Open kitchen shelves

[TickledOnion]

Does anyone have open shelves in their kitchen? What do you keep on them? Are they all artfully arranged like on Pinterest or are they more functional? I need more storage but have a section of wall that is too shallow for a cupboard. Is it worth getting shelves or do they just look messy?

We have some and keep our dinner service/mugs on them. It all matches though so looks nice and tidy. It's actually really practical as well as it's the things that we use most which are most accessible. I think the random collection of different stuff is quite hard to pull off in real life!

I love this idea and am keen to hear real life experiences. My fear is that we will end up with grotty jars as we live in an old dusty house, but if I did as blueberry says and put stuff up there I used all the time it may not be such an issue.

We have just got them and I love them!

I have tea / coffee / sugar on one. On the other I’ve a huge jar of flour, and smaller ones of dried fruit, caster sugar, vanilla pods, nuts etc. for baking. They look great, and make it so handy to do a quick bake.

I do, but not on purpose (a few doors fell off, private rental and LL not replaced them) Over time a greasy film has appeared on things that aren't in very regular use, but they are near-ish the cooker the extractor fan doesn't work either and dust gathers too. I always thought my dream kitchen would be completely open shelved but this has put me off.

I've had them in the past but agree with @housinghelp101 that over time, things on them get dusty and slightly greasy. We replaced ours with cupboards when we redid our kitchen.

We have cupboards either side of the oven and shelves everywhere else (to avoid the grease problem although it doesn't really work)

Mine start off artfully curated and then become a dumping ground for all the crap that doesnt have a home. Empty water bottles and milk bottle caps dont add to the Pintrest vibe!

And the dust!

I have them, no greasy build up, I just rub them down every few months. Bits in regular use get wiped as and when I use things off them, just with my hand, lol

The thing is to use them only for things you use regularly, don't leave things to sit on them for months on end.

I had them in a flat and it was purely for everyday ware. This worked well.
Dust magnet otherwise.

Plates, cups, mugs, glasses, serving dishes. All things I use daily. I wouldn’t be without mine!

I don't like them, they're grease and dust traps in my mind and I am far too lazy to go to the effort of rewashing crockery or wiping them down.

Saying that, Mr Noodle's parents have a lovely open shelf in their cabinets for cook books.

I have 3 bits of open shelves.

• just big enough for small plates, bowls & dinner plates (makes them easy to access and to put away)
• same size as above with random stuff, medicines, measuring jugs, grater, pot of coins
• then a long stretch, maybe 1m for cookery books, mugs, electronic scales, cake tin, mug of pens

However they are all as deep as the wall cupboards.

I have them in my rental. I think they’re lovely, but they’re slightly deeper than standard shelves yet narrower than kitchen cupboards. I have my (coordinated!) crockery, our eclectic mug collection and my serving dishes etc.

I use most of that regularly so it doesn’t get dusty or greasy.

I had some lovely Ikea open shelves but left them when I sold the house obviously. In this house, there was already a fitted kitchen but I've added a lovely floating shelve that I put Susie Watson pottery one. If I put in a new kitchen I'd have a lot more and use them for crockery and glassware, happy to wash everything down regularly.

This is my lovely floating shelf.

I once stayed in a cottage where they had a very shallow cupboard, just enough depth for a row of big cup or glasses. It worked really well and didn't take up much space, I'm sure a joiner could easily do this.

Interested in open shelving too hence trying to revive this post! considering using scaffolding boards for the shelves. Any one has them? Are they deep enough for bigger plates etc?

If the items that are used daily, it might be ok. Otherwise, I completely agree that they end of a dumping ground of greasy, dusty items!!! I've had this and it was a lesser used shelf and everything was always filthy, dusty & greasy as used so infrequently!!!

Sorry, only just noticed this was a really old post that Following felt needed reviving!!!

Sorry, will create a new post...