Open a Space By Opening Your Cabinets
By Christa Terry
The Beard and I have thrown around the idea of taking off some of our kitchen cabinets to make that particular space a little more airy and cute. We’re lucky in that we have dishware that’s ready to display… and enough kitchen cabinetry to hide all the things we’d rather not have to look at day in and day out. On the other hand, we have five cats and a baby on the way. While it will be some time before the baby has any hope of getting onto kitchen counters, the cats are only one jump away from a romp through the plates and glasses. Obviously, we’re somewhat torn on whether or not to go ahead with this plan.
What better way to decide what to do with my home than a poll? Help me and The Beard decide what to do by casting your vote or commenting with your alternate ideas.
December 27th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Love, love the look (love looking at pretty dishes, and you’re right that it makes the whole kitchen look airier). But our kitchen is strangely dusty — everything left open gets a fine dust film every few weeks — so whenever I start to covet, I get hung up on the idea of having to dust everything.
December 27th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
The only people I know that have done this and enjoyed it are: 1. Minimalist 2. Absolutely anal about staging and organization 3. Clean freaks that dust daily. Notice the perfect spacing of the pots over the stove and the “random” placement of the color pottery. To open it up, try adding glass doors like the picture below. Opaque glass works as well as clear. That way one doesn’t have to be quite so organized.
http://img.hgtv.com/HGTV/2006/08/08/aug06decnews_smallkitchen_4_V_h460.jpg
December 28th, 2008 at 8:39 am
I would like to know where this photo was taken. Do you have details on these shelves? I am looking for shelves similar to these but have been unsuccessful in locating anything close. The options at the local home warehouses in my area are a far cry from this.
I am also planning to remove my upper cabinets and go with this style to open up my dark closed in kitchen.
Thanks.
December 28th, 2008 at 8:47 am
Can you provide more information about where I can find these shelves?
December 28th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Tara: My last kitchen was like that — and the worst part was that the dust was oddly sticky even though I’m pretty maniacal about keeping things clean. There was just something about the apartment itself that was…off. In my house, I don’t have the same problem, whew.
Jennie: Anal clean freaks? You’ve got me pegged. But I do have to say I like the glass door idea.
Dana: The image is just one I happened upon while browsing. I would assume that most open shelves of that sort are built and installed by either the homeowner or a contractor hired by the homeowner. Looking more closely, what I see are plain white shelves on semi-decorative brackets — looking at the Home Depot web site, I found similar decorative brackets (would need to be painted, less ornate) but a quick search nets me plenty of web sites selling shelving with decorative brackets. Hope this helps!
December 29th, 2008 at 4:17 am
I love the look of having all the pretty! colored! plates! out in the open, but honestly? I have too much pantry to do that successfully. I mean, come on: nobody wants to see bread flour and sugar staring them in the face.
A good compromise, as Jennie suggests, is glass-fronted cabinets. There’s one in the kitchen in the house I’m in now, original to the house. It’s gorgeous. All the Fiestaware I own is in there, and it’s a nice burst of color…but it doesn’t need to be dusted every damn day, and things are cat-proof.
December 29th, 2008 at 7:01 am
I’ve had open shelving with cats. They’re pretty careful about walking around things as long as no one startles them – that’s when they’ll start knocking things over. Open shelves make your dishes, etc. the decoration so it cuts down a lot on what you need to do with the rest of the space.
December 29th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
I definitely advise against the open shelving. We had it in our old apartment, and there was ALWAYS a fine film of dust and grease over everything (not to mention the odd dead fly…yuck!). So unless you relish having to wash your dishes both after AND before you use them, stick to glass-front cabinets if you want an airy feel, or at the very least, only have one or two open shelves for v. infrequently used items.
January 3rd, 2009 at 1:23 am
This is a great way of creating spacious interiors!
May 29th, 2010 at 10:49 pm
I have open shelving in my kitchen and am neither a neat freak, a minimalist, nor particularly anal about staging and organizing (although I secretly aspire to all of those things, hah, I am mostly quite the opposite). I really enjoy it, and find it pretty low-maintenance. You just stick it on the shelf. It’s kinda like the difference between slip on shoes and sneakers you have to tie every time. Plus, no cabinets constantly left open.
I have 4 levels of shelving and the top one is very high. I keep rarely-used specialty glasses on the top shelf and they do need to be washed before being used. The “secret” seems to be keeping just the stuff you really use on the open shelves, and minimizing the stuff that’s just there to look pretty. If you use it enough that it will get moved once in a while, that’s enough to keep it from getting too dusty!
In general, it’s true that kitchen dust does tend to be sticky. I dunno why but I imagine that maybe when you fry stuff the oils evaporate partly. Soaking with baking soda makes it come right off. Tough stuff that’s been left for a long time comes off if you scrub with baking soda — even the sticky grossness that gets all over oven ranges.
August 31st, 2010 at 12:21 am
What a wonderful idea! I love it!