Kitchen with wall shelves not cupboards?

[plannit]

I've moved to a new place with a decrepit kitchen which I plan to renovate.

Victorian house, fireplace in kitchen - and stairs! So really only has the 2 walls to play with.

Anyway I'm considering removing the upper wall cupboards and just having shelves. Cheaper and whatnot but I'm unsure.

Has anyone done this or siren any amazing examples?

Thanks

@GervaseFen

That looks lovely *@SimonJT* We have glasses and cups on open shelves and it's fine. We just push the 'old' ones to the front so they all get used often enough.

Thank you, that isn’t my kitchen, but I used that photo and copied it when I had my new kitchen. So mine is virtually identical, but I have a few added cobwebs and bare brick where the wood panelling is.

I don’t find it gets overly dusty or greasy, I had it done last summer, I take everything off about once a month and give the shelves a quick wipe.

The only downside here is when the cats decides to dig out one of the plants and gets compost everywhere. Good job shes cute.

I would be concerned about stairs in a kitchen. I’m fairly sure that’s now against building regs due to the possibility of fire spreading. Of course Victorian houses are different but if the stairs don’t have a door, I’d instal a fire door so fire cannot go directly up the stairs. Assuming they are not stairs to a basement - if they are I’d still want a door.

Open shelves do get greasy if you cook. My DD has a short run of shelves in her kitchen. Not great. Cleaning once a month is a faff.

I have a couple of pull out larder cupboards for all the packets etc of food, and open shelves for crockery, glasses, mugs and so on. The things I use regularly don’t get dusty/ greasy, as they are constantly in use, and the things I only use occasionally-Champagne flutes, a couple of big bowls-do, but as they are rarely used, it’s no hassle to wash them very occasionally.

Having shelves is so much lighter/brighter than wall cupboards would be.

I had open shelves in our old, much larger kitchen. I got sick and tired of the cleaning. I have a really good extractor fan in the kitchen where we live now, and the cupboard doors still need a good clean regularly.

I was worried about layer of scum, dust etc.

I don't have excess crockery, so everything on them is used and washed every few days, but even things used more infrequently have not got sticky, and it makes the space so much lighter!

All the glamourous kitchens that have them in magazines - probably the owners have cleaners and housekeepers! If you like cleaning they can look very attractive.

Done this recently and loving it! Shelves are not near the cooker though and used for everyday plates/glasses/essentials so they either get washed periodically or a wipe whenever I take the jars down...

Plus the selves for plates are just on top of the dishwasher which makes emptying the dishwasher much easier...pic attached (hopefully)

We have both. I like to see what I have on display otherwise I forget I have it. 😃

Things do get dirty though. We do a thorough clean once a month or so and wipe down jars, crockery/jugs that are on display.

@Stayingin2020

Plus the selves for plates are just on top of the dishwasher which makes emptying the dishwasher much easier...pic attached (hopefully)

That looks untidy and cluttered to me, but I am a bit of a neat freak.

We have open shelves in small kitchen.

To get around storage we actually put those top opening ones right up against the ceiling fit all the usual crap that people put ontop of cupboards. For us that’s generally the extra unopened boxes or tins of food, and things like dehydrater that aren’t used frequently. I need to stand on stool to reach

Open shelves have things generally within other containers tbh. Like bread bin, tea caddies, butter dish, salt and pepper. Teapot lives there, glass cake dome, cookery books and odd plant.

That’s x2 shelves, 2.5m long each

I have a couple of open shelves and then a metal plate rack like this!
We keep the stuff we use all the time on the plate rack & it's on the wall over the dishwasher so easy to put things away! