Ooh, shiny. That copper is so pretty. You run a finger across it, imagining it in your kitchen, as a backsplash or a decoration. You’ve got some copper in your kitchen already, but there’s something missing. The decorations, copper pots, and copper pans just don’t look right somehow. You need some copper kitchen decorating ideas to help you make a beautiful and coordinated copper kitchen.
1) DIY Copper Backsplash
If you like the look of copper, you’ll want a fair amount in your kitchen. While painting the walls copper is a bit much, you can make a copper backsplash. The backsplash will cover your walls or a couple of inches of the wall above your counter. Decide how much copper you want to match your existing kitchen, but if you already have a lot of copper, you probably want a smaller band of it over the counter. You can use this tutorial to learn how to install a copper backsplash yourself.
2) Copper and Green
Yes, this is a picture of a bar. That said, the picture shows an important part of decorating with copper; contrast. Once you’ve picked all your decorative touches, you’ll want them to look good with the rest of the kitchen. Copper looks best with dark and contrasting colors. Blues and greens work well because copper begins to look blue or green when it oxidizes. This makes the copper and blue or green colors look natural together. Try painting your kitchen aqua, or green like this one.
3) DIY Penny Countertop
If you like to play hockey or skate, or if your team hosts Skate with the Team events, you want to have a chance to practice. While your man cave could be a place to hang out with buddies, it can also be a retreat. If you have synthetic ice installed, but you want to practice passing, make a homemade puck rebounder like the one in this video. The rebounder lets you practice passing the puck back and forth even when you’re alone.
4) Tarnished Faucets and Accents
You don’t want your copper decorations to be overwhelming, but you want them to be noticed. Pick one large item to cover with copper, and then several smaller accents. Faucets can be an attractive and easy accent to use. If you like the tarnished look, though, a copper faucet can be harder to find. These instructions will help you give an ordinary copper faucet the duller, worn-out look you want. That’ll look great in an industrial or rustic kitchen.
5) Copper Clock
Clocks are a common kitchen fixture, though nowadays an analog clock is more decorative than functional. Most ovens and microwaves have digital clocks that you probably prefer to the old-fashioned analog ones. Analog clocks are nonetheless a staple decoration, and this copper-colored kitchen clock will look great on your kitchen wall. You can use it to add a splash of copper color somewhere that doesn’t have a lot of decoration at the moment.
6) Keep it Subtle
While you love the look of copper, you have to be careful not to overdo it. In this article, the writer shows you how you can decorate in a subtle way without losing the effect of having the copper. She suggests using a few copper accents and makes use of the cookware in the kitchen. Some touches are partially hidden, so your eyes are drawn to a small bit of copper poking out from behind a container. Use these subtly touches with your copper pots, pans, and decorations to accent your kitchen.
7) Paint Existing Decorations
If you have decorations and items you’re attached to, there’s no reason you need to replace them. Instead, use copper paint to coat a few items around the kitchen. The great thing about this method is that the copper will all be the same shade. You won’t have to worry about having one dull copper decoration, one shiny one, and one green oxidized copper piece. Since they’re the same shade, people’s eyes will be drawn from one item to the next, so they see all your decorations.
8) DIY Countertops
If you have large copper decorations, you really only want one. The rest of your copper color should be smaller accents like faucets and small appliances. If you want your one big piece of copper to stand out, try installing a copper countertop. This video shows you how to make your own custom copper countertop using copper sheets. You can install them over existing laminate countertops, so there’s no demolition work. If you aren’t comfortable installing countertops yourself, you can always hire somebody to install them.
9) Aged Look
Sometimes copper is fresh and shiny and new. Other times it’s tarnished and dull. If you want your copper to look aged, or if you want some newer copper to match the rest of your copper, all you need to do is age it. Through this article, you can learn to age copper to the color you want. This is useful for matching decorations since a lot of crafts use aged copper similar to what you’ll get from this technique.
10) Antique Copper Appliances
Copper was used long before stainless steel, and there are many copper antiques scattered around the world. If you don’t have any antique, head to a local flea market or another site to get some antique kitchenware. If you’re lucky you can find some antique appliances, stills, or kitchen items to display. If you use your kitchen a lot, hang these, or separate them from the rest of your counter space to keep them out of your way.
