We made ours into an accent wall, adding a high shelf and a narrow table.

For some reason, my album will not link this morning but you can view the kitchen from the link at "My Page".

Lots of people put open shelving on empty walls, but we're art freaks... My advice is a great piece of original art with a beautiful punch of colour. We're in the opposite predicament. We are going to have uppers where we currently have an open 'art' wall and we were wondering where we'd put our art. We've actually decided to have a small wall built near our entry just for that purpose.

Good luck!
sb

If you don't need additional storage, then I would do something hanging to lift the spirits! A colorful poster maybe, or a piece from a local artist of the region. Or something free like a chunk of driftwood. I will guess you might need a lower cart or cabinet for serving pieces that you use at the cabin, and then hang something you like over that.

I went on a house tour this winter and one house had a huge blackboard and a ledge with colored chalk. They had stained beadboard underneath to break up the wall. This house had several small children and I could envision them keeping busy there while mom cooked.

In a finished pole barn I would make fun of searching for a big old/antique cab.

Your pole barn getaway and plan for your kitchen sound very nice. Since the kitchen area typically grabs a lot of attention anyway, that can be a fantastic place to display art. Especially since you're not planning on focusing attention on a lot of rich cabinet and counter details, I'd give the quality and composition of the overall view AT the kitchen real priority in design. The openness and simplicity of no uppers is a great start.

How about open shelving where you can display an ever changing arrangement of local finds, framed pictures, favorite pottery.