Ideas for above kitchen cabinets

Winchester

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I have space above our kitchen cabinets and am trying to come with ideas for something to display there. The corner cabinets go to the ceiling and the cabinets above the fridge go to the ceiling. But along the wall from corner cabinet to corner cabinet, there's probably a little over a foot of height for something. On another wall, I have the same space, just not as long. That area has our vintage Snoopy cookie jar; he has always lived above our cabinets, even in the old kitchen. So when we did the kitchen over, Snoopy had to resume his position. He stands guard over the kitchen and has done so since we got him way back in 1971.

It's easy at Christmas as I have certain decorations for the holidays that we put up there now. I collect Santas and will put them up there.

We have lights above the cabinets and we can change the lights around for different colors if we choose. We put a set of old big Christmas bells up there for Christmas; each bell has a different light. It rather reminds me of the northern lights in a way and I've decided to keep the lights there for now; you can't see the bells, but you can see the lights reflected on the wall and the ceiling. But we can always put strands of Christmas-type lights up there to go with holidays: red for Valentine's Day, green for St. Patrick's Day, purple for Easter, etc. I don't know that I really want to do that, though.
  • I thought about vintage cookie jars (that would fit because I'm always baking cookies), but I'm not sure which ones I'd like. I could check around eBay and see what they have. And check around the antique stores. 
  • I thought about large vintage mixing bowls, too (that would fit me, too, but I'd want to use them and it would be a hassle to be constantly getting up to pull a bowl down to use and then put it away again).
  • I thought about collecting vintage rolling pins, but they're a little difficult to display up there (I have found display forms just for displaying rolling pins, though). I do love old rolling pins. (And, to be honest, I think I may start collecting rolling pins anyway and displaying them on the wall around my spice cabinets. When we were visiting some antique stores on Saturday, I found some old rolling pins that I would love to have in the kitchen.)
  • I love collecting old cookie cutters. I have all of Grandma's old metal cookie cutters and I'll put them in a basket on the hutch sometimes, just to display them. Kind of hard to put cookie cutters up there, though 
I don't want to buy something, just for the sake of buying something. I want it to be something that says, "Oh Pam, you need me!" Know what I mean? Something that speaks to me. And whatever it is has to be a certain size. Too small and you won't see it. Too large and it may be too tall for the area.

No plants or garland-type stuff, real or fake. I do love plants and I can think of some plants that would do beautifully up there because of the light from the sun tunnels, but the cats would eat them for lunch. And Mollipop does sleep up there from time to time. We had garland up there for Christmas and she jumped up and chewed the stuff.

Nothing real heavy. I'm serious. I had stored cookbooks on top of one of the cabinets and the weight from the books actually started to pull the cabinet away from the wall. Rick had to reinforce the cabinet to the wall and he had a difficult time doing it so it looked OK. That was in the old kitchen.

Any ideas? 

Thanks!
 

andrya

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l have a collection of tins above mine. Some of them are vintage but not all, they're just pretty.

l have an English pillar box (mail box) tin, a couple of old coffee tins, both with hasps. There are a couple with winter scenes, one cottage, one like a toybox, one is an old double decker bus.

l like them up there, but one of them is flat and round so l display it on its side, and of course that goes really well when the cats get up there.
 

blueyedgirl5946

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No ideas here. My cabinets to to the ceiling all the way around because I didn't want to dust up there. But if you collect anything, it would be a good place. How about vintage colored bottles. You can find them in junk stores sometimes. I have seen the vinegar jugs, condiment jars, etc.
 

betsygee

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How about vintage tea plates and/or cups?  The plates could be put on stands so you'd see them.  We actually have some that we were given as gifts but no place to show them (and it's not really my "thing" anyway).
 

margecat

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How about some attractive storage boxes or baskets, and store stuff in them?
 

happybird

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My mother has some baskets with fake, but very realistic looking, greenery in it. Ivy and leafy things. She spreads the ivy out between the baskets, as well, so it looks like it is growing and trailing across the tops of the cabinets. Mixed in are some ceramic pots, copper pots, and other random items of interest. It looks very nice. Some of the smaller items are set up on blocks of wood or small cardboard boxes to properly elevate them to a visible height. The top of the cabinets hide the prop boxes. She gets most of her baskets at Pier One. They have a large variety at really low prices (or at least they used to, I haven't been there in a few years).
 
