08/08/12 - 0 Comments
Five Quirky Kitchen Decoration Ideas
We tend to see the kitchen as a place of practicality—make dinner, do dishes, clean counters and take out trash—especially when you live in an itty bitty apartment with a cooking space roughly the size of your bathroom. Adding a few fun touches to it can make all the difference and turn your kitchen into a pleasing space you actually want to spend time (cooking?) in. So, if remodelling isn’t in the budget, here are a few quirky decoration ideas to make what some would argue is the most important room in the home stand out.
Old Glass Bottles
If you have high shelving, or even a space at the top of the refrigerator, keep any decorative objects on the larger side to avoid cluttering. For a cheaper, vintage idea, head to your local flea market and scoop up some old, coloured glass bottles in various shapes and sizes. They not only look nice, but you can also use them as a creative alternative to glass water pitchers on the table or to hold fresh flowers. Better still, why not get some large glass jars and use them as a new way to store your pasta and rice?
Give your kitchen a 1950s twist with the iconic Eames chair. With many affordable furniture shops such as House to Home and Heals offering these legends of interior design, originally created by Charles and Ray Eames in 1948 for the Museum of Modern Art, they’re easier to track down than ever. Try grabbing a bold color like orange or lime green to playfully brighten up a neutrally colored space without looking tacky.
Hanging Lights
Lighting in a home is extremely important, so why should it stop at functionality? Swedish designers Form Us With Love (who’ve recently won the Young Swedish Design Award) have teamed up with Design House Stockholm to create blown glass hanging pendant lights. Buy one or six—they look best when paired with different sizes and hung at different heights. If your kitchen has the space, hanging lights like these could easily be the focal (and talking) point of the entire room.
Mounted Herbs
Bare walls in the kitchen can be a tricky space to decorate without making it look cheesy or over the top. So why not combine practicality with aesthetics while also freeing up some much-needed counter space? Growing your own herbs is both financially beneficial as well as a healthy flavor booster, and they look and smell pretty darn nice. Get hold of as many glass mason jars and herbs as you can manage, a piece of wood to hold them and some silver clamps. Screw the board (or 3M strip like crazy) into the wall and then the clamps onto the wood. Adjust them to tightly hold your herb-filled mason jars, and voilá: an inexpensive yet practical wall decoration. Who knows, it may even inspire you to play chef more!
Modern Appliances
For most of us, there’s no way of hiding all appliances out of sight, especially everyday necessities like kettles. The brilliant home design folks at Alessi understand everyone’s kitchen needs and transform them into something so cool it could almost be art if it wasn’t so practical. Try something like the Conico kettle to take your kitchen from outdated to modern in one swift purchase. Tea’s on!
Photo credit: All About You, Not Just a Housewife