11) Tree of Life
The tree of life is part of many ancient mythologies, so it’s fitting to craft it from older material, rather than stainless steel or newer metal compounds. Many copper backsplash decorations have the tree of life in them, so if you like mythologies or nature, this tree of life decoration is a great way to tie your decor together. The decoration is made from copper twined around a quartz crystal base, so it’ll fit any natural or fantasy elements to your copper decor, and give the room a natural feel.
12) DIY Decorative Appliances
Some of your copper items will be purely decorative, but kitchens usually don’t have a lot of extra space for decorations. You don’t want to waste counter space if you need it to cook, so many of your copper decorations should be practical or take up little space. With this project, you can make a working coffee maker from copper pipe. If you prefer your K-Cups and a fancy coffee maker, this may be more decorative after all, but either way it makes a neat decoration and conversation piece.
13) Vine Design
One way to include copper without using up valuable counter space is to add copper textures to walls or appliances. You can install a copper backsplash, copper counter, or a copper range hood like this one. The range hood has a leaf texture made from copper. It fits with any natural-looking copper decorations, such as the tree of life backsplash designs. It also includes a little bit of both bright orangish copper and duller tarnished copper, so it can fit with either type of decoration.
14) DIY Flame Painted Copper Decorations
Painting with flames may be the coolest thing you could do to your copper decorations. You can make a copper cutout that fits your other decor and use this video to learn how to flame paint it. It takes some patience to get right, but flame painting leads to some amazing patterns, and you can tell everybody you painted the designs with fire. The video uses fish and butterfly decorations, but you can paint any flat decoration to hang up.
15) Salt Shaker
Some of your copper decorations will be functional appliances and cookware, such as coffee makers, pots, and pans. This stainless steel salt shaker from Amazon is copper-coated, leading to a shiny copper look that you can match to other appliances in the room. The salt shakers are practical, since you need salt to cook with, so they don’t take up any extra counter space. You can also move them to your dining room when you bring food out to eat if you want the theme to extend into both rooms.
16) DIY Air Chased Copper Designs
You’re probably wondering what air chasing is. Air chasing is a technique you can use to make neat patterns in copper. Each air chased pattern comes out differently, as you can see in this video. While the woman in the video makes air chased jewelry, you can use it for designs and decorations in your kitchen. This is an unusual trick that’ll make your decorations stand apart from others’, and more importantly, it’ll look great in your kitchen.
17) Copper Wire Vases
While your kitchen probably already has copper bowls, pots, and pans, you might not have any purely decorative copper. While counter space is often at a premium, there are a few things worth making room for. Flowers are always a good touch, particularly if you have other nature-themed decorations around. This copper wire vase will add a bright sheen of copper, and you can put it on a center island to visually tie your other copper pieces together.
18) Copper Kitchen Containers
A simple way to add copper accents to your room is to buy copper kitchenware. This can include pots, pans, or containers like these. You’ll need similar containers for sugar, salt, flour, or other ingredients you keep on the counter, so why not make them part of your copper decor? Several containers next to each other add a slightly larger and more noticeable accent without being overpowering. This makes them a great choice for a more subtle copper theme.
19) Cookie Cutters
If you don’t want to go out and spend a lot of money on copper decorations and cookware, then smaller and cheaper copper-colored decorations may be the solution. Since you don’t want to use up all your counter space, try hanging cookie cutters on the wall as a decoration. As you can see in the picture, the cookie cutters and other small kitchen items highlight other copper pieces in the room while adding a kitchen theme to the decorations.
20) Copper Sink
A copper sink is one of the best copper decorations you can have in your kitchen. In most cases when decorating with copper, you want to have one large copper item to tie smaller accents together. The sink can either be a large item, or an accent for another item, depending on how much copper you want. You copper will oxidize over time, but this antique sink already has some patina. This makes it easier to account for oxidation when you’re matching it to other copper colors.
21) Decorative Mesh Bowls
Bowls, plates, pots, pans, forks, knives. There are all kinds of metal items in your kitchen, and any of them could be copper. If you don’t like to eat out of copper, though, you can always choose decorations that look like copper tableware. These bowls are made from copper mesh, so they’re not functional as bowls, but they look beautiful, and they fit with other kitchen decor. You can put these above a fridge or hang them up on a wall to add a glint of copper. The mesh keeps the bright copper from being glaring, also.