7 Beautiful Ways to Add Art to Your Kitchen Decor
In some ways, everyone’s kitchen is pretty much the same: a sink, a stove, a refrigerator, cabinets, and varying amounts of counter space. But if you’re looking to set your kitchen decor apart, there’s no better way than adding an original piece of art.
Art makes your kitchen feel individual and like an expression of your own taste. And it elevates it from a functional space into a personal one, says interior designer Sarah Robertson. Here are seven great examples of how you can add art to your transform your kitchen decor. Even if you don’t have blank wall space, it’s easy to display a piece of art on a ledge above the backsplash or an open shelf — just use your imagination!
1. Set the Scene with a Landscape
The design team at DeVOL Kitchens shows how a tranquil landscape diptych can elevate the tone of your whole kitchen. The designer uses the golden tones to pick up the honey tones in the countertops and more importantly to lift the gray cabinetry and create some tension and really make that gorgeous burnished metal hardware pop.
2. Speak Your Mind
Words can be art too – remember the whole “keep calm and (insert activity here)…” era? For the kitchen, choose a saying that means something to you in a font that mirrors the style of your kitchen. Here, Pati Robins, a photographer who started renovating her home to accommodate a family member with a disability, turns open storage into a functional collage.
3. Style a Vignette
A study or bedside table aren’t the only places to create a thoughtful vignette that mixes art with interesting objets d’art. Athena Calderone of Eye Swoon styled this modernist vignette with a sculptural brass chalice, stoneware bowls, and a vase and modernist black painting for collaboration with Method Home.
4. Hang Up a Quirky Portrait
A portrait of a lady or gentleman might seem more suited to a study, bedroom, or family picture hallway. But when you take an offbeat approach, as in this example found on Chris Loves Julia, a portrait feels right at home in the kitchen. Using a vintage serving tray as the canvas elevates shifts this from staid to striking. What about one of the family pets dressed as a person?
5. Compliment Your Cabinetry
Just like you can use art to add contrast to your kitchen decor, you can also use a painting to mirror the colors in your cabinetry. Jean Stoffer is a master at incorporating art into her kitchen designs — these lush blue jewel tone cabinets become even more vivid thanks to the seascape that captures the same hue.
6. Add Old-World Charm with Still Life
Even a little piece of art can make a big statement. See how this small still-life painting draws the eye to this striking vintage-modern kitchen by Patrick Sutton? It softens and warms the concrete gray walls and factory windows while picking up the same tone as the cabinetry in the most wonderful way.
7. Create a Gallery Wall
What’s more artful and original than a gallery wall you create with things that have special meaning? We could spend hours in this kitchen from Domino Magazine posted on the Kitchen Confab Instagram feed. This chalk wall has a little of everything: botanical prints, postcards, photos, notes, plans, and drawings. Don’t you want to start one tonight? Just take your time creating your wall; think of it as a living art installation that you’ll add to and subtract from over time as you find new inspiration.
