We recently got round to adding our open shelves in the kitchen (#lockdownlife) and it's made such a difference! If you are considering them it's definitely worth giving them a try. Here's what they look like, yes there is a half dead fern in the sink this has also turned into something of a plant rehab centre.
When designing the kitchen we originally planned to put just one upper cabinet to the left of the window but when we saw it mocked up it just looked a bit odd out there on its own with all the other upper cabinets on the other side of the room. We also realised that we already have plenty of cabinet space plus the whole utility room so we decided that we didn't really need the cabinet space enough to justify not really liking the look of it. It's totally a personal preference, I know some people will think this looks too open and cluttered and would prefer it all cabinets but in person it's a nice light corner of an otherwise clean and modern kitchen. It's also a deceptive space and it's quite spacious, on paper I thought this would be basically a corner with the sink and dishwasher and that would be about it but it's actually a decent area of worktop and has 4 full size base cabinets underneath. The sink is massive so it's not a narrow area and with the window too it also feels quite open and not too busy with the shelves. It's basically the amount of kitchen space we had at all in our previous rented flat so having aaallllll these cabinets on the other side of the room too it felt like practically acres of kitchen to us and we didn't think we would miss one less cabinet!
Also it's down to your space, any cabinets to the right of the window would have to have been so shallow as to be basically useless so open shelves made more sense practically for us as well as aesthetically.
We decided to leave that wall empty during the kitchen refit and potentially add some shelving, hooks, or other storage around the sink in a few months time. Well 16 months later we finally got around to it 🤣
We thought open shelving on the longer space to the right of the sink and then some corner shelves, also potentially adding in some hooks for cloths and tea towels and some artwork to the left of the sink, would make use of the space without it seeming too crowded by cabinets as well as giving us a nice space for more decorative kitchen items.
These were all from B&Q about a year ago (they've been in the utility a long time until we got round to it). I went for the oak shelves and white brackets to go with the cabinets and worktops. I'm really pleased with the white wooden brackets they look rustic but clean which is the kind of feel of rest of the kitchen. They will also hold quite heavy items, I wasn't sure what we would keep on here when buying them and it still might be more heavy storage jars of things like pasta, oats, flour etc rather than what is there now. Picture a row of the glass food storage containers on the middle shelf filled with dried goods and flour and refills, with tea and coffee and cups on the bottom shelf and decorative things on the top shelf, lovely! I looked at some really pretty rose gold or other metal ones but with our more traditional looking white and wood kitchen with chrome door handles it just didn't look right, maybe for the bathroom or somewhere else.
The longer shelves will be used for a mix of functional and decorative space, they have jars of flour, muesli, tea, and coffee, as well as space for plants, flowers, artwork, decorative serving platters etc. Eventually I will get a nice kettle over here instead of the fruit bowl and have some of our more frequently used mugs out on the shelves by the tea and coffee. We just have an issue with the plug here not actually working which puts a cramp in that plan and the kettle is on the other worktop at the moment.
The good thing about open shelving too is that it's easily customisable to your space. We placed these so the first shelves are hung at the same height as the bottom of the cabinets and spaced far enough apart to fit one of my largest storage jars. This means the top shelf isn't too high for me to reach but they are centred nicely on the wall and they finish roughly the same height as the cabinets (not exactly, they are a bit lower, but near enough that it looks symmetrical to the naked eye with the cabinets on the other side).
I'll likely put out different things on here, some nice festive things at Christmas and some seasonal flowers and things will be nice. I also want to set up my nice tea and coffee station over here and set out a few mugs on the shelves, we can then rotate the cups and mugs for different ones to change things up.
We have a few more reno jobs to do like sort out that plug issue, add a window sill, touch up the paintwork (or repaint the whole room as the paint we used isn't great to be honest you can see in some of these photos it's already chipped, peeled or still streaky after 3 coats), get someone in to do the door surrounds and the top of the door out to the utility, and add some plastic trim along the bottom of the patio door. After that all I'm thinking is some artwork under the clock (the San Francisco print on the top of the corner shelves once it gets a frame along with some other things I have my eye on) and a few hooks on the wall to the left of the sink for towels and cloths then this room will be done!!!
The table is missing because it was moonlighting as my office desk while I'm working from home, but it will be back in here soon! I'll leave you with the real before and after shots just for the fun of it
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