I have to have open shelving in my kitchen - what can I put on them that won't look scruffy

[LaurieFairyCake]

There isn't really room for another bank of cupboards without making the kitchen look cramped so open shelving is the way to go.

If I just throw stuff up there it will get dusty. Is it better to put stuff I use everyday up there so that it doesn't have a chance to get dusty as it will regularly go in the dishwasher?

everything I own that I use everyday is mismatched, can't afford to buy new plates/mugs/glasses - they just get replaced with the odd one when they break - this means it could look shit right?

Any ideas? It's going to be about 3 x 8 foot of narrowish shelving.

Added to which things I don't have room for in the cupboards (big roasting tins, pots/pans) won't fit on the shelves either without hanging over and looking cack

I have my crockery, it looks nice like a restaurant (used stainless steel covered shelves from Ikea). But they are all white and matching. Not much help sorry.

Couldn't you have some cupboard doors made to cover the shelving, maybe of painted plywood (cheap and nice)? They don't need to be fitted kitchen units and so wouldn't be as deep. You could paint them the same colour as the walls, and everything would be hidden.

I'd love cheap plywood doors but getting someone in to do something like that in this area would cost hundreds unfortunately, handymen charge £400 a day.

So it would be more expensive than me buying second hand cupboards from EBay and putting them up - which I'm really not confident at doing as it's a plasterboard wall and I'm not the handiest

Open shelving does look nice on kitchens but it gets dusty of course. How about putting stuff in storage jars and boxes. Use some of the open shelving from Ikea and you can buy hooks to hang stuff. Check out Pinterest there are some great ideas on there.

I've shelves on my island, I got lots of cheap glass jars from ikea and filled them with pasta, rice, cereal etc, I think it looks nice. Does get dusty though.

What about pull down/roll down shutter doors? I think ikea used to do some, I don't know if they still do.

Crockery, cups, bowls, serving dishes , ceramic bakeware , jars.

I had them in my last quite fancy granite clad kitchen and loved them. So practical.

I miss that kitchen, actually.

You could order a narrow 8' cupboard with doors from Jali.com and assemble and install it yourselves ! There's an online design guide on their site so you can work out exactly how large you can make it and go from there !!

we have the tea plates, mugs, water glasses, glasss / wood storage jars
storage tins ect.

We have a narrow set of open shelves which go vertically at the end of the run of cupboards. They looked awful before but my sister who has a good eye for these things arranged my cookbooks on each shelf by colour with one or two objects that match the colour eg vase teapot cake stand etc. it looks quite arty and pretty now! I put a photo on Instagram will try and link in the morning

What exactly do you need to store on the shelves?

If it is mainly your cups/glasses etc then I think the cheapest option to make it look good is to replace with plain glasses and eg white cups from IKEA so they are matching or you could go for a vintage mismatched look?
A long plate rack would work for crockery and as its stacked side-on it doesn't matter if it matches or not.

Can you create storage elsewhere, on a trolley or unit for this kind of thing (Expedit is good for kitchen stuff)? DO you have pics of your kitchen?

Jane Cumberbatch has it right when it comes to a simple kitchen/open shelving (and looks like IKEA butchers trolleys used as an island).
www.pinterest.com/pin/21603273185827979/

I had open shelving in my last kitchen. I found the more random items were the nicer it looked. I am going to do the same in this house. If you have the depth just deliberately mismatch. Some crockery, some baking items etc. TKMAXX can have interesting useful kitchen items. Also, this time I am going to ask a glazing company to make sliding doors to go in between the shelves. Shelves need to be routed before they go up.

ps always check posts.......crockery was almost cockery

I'd say the stuff you use often so that it doesn't get opportunity to get too dirty. so 4 mugs, 4 glasses etc and the rest in a cupboard.