Your farmhouse kitchen offers you the chance to display many of your favorite things either in a grouping or as a stand-alone piece. Because the background of this decorating style should be light and neutral, with many natural tones, the pops of color you add can be completely unique.
A Plain Wire Mesh Basket
Sometimes the most beautiful colors you can add to a space are those nature provides. Set a plain wire mesh basket on your counter and load it with glossy red and yellow apples, bright oranges or bold yellow bananas. You can purchase used baskets at a second hand shop or built your own with mesh, a pair of tin snips, spray paint in the color of your choice, and a hearty ruler to assist you in bending the mesh. Make sure to cut the mesh with enough material to make a loop to join the sides of the basket securely, and consider making your own handles with strips of leather. Baskets of natural material can be left plain or spray painted your favorite color. Line the basket with a pretty napkin or kitchen towel and load it up!
Small Stone Crocks
Small stone crocks are an ideal option for kitchen tools. You can also use a short stone crock to hold paper napkins, or settle small paper plates in a stone crock for a quick sandwich or pizza buffet. The more rustic, the better.
Tall Tins
Tall tins on the counter can be lined with a bread bag and loaded with loose pasta or used to store dried beans still in their bags. All they have to be is pretty. If you have a particularly lovely tin that you want to show off, make it part of a grouping that you can settle on a wooden cutting board. Your tin, loaded with useful food or tools, a small herb such as basil or rosemary in a pot, and a pretty ceramic butter dish can all provide useful value and look great in a collection.
Old Jars
Old jars with lids you can tighten down can serve as cannisters, storage for your homegrown dried herbs, a spot to store dried beans, and pasta containers. When you’re loading your jars, take care not to fill each one to the top. You want to work with these jars, but if they’re all completely full, you will create a display, not a working wall of products. Don’t be afraid to stack jars with a nice flat top, and make sure to incorporate a wide variety of colors in the food you display.
Platters
Platters can serve multiple purposes. You can settle them flat and load them up with peppers, squash and other produce from your garden or the farmers market. You can also set pretty platters on a display rack, or line them up behind a display tray to serve as a backdrop for other items you want to celebrate. If you have fresh lemon grass in a pot, settle it on a cheese board with a pretty sugar bowl and put a dark or deeply-toned platter behind it to make all of these decorative elements pop.
Wood Crates
Unfinished wooden crates are an ideal place to store items you need quickly. They can be mounted to the wall to serve as shelving or stood on end to provide you with additional flat storage space. If you want your crate to look a bit older, consider aging the wood with a homemade stain of tea, rust and vinegar. Allow steel wool to rust in either white vinegar or tea and test it on raw wood to get a tone you like. You’ll need to experiment to get the color you want, but a sturdy crate, well-aged, can be a useful and beautiful tools for years to come. If you choose to make your own stain, take care to put down plastic and wear gloves; this is a messy project.
Hangers
Magnetized display bars, hooks for your kitchen tools, and hangers for crates, square baskets and other storage tools are a great option in a farmhouse kitchen. To make sure that your storage hanging space doesn’t appear cluttered, try to be consistent with color. Even if the items you’re storing are odd sizes or unique colors, try to group them in similar storage bins. Finally, put your hangers in logical spaces Don’t put a magnetized knife rack right over your stove. You don’t want to have to move the stove if you miss hanging a knife.
String Mesh Bags
String mesh bags are a great place to hang produce, grocery store bags for later use, and other odd things you may need quickly. To keep it simple, you can go a little utilitarian. Screw a plant hanger into a joist in your kitchen ceiling. Make sure you’re not just hanging it in the drywall; sheetrock may not hold the weight. Hang a three or four foot chain from the hook in the ceiling. Attach S Hooks or small carabiners to the chain, and attach the string bags to the S hooks. This storage solution can flex as your garden generates a million zucchini, or when you find apples on sale and feel a pie festival coming on. Expand or shrink as needed.
Open Shelving
Open shelving looks great in a farmhouse kitchen. You can change this up by setting shelf units on the countertop to create a storage bundle. Load your little shelf unit with spices in uniform jars and put a couple of fresh herb pots on the top shelf. Use old-fashioned jam jars to hold loose tea or settle small crocks of coffee, butter or salt on the shelving.
Open Vs Closed
Open storage can look messy if there’s no space between the objects, or if there’s obviously no real plan. However, properly laid out and regularly monitored for tidiness, open shelving can be used as a room divider or as simple storage. Do your best to be consistent. Not everything needs to be one color or one size, but it’s nice if things have a little breathing room and demonstrate an obvious purpose. Try to keep things that are disposable, such as cardboard food containers, in closed cupboards.
No matter the size of your kitchen, the farmhouse style can suit. You can collect old-fashioned jars, make your own wire baskets and even age up new crates. Highlight fresh produce and unique pieces that you put to use in a special way.
