Seeing the whole space helps. If it gets painted over (and considering a lighter color for the entire area is a good idea) you will probably feel it’s weird for a few days, but the rest of the wall height around the room is plain so it will be like everywhere else. Yes, odd to you - for about 4 days.
I think the suggestion from @Mellisa R is a good one. A new color (a soft white) will make the whole area feel larger and brighter.

If you want to preserve the mural you might try a coat of polyurethane to stabilize it. If you want to remove it I would suggest scraping off the loose paint and repairing any damage with spackling before repainting it. Would love to see the soffits removed but if that doesn't happen would suggest painting the soffit and the area above the cabinets the same color as the walls to sort of neutralize the odd space. Someone else suggest a large piece of artwork. That makes sense to me. It would essentially be the same concept as what you have now but you would be able to select the artwork yourself instead of being stuck with the previous owner's selection. Good luck!

I would remove the faux flowers and greenery. If there is an art school in your area, maybe a student or teacher would be interested in helping you preserve the mural, or could give you a tip on doing it yourself. Enjoy it.

Thank you for posting more photos! You have a wonderful large kitchen and I think so many others have posted great ideas for you. If you want to visualize the space without the mural, get a big ladder and hang some white sheets up for a few days. It will appear stark to you after a few decades with the mural. Just give it time to settle into your brain before making a decision. And post updates when you decide what to do!

This is the area with everything taken down. In reality it wasn’t much, the mural made it look like more. And my Christmas garland I forgot to take down.

When we bought our house 18yrs ago the kitchen was a mess. Heavy beige laminate cabinets, black mirror backsplash super modern lighting. And a mural on EVERY wall.

We repainted walls, replaced cabinets and backsplash but never knew what to do with the space above the cabinets, but we knew it was always only a can of Kilz away if we hated it. Life took over and it’s 18yrs later. We like it but we never LOVED it. But we also knew the former owner painted it and he sold the house because he was dying of cancer(he has since passed) I do think it’s time to paint over it and frame a few pictures for posterity. Would you not put anything at all up there though? Part of the reason we had stuff was the fluorescent up lights. We can’t take them down the kitchen would be really dark at night without them. And we are open to ideas but have no idea and don’t want to see them from a distance.

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The surrounding walls and soffit are currently all the same color. It’s called toasted almond but it’s really just beige

A white object near the paint for visual

It may seem shockingly empty when removed, but as you get used to the change, I’m sure you will start to appreciate the feeling of it being more open and fresh. Since you will be painting anyway, I’d freshen up the whole kitchen with a bit ligher color.

This is not a criticism, but a suggestion for a future reader with a similar kitchen. A lot of these built in Florida in the 80s and early 90! What I would have done 18 years ago when I updated that kitchen, was remove that soffit/shelf, paint over the mural and added stacked upper cabinets to use up some of that ceiling height.

I’m not sure how much lighter to go? Unless you mean white walls. We like the cabinet color so we won’t paint those.
Oh and the kitchen seems dark now,but we are in Florida and it gets PLENTY sun, and is normally very bright. It’s been raining here so not a good representation.

I do like the banding in this picture, maybe painting the soffit a darker tone and the mural area a darker to visually bring the eye down?🤷🏻‍♀️ I like the gold tone someone showed above. I would love to know the tool they used , if I try to edit the photo not realistic

I am glad to have found this thread. We have a similar situation, but without the art. I agree with those above who suggest leaving the space empty.

I'm another vote for starting by removing all the stuff, then painting over the mural with the existing wall color and stopping for six months. At that point evaluate if the whole kitchen needs a new color (I don't think so) or adding accent colors (also a no from me though sometimes it works)

Hi Jeanette Sorresso,

Wow!

Before I put in my vote I just want to make sure...

It's LED light above the cabinets and fluorescent bulbs everywhere else? (counter lighting in particular)

And then in addition there is a lot of natural sunlight? But it gets very dark at night?

And the recessed ceiling lights, what kind of bulbs are in those?

Can you share with us some inspiration pics or what you personally like style-wise?

The cabinets are beautiful. They will stand out more once the mural is no longer getting the attention.

Please post an update when you are ready.

To chispa…I hear what you are saying but the we have 20’ ceilings at some points in the kitchen and at the time we purchased we hadn’t thought of remodeling, but came across some issues that caused us to have to. We ended up spending way more walking in the door than we had budgeted. The cabinets were already oversized and custom and cost a fortune, taking out the soffit wasn’t something we could add on. Plus then we still would have had a BIG blank wall to look at and I already have those throughout our dining and family room.

@ Janie Gibbs —-on the soffit there are about 6 fluorescent light fixtures that up light the mural. Under the cabinets are smaller fluorescents. We have 4 pendant lights with LED bulbs, one table light LED bulbs, 5 eyeball lights LED bulbs. A large skylight and oversized sliders all in kitchen area.

These were take today and it’s been raining

If you feel like you need more light without the uplights, you can change your florescent under cabinet lighting to led, and add extra recessed lights to the ceiling. But paint first and then reassess. Maybe the uplights will look okay on the bare wall.

We will need more light if we took out the up lights on the soffit, no doubt about it. We had fluorescent ballast in an office changed to LED ballasts so we may do that. Question is what is out there to give a similar effect without too much damage. What I dislike about the current is from further away you can see the bulbs. There is no cover, just ballast and bulb. Is there something more cosmetically pleasing? Obviously these are from 1989

We are replacing them with something since some don’t work and it’s not a bad bulb. But with what?

I thought both are worth a thought....the caption under the photo from The Spruce said to use tall objects.

