This Kitchen Detail Brings a Big Home Decor Trend to a Tiny, Unexpected Spot
Of all the fun decorating trends happening in the home decor world right now, colorful wall murals might be one of my favorites. With so many different ways to get creative with paint, seeing people create unique, colorful, and personal murals feels like a breath of fresh air. To that end, freelance graphic designer and all around artistic person Laura Horstmann painted a mini mural in her home, and I honestly cannot get over it — mainly because of where she put it: her kitchen backsplash.
In the recent house tour of her LA apartment, Horstmann affectionately dubbed her home the “Peach Palace,” and from the looks of the warm, creamsicle-colored shades woven throughout her decor, it’s certainly a fitting name. Like many people, redecorating her apartment became a full-time hobby during quarantine. She changed the kitchen floors, painted walls, and made custom artwork. “It felt like I got to bring all my different interests and tastes into play and would dedicate certain color palettes and themes to each room,” Horstmann says of her process. “There are a few running themes through the place though that, I think, tie it all together, mostly the color pink.”
She honed in on pinks and peaches in her kitchen in particular, painting an arch and small circle above the window and that mini mural right on her backsplash in between her cabinetry. The mini mural caught my eye because it’s a unique alternative to a traditional backsplash. While lots of people either opt for tile behind their counters or just leave the wall blank, Horstmann just went for it with paint. She even managed to work some fun, floating shelves into the composition. Is it just me, or do you see sherbet mountains and cotton candy skies in her design scheme, too?
To recreate this look, all you have to do is trace your desired shapes onto the walls in your kitchen and then fill them in with paint. Horstmann used leftover colors, but in a high-traffic area like a kitchen, it’d be a good idea to hang onto sample pots of your colors for touch-ups from time to time, since backsplashes can get messy if you cook a lot. Think about incorporating your other decor pieces and furnishings into your design scheme, too. For Horstmann, that meant sourcing pieces in unconventional places. Specifically, she recommends shopping the kid and teen sections for quirkier, more whimsical decor options. “My kitchen shelves are super cute cloud-shaped ones, and they’re literally from the kid’s section of Target,” she says.
Between choosing a mural over backsplash and going for cloud-shaped open shelving over the typical wooden or metal slabs, Horstmann’s kitchen couldn’t be further from traditional. That feels all shades of on-brand though, especially for the “Peach Palace.”