve two problem with one installation in your kitchen.
6. Moisture Resistant Wallpaper
Using wallpaper in your kitchen may seem risky, but the safest choices are wallpaper that is moisture resistant and grasscloth texture in toned on toned patterns.
Choose a subtle herringbone pattern in pale gray for your kitchen. Install the wallpaper only on one area of the kitchen walls, such as the wall between the refrigerator and the pantry. The pattern will catch the morning light when the kitchen is dark in the early mornings.
Additionally, years later when you remove the wallpaper, the drywall will not be damaged in the process. Thus, using wallpaper in your kitchen is a low risk idea that will allow you to attempt a bold idea for the kitchen.
7. Built in Pantry Shelves
Another idea is to create a built in pantry shelf on one of the walls in your kitchen.
Ensure that the built in pantry shelves are no deeper than a dinner plate. Paint the inside of the pantry the same color as the walls of your kitchen. Additionally, add pull out shelves on heavy duty slide to make it easier to find the items that you need within your pantry.
Build the built in pantry shelves beside the refrigerator where plumbing lines prevent the building of deeper shelves. The built in pantry shelves will not take up any walking room in your kitchen. Yet, you will have gained additional pantry space and capacity.
8. Kitchen Wall Art
Another idea is to add art to the walls of your kitchen. Use art that relates to food, or use abstract art that can stand up to the mess that your kitchen can create. Hang the art on the wall high enough that it does not get splashed with water from the kitchen sink.
Additionally, use museum glass to ensure that the art is protected from being splashed with cooking grease. Use the art to draw the eyes of the cooks in the kitchen upward, ensuring that the upper portion of the kitchen is not neglected in the layout of the area. Additionally, the art can be rotated seasonally so it stays in line with the food that is being cooked for the house.
9. Chalkboard Wall
Creating a chalkboard on one of the walls in your kitchen will turn one of the largest blank spaces into a function area for your kitchen. Use chalkboard paint to create the chalkboard, or use paint that mimics old school blackboards. The chalkboard will allow you to write grocery list, menu items, or even the plans for the school project assignments from the young children in the house.
The chalkboard will clean with a damp cloth to remove any recipe ingredient that may have been written on the surface. Additionally, place a narrow tray at the bottom of the wall to allow room for chalk and eraser for the cooks in the kitchen. This area will become the spot that all the children in the house check each morning when they enter the kitchen.
10. Floating Glass Cabinets
Installing floating cabinets with glass doors will allow the dishes in your kitchen to be showcased to all who enter the kitchen. Additionally, the floating cabinets will keep your cookware from getting covered in the cooking grease. Paint the inside of the cabinets to a contrasting color to highlight the dishes within the cabinets.
Additionally, install LED strip lighting within the cabinets to highlight your dishes after dinner when the kitchen is in darkness. The floating cabinets will add to the moddern feel of even the most traditional of kitchen. Limit the items within these cabinets to items that are used at least once each month in your kitchen so they will not appear to be neglected storage.
Each of these idea will work to transform your kitchen from blank walls into useful walls that serve a variety of needs within your kitchen. Some idea will add additional storage to your kitchen. Others will add additional personality to your kitchen décor.
Additionally, a few idea will allow your kitchen to appear larger or more calm within your home. Each of these idea will work in accordance with the way that you cook in your kitchen and the way that you live in your home. When you walk into your kitchen tonight, look up at the walls in your kitchen.
One small change that you make to the kitchen walls will alter the way that you and your family feel about your kitchen tomorrow. The walls are already in place in your kitchen, so give the walls some utility or beauty. Your kitchen walls will repay you every single day that you walk into your kitchen to cook for your family.
