Kitchen Set Ideas

Stencils

• Stenciling on your kitchen set brings a country-decorating tone to your kitchen and allows you to repeat a pattern featured on your walls. A variety of stencil patterns are available in arts and craft stores. Choose a pattern that matches or complements the kitchen's color scheme. Start the project by painting a couple of coats of paint on your kitchen set. Allow to dry. Once the paint is dry, tape the stencil patterns in place using architect's tape. The tape will stick to the table without pulling up your fresh paint. Dab small amounts of the stencil colors into the patterns. This works better if you do two or three coats of paint, building up the color a little bit at a time.

Corner Space

• Sometimes the steps you take to make your kitchen set stand out have less to do with the set itself and more to do with how you decorate the area around the kitchen set. Paint two adjoining walls in your kitchen with the same color. Go with the dominant color in your color scheme. For example, if your kitchen decor is Tuscan, add a coat of rich burgundy. Paint the walls opposite these two walls a contrasting color such as butter yellow. Once the walls are dry, scoot the kitchen set into the corner. Further enhance this look by putting decorative chair cushions on the seat in the contrasting color and adding items such as salt and pepper shakers and place mats also in the contrasting color.

Matching Mismatched Sets

• If you've chosen a shabby-chic motif in your kitchen, you know what it's like to decorate with mismatched pieces. With this style, it's perfectly acceptable to scoot four mismatched chairs up to your old farmhouse-style kitchen table. While shabby chic allows you to leave the chairs and table "as is," you can take one simple step to make the pieces seem like they go together if you'd like a bit of visual unity in the space. The predominant color in shabby-chic decorating is white. Adding a coat of distressed white paint to all the pieces in your set will make them look like they belong together even if they don't exactly. It's a technique that allows you to make the pieces match without losing their individual characters.

Mosaics

• Mosaic tile designs on furniture represent a popular motif in Moroccan decorating. Make your kitchen set Moroccan in flavor by either buying a set with mosaic tiles already in place or making over your kitchen set as part of a weekend decorating project. Pieces of crushed tile or pottery and a little table grout become the building blocks for this colorful kitchen addition.