Creating a display with your everyday kitchen items is a great way to maximize storage and decoration all at once.
Of course, it is ideal that your display is also easily accessible so you can actually grab and use the slotted spoon or sauté pan when you need it. Because of that, I'm not really sure I understand the first image — those pots look awfully out of reach and does anyone really need that many knives? The second image is actually a restaurant dining room and doubtful that the spoons and forks are actually used anymore — but it is a great idea for kitchen or dining room decor.
Image: 1 Sköna Hem, 2 Chateau de Lu, 3 BBC Homes and Antiques, 4 via Be Different Act Normal, 5 Allaboutyou
The Ultimate Used Furniture Cleaning Kit
Ana Creates a Community at Home
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Z2 iPod Dock and Wi...
10 Low-Budget Pantry Items Everyone Should Have
Recipe: Spring Fruit and Nut Tabouli
Wow -- when I saw that last little pic I thought I was looking at my kitchen -- it's oddly similar:
http://www.thekitchn.com/thekitchn/small-cool-2007-entries/smallest-coolest-kitchen-2007-entry-9-franks-colorful-collection-021510
neon schlitz sign on the wall, black furry masses on the chairs. no, i'm not feeling inspired, just glad i don't do crap like that....
unless you use ALL or most of these things pretty much all the time, it seems like they'd get really dirty or dusty easily...
just for inspiration, not for exact implementation, these are nice! Thanks!
The display bar is unquestionably too high, but what looks really odd to me in the first pic is that tiny white 4-burner residential cooker where I'd expect to see a monstrous Viking or Wolfe. These people do not cook.
I love the eating table, candelabra, and ceiling lamp. However, it seems very impractical with all the pots and pans hanging so high up. The occupants must be extremely tall to reach it. Also, the glassware must be awfully dusty; I'd hesitate to offer a drink to anyone without rinsing it out first. The garish knife collection is really too much! How many knives does one really need to cook? Collections are only nice if things are consistent (shape, size, color, etc...) The only thing I'm inspired to do with this is to tidy and throw everything out.
@amed studio --
You might have noticed that the kitchen featured in the first photo is from Skona Hem?
It's clearly a Swedish kitchen - Folks in other countries don't have SUV-sized faux-restaurant stoves the way some folks have here in the US....
...You might be amazed at what can be created without them.
I have a "tiny white 4-burner residential cooker" and I cook.
And what of the kitchens that have monstrous Viking or Wolfe stoves that are just there for show. I don't believe that all the examples we see are there because they get used, but because it's the trend now & you supposedly need it for "resale" value.
How do the people with the first kitchen get the stuff down? And if they can really live with that small stove why the massive range hood?
I know plenty of British and French people who have big "SUV" sized stoves because they love to cook.
I have all of my pans on coat hooks to the right of the stove. Each hook holds three pans. I use them all pretty frequently, so there isn't a problem with dust and grime. I much prefer this to stacking cookware in a cupboard.
My favorite of the pics in the last one. It looks like a very functional setup, and the raspberry color is gorgeous.
I love the idea of having pots hanging in the kitchen, though I am more partial to having a ceiling-hung pot rack if space allows. I love the last picture and Frank's example because if you're going to do it on the wall, that seems the most functional. Though if you have any heavy cookware, you'd need to be sure that you mount everything really well or you're in for disaster, and you'd need to do some serious wall patching when you move out if you rent.
I also have a "tiny", white, 4 burner stove and I love cooking and cook daily. You really don't need anything bigger to do the job. Also, if you rent you most likely aren't going to replace the stove that the place came with. I agree that the knife collection looks excessive though, and I think that the pots in the first photo are antiques and there for decoration rather than use.
all i want to know is if anyone has the paint color info for that last photo - that beet-esque pink/red/fuschia is exactly what i want in my kitchen
I think in the first picture the pots & pans that are hung up *are* just for display. It looks like they're cast iron or really old and a wok-- maybe not everyday cookwear? It also looks like they have another wall mount to the left of the stove. Not that I love the style, but it seems like it's similar to the restaurant in the second picture (ie. decoration?).