Go High {Or Go Home}

Despite having a largish kitchen I’m limited on wall space. I have three doorways off to other rooms as well as the patio doors out to the garden so it’s slim pickings if I want to hang anything on the walls. Recently my eyes started to wander to the spaces above the doorways and since then I’ve been filling the blank spaces with all sorts of whatnots.

Above the entry to the dining room I hung some old Marks and Spencer frames I had from my previous kitchen gallery wall. Remember I said I intended to print and frame some of my photo reel? Now some of them have found their way to the kitchen hall of fame. I love how guests’ eyes now seem to fix on this spot and it frames the doorway to the nearly finished dining room. (Full reveal of that coming later this month.) Above the wire shelving unit, (an old one from La Redoute but Cox and Cox do a similar one) I used a similar frame.

The gap above the patio doors is only about 30 cm so I couldn’t do the frame trick. Instead I had a wire sign made by the lovely people at Cachette which came all the way from France. I had my eye on a ‘Stay Awhile’ print from Etsy for ages but didn’t have a wall to put it on so had the same term turned into a wire slogan. Considering anyone who visits our house seems to perch in the kitchen, it seems appropriate, although Lottie thought it said ‘Stay Awake’ which I suppose is also quite fitting too. It’s just fixed in place with two tacks.

James bought me the arrow above the doorway to our living room many moons ago (which you can see over in my full kitchen feature) and the clock out to the hallway was purchased from HomeSense several years ago too though there’s a similar one at Grace and Glory too.

I left the mini wooden crate on a shoot about a year ago and was finally reunited with it a few months ago. As it’s smaller than a usual apple crate it fits neatly on top of a cupboard. I picked this up in an antique shop yonks ago but vintage ones are usually fairly easy to track down on eBay or Etsy and newer ones are ten-a-penny from places like Not On The High Street.

If anyone is interested in the light fittings hanging over the peninsular unit, they’re are from Amazon. The original seller doesn’t seem to stock them anymore but I think the ones I’ve linked to are the same.

I’m well aware that putting a crate on top of a cupboard is hardly thinking outside the box, but I’m a huge fan of layering unexpected decor in rooms. I’d encourage anyone to have a gander around their home and consider if there are any nooks and crannies which you can use to display your wares. Don’t let limited wall space put you off! My next space to personalise is at the top of our stairs; a blank awkwardly shaped wall over the staircase where I’m considering adding another custom picture ledge like the ones James and I made for our hallway. As any DIY seems to be taking ages at the moment I’m sure I’ll be back to share the result in a year or two 😉
Any tips for decorating awkward spaces? Any beautiful objet d’art you’ve come across that would look great on a slim wall?

{STEAL THE STYLE}