Quick Fix—Kitchen alcove

My quick fix today is a little project for those of us who need “temporary” fixes. Our home is rented and we can’t paint (yes, a totally nightmare for a designer!), so I have to come up with creative ways to deal with the eggshell white. I’m always to infuse color and I do this by choosing colors, patterns, and textures that I like, but are pretty easy to re-arrange or recover.

My quick fix today may not apply to your kitchen, but I think you could use this technique on anything…a bathroom cupboard, inner door of an armoire, inside of a closet. I’m using fabric, but you could use vintage wallpaper or wrapping paper (you’ll see I use wrapping paper as my pattern).

So here is my dilemma, I have this alcove in my kitchen that I display some of my bigger porcelain bowls. The vinyl pattern on the back is hideous, and there is hardly any contrast between it and the white dishes.

So I decided to cover the back to create a high contrast between the dishes and the wall. I uses some wrapping paper to create my pattern. Just cut and fit to the size of the place you plan to cover.

I cut around the pattern with the fabric I had chosen. I left about an inch of space around the pattern as I cut. I loved this blue and chocolate toile. I picked it up for about $5 in a discount fabric store while with Jen in San Francisco. I bought half a yard to fit my space.

Here’s how I folded the corners. You could use masking tape to hold them down as you pinned it to the wall. i was too lazy though and just held it in place as I pinned.


I just used thumbtacks to put these on.

And there it is. Completely removable when I need to move and easy to get on. I did this with my two little girls in the kitchen and it took about 15 minutes. Plus, I can change it if I get sick of it!