My mom is the family's resident wallpaper-er and stencil-er, and the kitchen I grew up with has gone through two different patterns. Memories make me biased, but I think having a wallpapered kitchen can be one more fun way of confidently showing your style.
Wallpaper with a bigger pattern can make a great focal point, especially in a galley kitchen (Images 6 and 8). Used on more than one wall, wallpaper can make a kitchen feel as cozy as a living room (Image 3). As in Image 7, it also can give continuity between those rooms. When applied in small areas, such as above (Image 10) or between cabinets (Image 4), wallpaper can provide an unexpected touch of color and creativity.
Images: 1. Skona Hem 2. via Emmas Designblogg 3. Lonny 4. Rebecca Szeto for The Kitchn 5. Ideal Home via Homes on Film 6. Domino 7. House to Home 8. via Emmas Designblogg 9. via One Shoe Daily 10. Lonny
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I think they're beautiful, but I can't help thinking this is a recipe for disaster (huh, get it?), especially on the backsplash. I see future photos of the kitchens with puckered, stained, and faded once-beautiful wallpaper.
Wear and tear is definitely a valid concern, but there are ways to protect the wallpaper. For extra coverage, in kitchen #4 the paper is shielded by glass:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/closeup/closeup-rebeccas-wallpaper-backsplash-059652
And when you look closely at the first image, it seems like they've installed Plexiglass above the stove and by the window.
i'm not feeling it...
I think the best examples are numbers two and six, where the wallpaper is used very sparingly. My kitchen was head-to-toe wallpaper when I bought the place and it was overwhelming (also very labor-intensive to remove!).
I'm loving the last one! I'm usually not a huge fan of wallpaper at all, let along in the kitchen, but that gorgeous turquoise! And its up high, so I doubt cooking disasters are much of an issue...
I have a love-hate thing with wallpaper... I think it can look extremely current and add color and express individuality.
BUT, it also has the tendency to become very dated, very quickly. I had to rip wallpaper out of the kitchens in both my old condos. One had olive stripes and orange and brown cornucopias; the other was pale yellow baskets of herbs with light green accents. Both were straight out of specific decades, and HAD to go.
So, I'm all for papering the whole house if that's your thing, but I also acknowledge that whatever I put up will be the bane of someone else's existence 10+ years from now (possibly mine, if I'm still in this house! :).
alone* haha not along
#6 gold foil paper in that mono chromatic kitchen is stunning.
I'm with ricestein.
I agree about using it sparingly. Otherwise, looks like one of those powder rooms from the 70s.
I've seen no 6 on other aptmt therapy posts and am always thrown by how beautiful it is. However it appears that paper is in a living room adjacent to the kitchen and not actually in the kitchen? A wonderful complement from the angle, but not exactly kitchen wallpaper?
"... but I also acknowledge that whatever I put up will be the bane of someone else's existence 10+ years from now (possibly mine, if I'm still in this house!"
I have friends who are going through this exact scenario with the previous occupant's dubious choices in the '70s and '80s.
I'm sorry, but I just spent a MONTH stripping the wallpaper from the nooks and crannies of my kitchen, and I can safely say that wall-paper in the kitchen is the worst idea EVER!
Our landlord papered the kitchen right before we moved in. A year and a half later, the humidity in the kitchen (you know, from boiling things, spilling, dish washing, etc.) had made the paper pucker, bubble, and peel off the walls. It was a nightmare!
Maybe this is something you can do if you use your kitchen sparingly, or if it's more like a show-kitchen, but if you cook a lot, and if your kitchen is the workhorse of the house, wallpaper is a terrible idea.
I loathe wallpaper in practice. In pictures it can be nice. IRL, not so much.
If you choose to go that route, make sure the glue for the wallpaper is rated for high humidity. The same goes for bathrooms.
I personally think that wallpapers on a kitchen can help to make it more cozy. Here are some more ideas showing that.
Except for #6.... these aren't attractive at all. My mom was a wallpaper person and she ended up stripping it off after a few years (dining room, living room, hallways, bedroom, kitchen) later because it dated so quickly and the kitchen and dining room paper was a mess.