Kitchen Decorating Means What?

Kitchen decorating means something different to each of us. After writing about kitchen cabinets, backsplashes, countertops and a while ago, even cabinet hardware, I realized that these are all necessary functional items for a kitchen that works hard for you.

My search was now going to focus on kitchen decorating tips that reflect who you are and how you spend your time in the kitchen? As often happens, ideas get tested on the closest subject and it took a few minutes to scan my kitchen and recognize how my kitchen is a reflection of who I am so read on for the rest of the story.

Kitchen Decorating Colors and Collectables Reflect My World

The first thing I realized is when you don't like clutter, you're more limited in ways to show off your personality. Consider the refrigerator and how you reacted when stainless wasn't magnetic. I actually like the frig uncluttered and prefer the smaller, stainless board from Pottery Barn, for papers although there's not enough space to showcase kids artwork (have seen some really cool cork boards at their height on Pinterest).

Kitchen decorating tends to be more color neutral while my kitchen uses strong bold colors and my husband tolerates them. When we left my red kitchen, he said he wanted a different color and why not blue as we're pretty close to the water. It was sad giving up my red until I remembered all the blue and white collectibles we brought home from Japan, and off I went to find them, a challenge after moving and downsizing so lots of stuff was still in boxes.

My blue and whites aren't just for decoration, they're also useful and remind me of how we used them while living in Tokyo … so in many ways, this collection reflects my sense of adventure, love of travel and opportunities to experience other cultures. It's also fun that the blue and whites collectibles, go well with the blue walls providing kitchen decorating synergy.

Stack of rice bowls get used almost every day for quick yogurt snacks, to hold salsa and just about anything.
Smaller blue and white bowl holds packets of sweeteners and sugar, right above the Keurig coffee pot.
Tall vase holds our chop sticks which we always use for Chinese food and one of my “must have” kitchen appliances is my rice cooker as we love Japanese sticky rice.
Second tall vase holds doggie cookies so they're easy to find, and the visual reminder to grab one is appreciated by Samantha.
Extra blue and white mugs sit here in case we run out of the blue mugs hanging from a bookshelf over the sink (just to the right of the coffee pot).
Some extra blue and white serving bowls are there, along with a miniature, blue and white tea set that is just for fun!

Kitchen Decorating by Displaying Your Gadgets?

So what does this story suggest? It says … why not change your approach to kitchen decorating, and incorporate a beautiful knife collection or antique baking tools so you can enjoy them visually? If you're not comfortable that you know how to arrange things, try using one or of Pottery Barn's stainless shelves and/or magnetic pieces which will let you keep changing your collections until you find one that's perfect and you'll know when you find it! Another great resource is IKEA with their mix and match, kitchen decorating – organizing components that combine shelves, hanging bars, hooks and more.