What's Going On Up There?

Do your kitchen cabinets stop short of your ceiling?  Do you wonder what the heck you are supposed to do with that space?

Many kitchen cabinets, especially in homes with vaulted ceilings, do not go all the way to the ceiling.  Who can reach up there anyway?  

You can leave that area alone if you wish, or you can use that space creatively for some of your collections or extra cooking gear.

I have lost count of how many Oconee countertops I've walked barefoot onto in order to arrange the tops of the cabinets!  This is a popular request among designers, and definitely an acquired talent!

Good balance, a tall ladder (hopefully a fresh pedicure) and an eye for visual groupings is required.

I recently featured a client's cookie jar  that was crowded onto a bakers rack and stacked on top of each other.  This was not the way to really show them off.  

My client basically turned me loose in her house and I found myself bringing other items from the study bookshelves, the pantry storage room, and her cabinet full of pottery to add to my arrangements.

The next step is to decide on the spacing of the featured area.  You don't want to just place items side by side in a line across.  I used cabinet doors as center points, and corners to decide where to start my next grouping.

Similarly-colored or themed items were grouped together with other accessories that were complimentary of those colors and themes.  For example, one grouping had cookie jars that were birdhouse-themed, and I added faux ivy sprigs among those to carry on the nature theme.  

Another grouping featured rustic items and crockery, and on that same cabinet set, a nearby grouping used her cookbooks propped up with a rustic rooster and a cottage style cookie jar.

It sounds a lot easier than it actually is, so let me give you some ideas of how you can take on this task yourself.

Take everything you want to display and set it out somewhere in a room where you can spread it out. A floor is good, or an empty dining room table.   Then let your eyes drift across the collection.  You can start with one theme or a color scheme. Pick one piece and set it beside another piece of a similar or complimentary theme or color.  Before you know it, you will have separated your collection into some wonderfully complimentary groupings!  

Don't feel like you have to use every single piece you have.  Less is more in this case. If you just can't fit in all your special pieces without it looking crowded, consider swapping them out every few months.  It's a fun little rainy day project full of creativity.  

You might also find other areas in your home to display some of your grouped collections, such as the top of a bare guest room dresser, or that unusual space between two sinks in a large bathroom.

Don't have a collection or perhaps only have a few pieces you'd like to ? Wow,  that's the fun part!  It's easy to shop around for a few affordable  in Oconee County.  Find one piece you absolutely love and go from there.  You will probably be surprised at what else you might have in your home already that will compliment the pieces you purchase.

Tap into your own creative talents and give it a try.  If you get stuck or aren't happy with what you came up with, invite a creative friend over for lunch and afterwards  let him or her have at it!  Sip some iced tea and watch from the comfort of your chair while the two of you catch up on eachother's lives.  

Or, you can contribute to the economy by hiring a local designer to do it for you. There's nothing like experience and talent to really bring a project like this together.

These kinds of projects are fun and almost always give such great results for the little bit of effort involved that you will wonder why you didn't do it sooner!

Have fun!