Adding texture and interest to a wall

Adding texture and interest to a wall  that you don’t know what to do with in any space in your home may not be as hard as you think.

Adding texture and interest to a wall

One of the last projects that we  finished up in 2019 was adding texture and interest to a wall in my kitchen area. You may remember that I shared some grand plans to add a window to the wall here….but after some additional thinking I wasn’t sure if that was the direction that I wanted to go. I have a lot of windows in the house and wanted to have more wall space on the upper level…to add elements like this.

The history of the room 

A little history about this room. When we designed and built our home this was a family room.  You can see how I used the room that way here. After a few years we decided to switch some rooms around that would make more sense for my family. We moved the family room into a ‘seasonal’ room and used this space as an eating area since it is right off the kitchen. We had a formal dining room but have since converted that into a Piano Room.  There just wasn’t a need to have multiple areas to eat since this space is ample enough. Besides we are mostly counter people eaters during the week anyways.  

When we did the big switcheroo with the rooms we did not have a heating and cooling system in the ‘new’ family room. The family room was built as a screen porch and at the 11th hour we decided to enclose it. To take care of heating and cooling we installed a mini split unit  and a wood burning stove. We also decided to put a mini split in the eating area as well. Of course I wasn’t home when the installation took place or I never would have decided to put it center on that wall. Although the air unit such a practical purpose, it was an eye sore for many years. By the way, these ductless mini- splits are just the best….they just aren’t the prettiest. 🙂

What I did to the wall

A few years ago we removed the built-in shelves since I didn’t really need them in the space.  With that change the ‘eye sore’ only became more obvious. I came up with a plan to address that as well as give the wall some texture and interest. Before the end of the year I had intended to use the wallpaper I picked out on the entire wall but realized that would not really address trying to camouflage the air unit and would be more visual interest then I was looking for. So I put this gray and white ‘Forest’ wallpaper  on the outer edges and added wood planks to the center. My favorite art work from here was moved from the Piano Room.

I initially painted the wall white but didn’t like how it looked against the white in the wallpaper and the air unit was still obvious. Painting the entire wall ( air conditioner included, yes you can do that. just don’t cover up the sensor) to match the cabinet makes it less obvious on the wall. I mean there’s no way around hiding the unit but now it seems to blend in more and not quite the eye sore. The color on the wall and cabinet is Iron Ore from SW. LOVE this color so much. You will see it in other places in the house like my laundry room, mudroom, kitchen island and on the mantel in this room.

The wall before the changes

Here’s what the wall use to look like with the shelves. When I took the shelves off I refinished the top of the cabinet and painted the base to match my kitchen island. You can see how I stripped the paint here without all the dust and smell.

What I did with the extra wallpaper

With the extra wallpaper, I had enough to do the wall in the breakfast area and the small portion of wall above the windows. 

I love how the entire project turned out! Can’t wait to move on to the next project.

Grateful

for patience with the ‘list’

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