Today let’s take a look at how to modernise the look of your kitchen with wallpaper.
The kitchen is the hub of the house.
It’s where the family gathers to start the day for breakfast and to regroup at the end of the school and workday for dinner. In these weeks of forced quarantine for most of us, due to the coronavirus epidemics it has become even more central to our lives. You have time to spend there and maybe you have realised that it needs to be modernised. Often the kitchen is the last place to get a redecorating project. When you move in a property it is very common to find that the kitchen is already installed. It might be functional, but after a few years, you might want to give it a new life. Maybe you are renting, in this case, a full upgrade of the kitchen is simply not possible, but decorating is, for the most part, a viable option, as long as you are able to restore the place to its original state once the lease ends.
In both cases, you are left with two alternatives: either you repaint the walls or you install a modern wallpaper on one or more walls. Paint is for many the obvious choice but the ability of paint in creating a completely new vibe and energy is very limited. It’s great to define a background environment, but it’s never going to be the visual highlight capable of drawing the observer’s attention. This is the task of wallpapers.
How to Modernise the Look of your Kitchen with Wallpaper
The ability of wallpaper to define a space and create an environment that captures the viewer’s attention has been noticed by interior designers of boutiques and commercial spaces. One only has to enter a fashionable boutique to notice how frequently the wallpaper, together with targeted lighting, defines the concept of the store and conveys the desired feeling to the buyer. The very same concept can be easily realised to create a modern look in your kitchen.
How to modernise a kitchen?
A modern kitchen is a kitchen that is in perfect harmony with the current era. Like for every other room in the house, technology has also reached our kitchens without altering the architectural side of the room. So, how to we define a modern kitchen?
In principle, a modern kitchen is simply a well-equipped kitchen. In particular, it must be equipped with all the household appliances necessary for your culinary preparations, such as an oven, dishwasher, etc. This is however just part of the story as the materials are of course very important. Glass, plastic (even recyclable), stainless steel or wood of any kind tend to be the classic materials associated to modernity. In an ideal world, all these elements should match, but we don’t live in an ideal world and chances are that your ability to define the style is more limited. This is why a visually stimulating wallpaper can be the ideal solution.
Which wallpaper to choose?
The first choice you need to make, if you have decided to go for wallpaper, is whether to decorate all available walls or just one. If you go for the more traditional approach and paint all four walls, depending on the appearance of your furniture, I suggest considering a wood, concrete or plain wallpaper, one that blends easily into the general decor of the house. In this approach the wallpaper serves the same purpose as an “enhanced” coat of paint, defining the vibe of the background. Recently the trend has been to decorate with wallpaper just one feature wall. In this approach, you need to pick a model with a brighter, flashier motive.
The wallpaper becomes the focal visual point of the space, a work of art that captures the attention of the observer in the same way a large painting would. The advantage is that it makes older, less appealing elements of furniture like cabinets or appliances, take a step back and go into the background, leaving it to the wall covering to set the style of the place.
Which motive to choose?
This is entirely up to you. If you want to set a very modern tone you could go for a modern, geometric approach like for example, the wallpaper Gasco:
Since the paper will be placed in the kitchen, you might, however, opt for a wallpaper with motives that feature food, like fruits of vegetable. In terms of colour, red is a colour known to stimulate the appetite, while yellow can always bring a ray of sunshine in the kitchen. Remember, not all wallpapers can be used in the kitchen. This is a “wet” space, which lot of condensation, heat and fat around. A simple paper-based wall covering would not suffice. Luckily there are many models specially designed for the task. These wallpapers are coated with a special vinyl layer, which renders then able to sustain the challenges of heat and condensation. Should some dirt fall on it, you can easily wipe it off their surface with a wet cloth.
Prints and murals also work great in a kitchen – pop on over to www.photowall.com/int for some inspiration
Do pop on over to Pinterest to see more of my Kitchen posts, images and articles
You might also like my post on the best kitchen flooring ideas