This is my favorite: Wallpaper

It would mean you would have to cover over your existing back splash tile (washable wallpaper), but then you get a pretty realistic look of a brick wall behind the cabinets.

HouseBeautiful loves wallpaper in the kitchen, nuff said:

https://www.housebeautiful.com/uk/decorate/kitchen/a22089068/wallpaper-kitchen-benefits/

Love that! Thanks! ❤️

Maybe we should blow up the photos of the mural frame them and put them back up there like in the 2nd picture 😂

I think it distracts from your kitchen. Leave it bare. Replace up lights with LED 2700k if possible.

Jeanette Sorresso,

I'm genuinely at a loss

It's. So. Big!

Take one step at a time. The mural is not in good shape. Getting it painted over is the first step. The walls will be fixed so that can happen.
If you think you want a reproduction of it made, take good photos. Then reassess. The last thing you should do is put a bunch of dust collectors up there. You may enjoy the open feel of the space after it’s painted.

Hi there! I will add a suggestion that I don’t think has been mentioned in the comments yet (forgive me if I’m wrong)! Do paint over the mural if you are ready to let it go (I work on murals so I know this is a difficult decision). Then, consider adding a large scale plaque, wall sculpture, or woven piece to add texture and interest to the space. I think a piece close in color to your new paint would look very nice, or contrast with an iron piece. Pottery Barn and Ballard Designs have some large scale pieces that would look fabulous above your cabinets, if they are to your taste. These would not be difficult to maintain. I hope you let us know what you decide!

Thanks, I believe we have come to the conclusion it will probably be too costly and time consuming to “fix” the mural.

We will repair the wall and repaint. Not sure what color yet or just repaint the entire kitchen since the old paint probably won’t match. Unfortunately my dining room and great room are all attached so it would have to be all.(continuous walls). Then replace the up lights with something not fluorescent but will give enough light. Then despite the above comments, I will probably be doing what you suggested and get a few MONSTER pieces (since everything dwarfs up there) and put something there. Don’t worry all it won’t be fake flowers😂

@Hallett&co.

Do you consult? I have another issue I would be interested to get an opinion on!

I was going to post the same photo that judianna20 shared, with the paintings propped on top of the cabinets. If you paint it the same color as the current soffit and then mix in pictures of different heights and orientations, you'll be able to fill the space. Plus you can change them out depending on what colors you're currently into!

If you want to remember the mural, consider taking a picture and having it printed on canvas (probably smaller scale), and then you can prop it up there too!

The mural is interesting. It's kind of a mixed bag of things. Some of it looks like a Greecian villa, then the island looks Rufus Porter style....Do you know anything about it? Seriously, it took a lot of work...what if you took all the shelf decor down and painted the walls and shelf above a different color?....just thinking..

Would you take a photo of the entire kitchen? Wood loves green and there is a lot of green in the mural. I'm getting attached to it.

If you read my post above, the mural was painted by the former owner. He was an Italian furniture maker from NJ who retired to Florida. The house is a custom build from 1989. The furniture he made was HEAVY laminate, think church pews (he made those too for our local church). He also painted mostly religious, he painted a bunch for our local church too. When we bought the house 18yrs ago, the kitchen cabinets were all a Euro style beige with a black mirror backsplash. VERY modern style accessories etc. The mural itself went around the entire kitchen, palm trees up the chimney, birds and butterflies everywhere, even in the plant nitch.

We redid everything at the time and painted over the majority of the mural, but were never quite sure what to do with the giant space above the cabinets. So we left it. Now it is chipping and falling off in spots. We needed to fix some broken lights up there so we thought it was time to decide what to do with the mural.

This is the kitchen as of 5min ago, we have removed the majority of the stuff from the ledge for the electrician. The furthest shot includes how it flows into my family room. We do not have a formal living room

We have an olive color in the hall off the kitchen if you look close

Jeanette Sorresso,

What is your opinion of removing this part of the "ledge" and making the entire area less "framed" or "less boxy" looking

Creating a horizontal line instead? In addition to removing the mural and updating your lights of course.

Thanks but this money pit has already cost me a fortune I think I’m only opting for paint. If we ever move the new owner can have the ability to do what they want then

It will be a pity to see it go, makes the house unique once it’s gone it will just look average, but I don’t have the knowledge or the patience to fix it. So it is what it is. I was really looking for advice once it’s gone as to what to put up there, without the mural it will be boring 🤷🏻‍♀️

Here is an idea. Since the mural is already aging just embrace that. Get some brownish transparent wash and deliberately make it look even more aged. Wipe the transparent varnish over the mural and the places where it is flaking off will pick up more pigment than the undamaged areas. Leave extra around the edges and the top to look realistic. It will look like an old renaissance painting.
This is not expensive to do and if you end up not liking it just paint over it.

Like this.

The mural was unique for sure, but so dated that your house will look instantly better with just the painted walls that match your other walls.

put NOTHING up there. That's what everyone has been saying. Yes, it's going to look strange to you...at first but honestly, things on top of cupboards is really dated.

Thanks Charles that’s a really interesting suggestion.

And from what I seen in every magazine, things on top of cabinets isn’t dated. But everyone is entitled to their opinion

Morning JS, Most decorators today say the biggest challenge they have is giving a home character. That mural gives your home real original character. I wouldn’t quickly eliminate that.

Thank you Charles, it’s probably why it’s taken 18yrs to decide what to do with it! Lol

FYI. YouTube has all kinds of videos on how to faux paint a wall for an aged look. Not to difficult to do and they have lots of tips, too.

I’ll check it out! And thanks everyone for your suggestions, once we finally figure something out I’ll post something!

Thanks for sharing your unique house (and dilemma) with us.