Wallpaper Wednesday- Jill's Kitchen Part I

Hi Christine,

I just found your blogsight last night and am so impressed with your suggestions to others so I'm asking (begging) that you please help me as well. I am open to any & all suggestions. Need a fresh eye.

Could you please take a look and give me suggestions on how to improve the kitchen/dining room so it looks cohesive & beautiful? I suppose my style leans towards traditional, clean cottage. I'll let u be the judge as I have a tendency to mix & then it begins to overwhelm me. I like my dining chairs. Would like to work with existing pieces-not totally opposed to painting them again (dining room area).The wall color is the 2nd color since we added part of kitchen on in 08. Although it seems to ground the cabinets, it tends to feel dark at times. You are so good with color-looking forward to suggestions to pull it all together. I recently purchased SS appliances (fake SS for fridge) so if you can imagine that rather than the white. Please email me with any questions and I so look forward to hearing from you!

Thank you.

Jill

Dear Jill,

Let me start by saying that you have a lot going on that is great. First of all- let me compliment you on your decorating of the hutch in the second picture. Very well done. You have a good eye for scale and are a terrific "overlapper." :) You have done a good job adding greenery.

You are also right that the area lacks a cohesive "finished" feel. It is in your walls. You have a traditional home, and yet you have very little pattern, and not a lot of texture. You are perhaps "playing it safe." Your wall color is nice- although perhaps a little dark, but I do not see it duplicated anywhere. There is no repetition. I would wallpaper the walls. This will make all the difference. There are a number of different ways you can go with this. Check out the paper at the top of the post. These come in a million different color ways- find a color that goes well with your rug.

Even a very simple wallpaper- like the one above- is a great way to "marry" the white and beige in your room, as well as adding pattern and interest.

This paper would require a different rug- but I thought it was a beautiful paper- and felt like the style was consistent with your furnishings.

I love a classic toile. The paper in the background above would go right into your place perfectly.

Which direction should Jill go?

1. grasscloth
2. simple floral
3. blissful blue
4. traditional toile

The grasscloth is from grasscloth.com; the rest of today's papers are from York.