Above Kitchen Cabinet Decor

Ok so, this project has been a long time coming. I have a small, dark kitchen with no window and I have put it through hell in the last couple of years trying to figure out how to give it a Tuscan feel. First I did this...

Need your sunglasses right? It was too bright and way too yellow. My husband said it looked like the inside of a Mexican restaurant. And you can't even see my cookie jars, they just blended right in. So I tried to tone it down a bit by using a chocolate glaze...

A little better, but I still hated it. The white pantry doors look really nice, but that's it. So I painted the whole kitchen back off-white or eggshell or bone or whatever you wanna call it! Then I googled Tuscan-inspired wall finishes and I saw lots of "aged" and "old-world" finishes. So I did this...

I love it!! But it needed something besides my colorful fruit-shaped cookie jar collection to make it seem more "old world". So I started buying pieces here and there (keeping in mind that there are only about 12 inches of decorating space above these cabinets). I bought a couple of sets of clear rope lights and drilled a hole in that cabinet above the microwave to have access to an outlet. I wanted the lighting to be behind all of the accessories so that it would feel more like mood lighting rather than just another light in the kitchen. So I started playing around with the placement of all the goodies and came up with this...

I really love how this turned out! I tried to use all wine & grape themed items to make it feel "Tuscan". What do you think? Take a closer look...

In the photo above, the "BISTRO" letters are hung with double stick tape, the kind with the cushy foam stuff in the middle. I didn't want to nail them  because I really hate nail holes and I may want to change this word one day. I also wanted to be able to see the word, so I just leaned the wooden candle stick over in front of it. In the photo below, I really loved the colors in this plate. So to keep from covering it up completely I used one of my crystal candy jars.

Here's a view from the living room. It's a small space, but I have a very open floor plan, so it works for me!

Here is the same view with only the foyer light on. It can be really dark when you walk through at night with all the lights off, so the small amount of light up there makes a big impact. It's like an adult night light!

I'm very proud of myself for finally doing this. I think it turned out very nice. My next kitchen project will probably be to mount under cabinet lights. Where I live, we aren't able to have a garbage disposal, but when we built the house, the builders still put the switch on the wall. So I would like to have them all wired to that switch. You never know what the future holds! Thanks for reading!!