25 Ways to Add Style to Your Kitchen in One Weekend

Take your pick, or do all of these things in one weekend. Add comfort and style to plain metal or wooden bar stools by crafting cushions, like these in a beachy blue. Then, attach them using double-sided Velcro, says Atlanta designer Robin LaMonte. For the island top, she purchased a wood trough at a discount home store and filled it with decorative balls from a craft store. You also could wrap styrofoam balls in assorted textiles, securing the fabric with a glue gun.

No matter your home’s age or interior style, a display of copper cookware always lends a sense of history in the kitchen. Atlanta interior designer Devon Garner pulled together her client’s copper pot collection to complement the colors in the slate tile hood and create a rich, Old World effect. But you don’t have to be a copper connoisseur to achieve the same result. Rummage through pots and pans at flea markets and antique shops to find dull bargains that may shine again with a bit of polishing.

Achieve a stained glass effect without changing your windows. A kitchen or pantry window is a great place to install shelves to store colored glassware, says Susan Sully. “The light just comes right through it and really shows them off,” she says.

Making changes to your kitchen’s style can be as easy as setting the table. When choosing table decor, it’s OK to use an assortment of plates and glasses purchased new and picked up at antique sales, as long as they’re in the same color palette. “Choose one color range and use it,” says Susan Sully, author of Past Present: Living with Heirlooms and Antiques. “Add flower and fruit displays that have the same color.”

The red-striped pillow on this kitchen banquette was made from an antique French flour sack, but you can create a similar look using vintage dish towels, says author Susan Sully. For a weekend craft, make no-sew accent pillows with the dish towels or another fabric of your choosing to add color to your kitchen.

Some design choices can make large-scale items, such as light fixtures, pop even more. It can be as easy as adding a coat of paint over a weekend. In the kitchen and living room of this lake home, metro Atlanta designer Beth Johnson painted the wood paneling, which had been a pickled oak color, a more appealing white. Then she matched the artwork frame for a seamless look.

Don’t forget the floor. In this kitchen, a black-and-white carpet runner matches the plates and dishes on display in the cabinets above. A small area rug with a pattern or palette that matches your dinnerware is a simple and easy way to create a cohesive look in your kitchen. Designer Michelle Mentzer says another go-to styling choice is to add a plant or flowers for a bit of greenery.

Using mesh-mounted tiles, sold at home improvement stores, makes installing a backsplash a significantly easier weekend project. This kitchen was designed by Diane Foreman of Neil Kelly Co., in Oregon and Washington, and was a 2016 National Kitchen + Bath Association winner.