Open kitchen shelves- thoughts?

[soupdragon321]

Hi, do and I moved house recently and need to redo kitchen. We had thought long and hard and are now thinking of having open shelves on the wall where the cooker is - there are cabinets below. On the shelves would be our plates, bowls on one side and cups and tea/coffee making stuff in the other side of cooker as that side is nearest sink - we’d be getting a quooker tap. We’re just wondering what it’s really like to live with open shelves rather than just be swayed by lovely pics on Instagram. Any options/ experience would be greatly appreciated! Also, how many cups does a four person household really need?

I’ve previously had a small open kitchen. It looked lighter and brighter for having the cupboards removed. But l was shocked at the amount of dust which gathered. So, on balance, I wouldn’t do it again.

I'd love to do this but I just worry about the dust...

Yeah it’s just a magnet for dust or grease etc. Looks lovely but actually a massive pain in the arse

We don't have any wall cupboards and store all our crockery in deep pan drawers. We use shelves for things like jugs and coffee pots which get used at least weekly so don't really get dusty.

Interesting, keep the experiences coming please- we need the reality over the Insta pics!

I have an open shelf with glasses on and the ones that are least used have to be washed before use as they are so dusty. My new kitchen has doors.

My mum had them for a while and ended up putting cupboards back in because everything gathered dust and grease and it just looked messy all the time.

I have open shelves in the Utility Room, not only are they a magnet for dust but also DH's crap.

Dust and grease are my thoughts.
Never lived with them. Never will.
They can look lovely in photos.

As well as dust and grease, I just think about flies shitting on the crockery.

Also, a stylish arrangement on shelves in a staged photo is not the same as the reality of daily life in a family kitchen.

We have them and I love them. The kitchen feels and looks much nicer for them, and I don’t find them a hassle.

I had this. Do not do it. Especially if near the cooker. Everything gets covered in grease.

We pulled ours down and put cupboards up.
They look messy all the time, accumulate crap, get dusty and greasy.

We have a couple of open shelves in our kitchen and we have things that are used all the time, so not too much worry about dust. We have our mugs, teas and coffees, cereals on there. The top shelf does have things less often used and do need a clean before they are used. That said, when we redo the kitchen, we probably won't have open shelves as I am hoping to plan it so that everything has a place.

The dust would worry me too. But we have had cupboards with glass doors, with nice-looking things arranged on the shelves inside - that looks good and you don't get the dust.

Dust
Grease
Clutter
No

I love the look of them but when we had them everything got covered in dust and grease. Gopping

It doesn't have to be all or nothing. I have one small wall of open plan, it looks great and as it's nowhere near the cooker it doesn't get greasy. We have lots of cupboards where the crap goes so it doesn't get cluttered. The trick is to not overfill them and put things there which are regularly used and washed. Wipe spaces as you go which means less clearing at once.

I have glass shelves. They need cleaned constantly. Would never do it again .

I have a dresser with shelves in the kitchen.
I have to strip it down & clean the shelves every single week or it looks awful because of dust.
You could maybe get away with doing it fortnightly.
Everything on it is used pretty much daily but if you don't use something for a month it needs washing before you can use it.

You also pretty much have to stage it if you want it to look good, otherwise it looks messy the whole time.

We have a utensil rack above the cooker. It looks lovely but they get greased up really quickly and frequently have to be washed.

I wouldn't say we do much cooking to caused grease either,

I have them for crockery that I use all the time. I like them, it's easy to empty the dishwasher and no time to get dusty. Wouldn't have them near the hob though.

Have a look on the top of your cupboards to see how much gunk collects.
What about glass cupboards.

Glass cupboards give the illusion of this without the dust/grease.

Dust traps