Adding Functional Decor to an Empty Kitchen Wall

5 Materials
$35
3 Hours
Medium
Our new home has a great kitchen but the wall around the sink is completely empty. We have plenty of cupboard/cabinet space on the other side of the kitchen so we didn't need to add much storage space. I thought this would be a great time to add a coffee/tea station. I also thought little shelves for plants, candles, and décor would be a nice touch.
This is where we started. To me, the empty space seemed accentuated by the tall ceilings.
We had an old wall shelf/rack that we had in a bathroom at our old house. I thought it would make a great coffee/tea storage rack. To give it a bit of a coffee bar feeling, I added some café art above the shelves.
For the shelves on the bigger wall, I found an old piece of wood that was leftover form an old project. I cut it to size and gave everything a thorough sanding. In this photo, you can see that I cut four pieces, but I ended up only using two for this project.
After sanding, I gave the wood two coats of Minwax ebony stain. To give it a shiny look, I used a high gloss Rustoleum Clear Topcoat.
Here is the finished shelf.
I used Ekby brackets from IKEA. I also used IKEA Kungsfors Rail Bars to add hanging storage below the shelves.
Here is the final look. Functional and decorative. All of our appliances are stainless steel and the countertops are black, so we thought the stainless bars and black shelves would blend into the look of the kitchen.
Here is a closer look at each section.
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  • Nic Nic on Jan 29, 2019

    While looking at your project, I fixated on your wood floor. Did you install the floor or is it original to the house? If you installed them, what wood are they? Thanks!

  • Vicki Vicki on Feb 20, 2019

    Very nice update.

    I have a question about your cabinets. They look like oak, but did you do anything to them for that darker color?

  • Nonchie Nonchie on Feb 24, 2019

    How about a small black corrugated steel roof over that window?

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