Decorating Above Kitchen Cabinets

With every kitchen that’s designed to maximize working space intended for countertops or islands, we tend to concentrate on what is within our reach. This is why cabinets located above or below your immediate grasp are always handy when preparing and making meals in the kitchen. Most people don’t realize the potential of using the space above your hanging shelves or cabinets.

Not only is this a great way to beautify your kitchen, but it also gives you further storage space for items that you might use seasonally or once or twice a year. Furthermore, you might have decorative items that could be repurposed to fit nicely into your kitchen. Here are some ideas that fit well in select kitchen designs in your home. Now, these are only suggestions and not concrete rules, but there are general guidelines you can follow to get the right look.

If you’re having new cabinets installed over what you already have in your kitchen, the style of your kitchen cabinets will often help with the interior design style you’ve chosen.

Contemporary Ideas

Contemporary design is often considered limiting for decorative aspects since contemporary is all about nice smooth lines that don’t break character in your kitchen layout. This isn’t always the case if your cabinets aren’t built all the way up to the ceiling and there is a decorative ledge available. If you want to keep the smooth line intact you can always opt for accent LED strip lighting along the entire back edge of your cabinets.

As you may expect, the museum display organization of your decorative items is also perfectly fine provided these decorative items are neatly placed. While this might seem pretty stiff for décor in general, there is no rule for keeping all of your decorations standing perfectly in line like little soldiers. Even arrange them so objects are placed according to size and shape. All of the colors need to be consistent too, so they aren’t clashing with a similar style.

Traditional Ideas

A traditional kitchen has much more freedom with creating a comfortable setting and allowing plenty of room for the above cabinet space. With beautiful trim that frames the tops of cabinets, it’s one of the perfect locations for plants, decorative jars, and lots of personal favorite items. Virtually anything can fit into this space that provides comfort and warmth in your kitchen. When you want to make a statement, this space is open for nearly any decorative accent.

It’s also pretty dramatic if you place some well-hidden LED strip lights on top to give immediate light to your décor items. Depending on how much space you have above cabinets, you’ll need to determine what will fit appropriately and what should not take up space where a decorative item might look too overbearing.

Modern Ideas

Typically, modern cabinets are cutting it close for space that gives you enough room to display anything above the cabinets. Much like contemporary, it’s more common to see ceiling-hugging cabinets with a modest and snug-fitting cabinet space where items can be placed. It’s recommended to place smaller decorations above cabinets with space if they are appropriately sized and are within the scale of this smaller display space. You can also consider integrating a few open shelves as they work surprisingly well in a modern kitchen.

Perhaps one solution is to add accent lights to give tighter spaces more space as this visual appearance works better, rather than adding items that might not be seen so easily. Another solution is to add decorative windows that bridge the gap between your cabinets and ceiling to allow for an upper cabinet effect. Smaller windows can be lit from within providing a confined space that can store small decorations but is effectively a decoration in itself.

Rustic Ideas

With a rustic kitchen, you have much more opportunity to show off adequate above cabinet space provided you have a tall enough ceiling. Rustic kitchens are the perfect place to display earthen pottery and décor cookware items. You may find that woven baskets and painted flatware plates are the perfect also welcome choices above your cabinets additionally. Open shelving is always a great idea since this can be placed above hanging shelves if there’s room.

Most rustic kitchens will look much better if your farmhouse-themed decorations fit in with your kitchen theme. This includes antique items of all sorts, but not limited to old-fashioned kitchen goods that naturally fit into a country kitchen. These should include items that aren’t just old-looking and can generously include potted plants and colorful pots or pans.

Farmhouse Ideas

Your typical farmhouse kitchen is going to be a lot livelier than a rustic farmhouse kitchen, so there is a lot of room for decorative ideas for your above kitchen cabinets. Farmhouse kitchens are much tidier and organized with a little bit of modern influence if you like to keep things looking less country kitchen than others. These cabinet tops are more popular when they feature window cabinets but are not limited to spaces with plenty of room on top.

There is no limit to what can be placed on top of these cabinets and is best related to traditional items you find around the kitchen. It can include a classic collection of old lunchboxes or quirky advertising signs. Even a good collection of old picture frames with images of the past placed inside looks fitting too. A well-placed potted plant will also make for the perfect decoration above your cabinets where the light is good.

Anything placed above cabinets that are simply open shelves will always be a great place for displaying Americana décor, spice racks, and canned goods. It will also be a great place to display seasonal items that follow every season such as Christmas and Halloween. Yet if you have a favorite cup collection or immediate knick-knacks that you like to collect, these can be added to shelf space just as easily.