We've never lived in a place that was really our own and the kitchens have always been really awkward and kind of small. Getting some functionality from them has always been the primary concern. Plus this will be the first time (once I officially start my job) that we'll have enough income to think about decorating so we don't yet have a theme or colors or such.
The hubby and I just moved into our current appartment and can't really customize the walls, cabinets, flooring, etc. All the walls in the appartment are white semi-gloss, including the kitchen. The cupboards are also white as are the pantry doors. The flooring is linolium or vinyl designed to look like mottled, stone tile in shades of beige. The kitchen is small with very little wall space. There is a section of wall above the cupboards, kind of like a border that goes around the kitchen, and a section by the pantry where I might be able to hang something. There are also half wall dividers on either side of the entry coming from the dining room. I'll have to take a picture of it when the sunlight is around.
We're only planning on being here for a year while we save up for a down payment on a house so I need to keep decorations simple and easy enough to move into a new place. They also need to be general enough to work in a different house. I don't have room for figurines but I don't really care for them in the kitchen so I'm ok with that. I have some photographs I took of place settings, glasses, and various other kitchen items that I'm thinking about getting printed to hang. I also have some pretty pictures of herbs, vegetables and food being prepped that could be printed. I think I'll vary the size of the prints but crop all of them square so I can create a border around the kitchen without it looking cluttered. I'm not sure how easy it is to find square frames but it's easy enough to cut matboard and just mat them if I need to. I can cover the photos with thin plastic sheeting to protect them. I should be able to find it easily enough at a craft store or online.
Family is really important to me and cooking is kind of a family tradition so I'd like to include loved ones in the decor. I want to see if I can find a picture of me as a kid that includes something food related and another of my hubby in the same theme. If I can, I'll scan them into the computer and put them together using a photo editor. Then I'll print it, frame it and hang it on the wall by the pantry. I also want to find pictures of friends and family at various gatherings and make a collage of them to hang on the fridge.
We get a fair amount of indirect sunlight in the kitchen so it would be great to get some potted herbs to put on the dividers between it and the dining room. I might also try growning something like a pepper plant indoors or maybe something with edible flowers. I'll have to look to see what kinds of edible plants I can find that like indirect lighting.
Most of our dishes, appliances, etc. are hand-me-downs or gifts so we've got a hodge podge of this and that. The hubby and I need to go through everything and figure out what we're keeping and what we're not keeping. Once we do that we'll decide more on what to do for these items but even then they won't be on display, at least in this kitchen, because there just isn't room.
