Design inspiration please!

Ok fellow bloggers and lurkers... please turn your creativity in this direction! We need some ideas in decorating our kitchen! Our kitchen is painted green (yes green)... Behr's "Asparagus" to be exact. A great little aloe plant given to us by Brandon and PJ is our design inspiration...

The walls are actually very close to the green in the aloe plant (despite the way the walls photograph), and we loved the contrast of the green with the black and the white in the pot, so we would like to incorporate black and white in the decorative elements.

Issue #1:: The big wall at the back of the kitchen.

Please ignore the light fixture... that will be switched out soon. But the wall... what do we do with it? I have no idea! I'm not really into shelving... the thought of shelves in the kitchen kind of bugs me because of all the dusting that would inevitably need to be done. I'm not sure if we should go in the route of traditional kitchen-y artwork... and if so, what would be best? Any ideas?

Issue #2:: The large (beautiful) windows....

These are adjacent to the wall that needs decorative elements. I'm not sure what kind of window coverings to go with. Cafe style curtains that cover the bottom half of the window? Full length curtains? And then, what color? Ryan is quite partial to the damask pattern on the flower pot, and the only other pattern that I'm a bit open to to coordinate with the damask is stripes (which continues into our living room, which is connected to the kitchen). So, solid or patterned curtains? No curtains at all, and blinds instead? I'd prefer not to completely cover the windows with something that blocks out the light because I do love the natural light that comes through said windows, plus it is going to eventually have an even better view once the patio is put in. Ugh.... I'm going bonkers with this.

Ideas???