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MoochNNoodles

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I'd keep browsing the antique stores till you find something that "speaks" to you!  I found an old iron to use as a doorstop for our old house in one.  I love that thing!  I somewhat regret not getting this antique cast iron toy stove too.  They even had the pots and pans with it still!  It was only about a foot high or so.  My old co-worker had hers from her childhood made into a lamp.  Pretty cool either way!!  I'd also like an antique camera.  But that's up so high I don't think I'd want those things there. 

I like the idea of keeping some kind of accent lighting there.  I do lights and a garland at Christmas; it's a very nice effect! They do make rope style lights too that would be nice to light it; but remain unseen. 

Right now I still have some Christmas things up technically; they are snowmen and some bears.  Some are tins but most are porcelain.  I got most at the dollar store actually!  I used to decorate my desk and shelving at one of my jobs for just about every holiday.  DH brought that box down with the other Christmas stuff this year so I decided to put it to use. 

Other than that I have some fancy bottles with peppers and things in them; a basket with some glass veggies (also from the dollar store; but very cool!  The basket was mine long before the veggies.), a few collectable hot sauce bottles, a chili pepper porcelain canister set, a bell pepper oil dispenser and a few other pepper things.  Oh and my basket I use to transport rolls and muffins and things for potlucks.  I actually cut down on how much stuff I had up there.  It was a pain to clean.  I had a chili pepper theme in our old kitchen.  I'm really ready to get rid of a lot of the stuff that is there and decorate different.  I was thinking about some wine bottles or something along those lines.  My 2 never go up there.  I had some bottles with lights in them (the blue glass ones with white lights can be really pretty!) but I took those down when we weeded out the things.
 
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Winchester

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I really like all of your ideas and I did think of some nice baskets (and love the idea of greenery with them). Knowing my furkids, though, they'd go up there and try to sleep in the baskets. And they'd try to eat the greenery, yes, even fake greenery.

I do have some very old liquor bottles from my grandmother and one of my aunts. Remember when people used to put colored water in fancy bottles and then put the bottles on window sills? My grandmother did that and my mother did, too, many years ago. Some of the old bottles that I have are gorgeous and I used to put them on the top of the hutch B.C. (Before Cats). I also have several wine bottles, shaped like cats. There's a German-type Riesling in them. The wine is not so great, but the bottles are adorable. (One of my GFs is German and when she lived in New York, we were very close; she has since moved to Texas and, while we still email at least every week, I haven't seen her in years. She's the one who gave me the cat bottles. And then my SIL found two colors on eBay that I didn't have, so she gave me those.) I think we've talked about these before......Here's an eBay link: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trk...kw=cat+shaped+wine+bottles&_sacat=0&_from=R40

The thing with bottles, though, is that many of them are too tall for that area. They won't fit.

People have given me some really pretty tins and I have them here in my office at work....they've got cats on them and my office is decorated in "cat". 


My sister has collected tea cups and saucers for years, while I've collected bells.....Mom started those collections for us and we each continued the flow. My sister puts her empty wine bottles above her kitchen cabinets once all her snowmen are taken down.

I'll keep looking. Somewhere there's something out there. Meanwhile, I am considering rolling pins for the kitchen wall around the spice cabinets. I do love rolling pins.
 
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blueyedgirl5946

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If you decide to go with some bottles, you might try looking at some of the old flea markets, junk stores. When you get it all fixed we want pictures. :clap:
 

MoochNNoodles

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I have 2 of those cat bottles!  A black and a white one.  My friend said she had one and she liked the wine.  My Mom gave me the bottles empty.  I like the green ones!!  I've got them in a wall hanging cabinet my Grandpa gave me.  I think they are too tall for above my cabinets too.  One of the oil/pepper bottles I have barely fits.  One is down on the counter because it's too tall. 
 
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