The Easiest Kitchen Upgrade I Never Thought Of
Executive summary: A backsplash is not the only way to add color and pattern to the kitchen. A far more simple but similarly impactful project is to deck out the kitchen island instead!
This post is going to be the shortest (though not the sweetest) one I’ve written thus far. In a nutshell, I’ve been itching to add more pizzazz (not to be confused with pizzas) to the kitchen and applied peel-and-stick wallpaper to the kitchen island to achieve that goal. The context is that this kitchen was designed to be inoffensive and plain, but I’ve wanted to up the visual ante since I first laid eyes on it. Stanford won’t allow us to put up backsplash (much less change out the cupboards), which would’ve been my first instinct. I thought about using peel-and-stick paper on the walls as a sort of faux backspash, but didn’t want to risk it getting wet/greasy/grimy, so I let it be … plus having a window under the cupboards at least breaks up a major stretch of white wall.
But the other day, as I was thinking about something else entirely (pendant lights, if you must know), my Google search turned up a kitchen where the island was wallpapered. I was immediately intrigued and proceeded to unearth many more images of the same, to see additional examples of this approach. I can’t believe I never thought of this before as a way to put pattern into the kitchen!! I am honestly shocked at myself … but as my ever-supportive husband says, “you can’t think of everything.” He was somewhat less enthused about the actual process of installing the peel-and-stick paper. We always get good results, but it does take patience. I managed to strong-arm persuade him to spend one hour after the kids’ bedtime to help me last night. Boom, done. Now everyone please admire. That’s all for today.
How did putting peel-and-stick wallpaper on the island never occur to me before?? I was so fixated on the kitchen walls and cupboards that I neglected to consider other potential surfaces … or maybe it’s because I’ve never had a kitchen island before, so it escaped my notice? Either way, this is what I consider a smart and simple solution for a small space, not to mention “renter friendly.”