Add a bit of French flavor to a plain-Jane kitchen with French wall decorations. You might try something simple, such as dedicating an open display shelf for creating a tableau of French wines, or you might invest in a more expansive project integrating architectural elements or faux finishes. The key to a French kitchen, be it classic or country, is that the pieces have a personal connection for you, or that they incorporate details of craftsmanship that you admire. Does this Spark an idea?
Types
There is all manner of wall decor for French kitchens. The most expensive types are antiques from France, typically dishes or framed artwork. Considerably more affordable art pieces that are reproductions of French antiques or pieces inspired by French design and style. Then there is wall art that is more about France rather than French style, incorporating motifs such as vines, grapes, roosters and fleur-de-lis.
Features
French wall decor for the kitchen often involves natural materials that are more weathered or timeworn. A simple metal rusted sign advertising French soda can be a work of art in a French-inspired kitchen. Rustic wooden pieces such as floating shelves, niches, small cabinets with drawers and spice racks can evoke French style if painted an antique white, soft black, mustard or faded cornflower blue. Fill metal buckets, glass pitchers, painted ceramic pitchers or a small watering can with lavender in blue or sprigs of rosemary for a French touch.
Considerations
One classic element of a French kitchen is bringing the natural world and nature's bounty into the room. A wall shelf may hold an earthenware bowl filled with ripe persimmons, or a niche may contain a tin plate with a bunch of purple grapes. Wall art in a French country kitchen may feature painting or rolling hillsides and vineyards or lavender fields in bloom, while a more urban version might feature black and white photographs of Paris markets.
Effects
French wall art is evocative and meant to spark conversation. Strike a French bistro tone with ornate wrought iron wall art painted with a thin coat of antique whitewash and distressed to allow the underlying metal to show through. Go more Bohemian with an eclectic arrangement of framed and unframed art postcards, small drawings and watercolors. Bring in a French farmhouse aesthetic with a simple rustic wooden frame around an arrangement of pressed flowers.
Benefits
The great benefit of French wall decor in the kitchen is that it integrates the well-loved with the mass-produced, the flea market find with the work of enduring elegance. Line your collection of tea cups on a rustic wood shelf with wrought iron supports, and add some cobalt blue glass bottles as bud vases. Try something bold that gives the kitchen dimension, such as a wall mural of a French garden or a plaster relief wall sculpture.
Tags: French wall, wall decor, decor kitchen, French kitchen, French style, French wall decor
