Expert Talk: Infuse Your Kitchen With Art

Fill in the blanks. “My clients have a large and eclectic art collection, and I selected this piece from another room in their home for its color, content and light wood frame. I felt it really complemented the kitchen,” explains Andre Rothblatt of Andre Rothblatt Architecture.

“Another design decision I made was to not place cabinets on either side of the exhaust hood. I wanted to inject some negative space there and give more prominence and visual focus to the stove. So it just followed that artwork should be hung on those purposefully blank walls.”

Use art as your inspiration. This oil painting by artist Barbra Edwards was the initial inspiration for the colors and textures throughout the kitchen in her own home. "The house is located on a small island in British Columbia overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and it's surrounded by evergreens and arbutus trees," says Ines Hanl of The Sky is the Limit Design.

"When we selected the materials, I was very mindful of her preferred color scheme: golds and browns, with flecks of moss. Rift-cut oak stained in three different earthy hues was used for a variety of cabinetry, which is offset by a lacquered soft gray-green specialty cabinet. The custom-made concrete bar relates to the rocks and mountains outside, as does the oyster slate we used on the floor."

Add warmth to a cool room. For this all-white kitchen, “we chose the artwork to bring some well-deserved color into the design,” says Andre Laurent, of Creative Space Architectural Design in New Zealand. “The three pieces break the image up into a more interesting format.”

Inspire your cooking. This is another kitchen designed by Natalie Du Bois. “Because of the central position of the slim, elongated island, we had a large white wall for hanging art,” she says. “It serves as a perfect canvas for this striking piece that creates a bold backdrop for the owners to enjoy while they’re preparing meals.”

Showcase local artists. This Vermont cabin owned and designed by Joan Heaton of Joan Heaton Architects formerly belonged to artist Janet Chill. "I thought it fitting to showcase her art," says Heaton. "The painting, acrylic on oaktag, depicts a closeup of hosta and other plants. I thought that the horizontal aspect, scale and colors of the work looked great in the kitchen."

Reference your surroundings. "My client truly loves artwork, and over the years he's acquired quite a collection of great pieces," says kitchen and bath designer Linda Burkhardt. "I love this original serigraph, "Driftwood," by Nicola Simbari and thought its placement was a perfect complement to this beautiful beachfront kitchen."

Don’t forget the ceiling. Before being remodeled by Ken Kelly of Kitchen Designs by Ken Kelly, this kitchen had a vaulted cathedral ceiling with industrial-looking track lighting. Kelly made the room cozier by converting the vault to a flat 9-foot ceiling with a tray design over the island to raise the height and add volume to the space. The ceiling mural is hand-painted and “captures the family’s personality, creative spirit, and their love of peacock feathers” says Kelly.

“The room’s other details include a mosaic tile floor and backsplash consisting of 22 different colors," he adds. "The pattern created a quilted-rug effect in the glass tile floor. For the backsplash by the stove, we added color and texture with bubble glass and custom ceramic tile using recycled bottle caps, buttons, beads and broken pieces of china.”

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