Some spots in your home are easy to decorate. Others … not so much. One of those problematic places is the empty space above your stove. Many of us have a blank wall there, begging for a creative treatment, something to make us smile while we’re slaving over the hot stove. But what? Here are some ideas and inspiration from my cottage and the homes of a few of my friends.
The photo above is of my friend Lisa’s kitchen. When she renovated this room a few years ago, she spiced up the space above her stove with a beautiful tile pattern. She added to the charm with changeable displays on the shelf above the stove, and on either side.
My friend Tammy has a light, bright, airy kitchen. She had the great idea to layer a mix of thin wood cutting boards behind her stove. The boards pick up the tones in her exposed brick walls, adding to the natural warmth and bringing in a bit of organic pattern. The variation in the sizes and shapes of the boards ramps up the visual impact.
When my friend Paula bought her home, she loved everything about it, except the kitchen. A complete kitchen remodel was not in the plans, but that didn’t stop Paula from revamping the look of the space. Paula is a very cleaver decorator, who has a home filled with beautiful treasures. So when she spotted a box filled with copper kitchenware at a garage sale (for $20!), she snatched it up. She installed a pot rack above her stove, then filled it with the copper pieces. It turned this lackluster spot into a stunning focal point.
When Nancy renovated her little cottage, she wanted to decorate it with her family heirlooms and antiques. She had picked up a piece from a cast-iron stove at an antique store, and was just waiting for a place to use it. The space behind her stove seemed like the perfect spot. That was before she tried to pick the darn thing up. It weighted a ton. In fact, it was so heavy, her ever-patient husband, Don, purchased a hydraulic lift just to put it in place. If it had been my husband, he would have given me that “Are you crazy?” look when I asked him to make these accommodations, and the poor antique would have been drug to the garden, leaned against a stone wall, with a plant stuck in front of it.
You don’t have to look very hard to tell that my stove never gets used. I can’t help it: I am allergic to cooking. Since I don’t have to worry about the stove’s functionality, I can go crazy when decorating around it – nothing will ever be at risk of catching fire. Right now, it’s home for an oil painting done by my great aunt.
As I have decorated the little cottage next door, where my mom lived at the end of her life, I’m finding it a great place to put the extra furniture and accents I cannot fit into my own cottage. Case in point: this set of Limoges fish plates. I spotted these beauties when I was treating myself to my annual I-survived-the-holiday-season-working-retail splurge. I didn’t have room to put them up in my cottage, so they got moved next door to mom’s. The spot above the stove was perfect.
Next Week … A tale of two bedrooms.
Pretty and Painted: A New Way to Look at Wood Furniture
Stunning Summer Bedding 2022
Finding the Perfect Upholstered Piece
Lovely Lakehouse Essentials
Sandy says
March 19, 2018 at 2:27 pmIf you like to cook and actually use your stove, one would not add any of the above to decorate this space. I love all your ideas but this is not practical and too staged. UGH!
Chris Roberts says
March 19, 2018 at 2:56 pmAlways look forward to your blog
Inspiring
Thank you
Chrissy
Janet Arden says
March 19, 2018 at 3:20 pmWhen we remodeled our kitchen I insisted on a mantle above the stove for some of my transfer ware or sweetgrass baskets etc. I cook a lot, so the area behind the burners is usually off-limits, until the cooking is complete and t dinner guests have arrived! Thank you for your inspiration!
Joan says
March 19, 2018 at 3:59 pmThe cast iron stove piece got my attention ! She not only has a patient husband, but an inventive one to come up with such a creative solution for lifting it. Pretty neat!
Becky says
March 19, 2018 at 4:24 pmBut how do you hang such things on tile? I have a small greenery wreath, but cannot figure out a good way to hang it that doesn’t continue to fall.
franki says
March 19, 2018 at 5:48 pmIf it’s blank…it gets decorated. Period. franki
Suzanne Zingg says
March 20, 2018 at 4:21 pmI bought a three tiered wooden tray recently at Nell Hills intending to put it under my kitchen cabinents but when it ended up being too tall I put it on my stoves griddle. I love it there so much and decorate it for the seasons. A special thank you to Joe at NH who went to the basement and personally picked the perfect one for me. I wish there were a way to insert a photo here.
Peggy says
March 20, 2018 at 6:48 pmLove all of these looks, but I really like how you hung your aunt’s painting above your stove. Did you drill into your tile or do you have a secret way to temporarily hang items? Please share. Peggy
Stacey Miller says
March 21, 2018 at 6:12 pmI’m commenting to Becky who asked how to hang these things on tile! I just recently wanted to figure out a way to hang some beautiful platters above my cooktop. While grocery shopping one day, I started looking at the Command strip section, and realized that they actually have Velcro strips to hang pictures on a wall without making holes into your tile. I used them, and I hung three platters up there, and they are very secure and look great. Command hooks are also available that would work perfectly for your baskets. I, too, would always caution against hanging flammable things above a cooktop! Anyway the Command strips or hooks are my new best friend. They also work wonders in hanging wreaths on a door that you don’t want to put a hole in!
Kathy says
March 23, 2018 at 10:09 amI really don’t care who cooks and who doesn’t. Inspirational ways to charm up any space is always welcome! I never grow tired of your ideas Mary Carol❤️
Kathy says
March 28, 2018 at 7:25 amI love the cast iron door mounted behind the stove top! The key word for me is “mounted”. I too found such a treasure in charleston during a girls weekend. I thought myself very clever and leaned it against the wall behind my stovetop…..the look was fantastic! That is until the iron piece fell on my cook top and shattered it! Needless to say my husband would be the first to place that particular treasure in the garden with a plant in front of it!
Martie LeRoy says
March 10, 2019 at 11:17 amI bought a oil of a cow standing in the snow in Wyoming. It has been leaning against the wall of my tiled coffee bar. I want to hang it, but I think that there must be other ways besides Command Strips. What other decorator choices are there? I did look into nickel coated paint stands, but could find one that was sized to work–plus, they project the art out from the wall.
Any help would be appreciated.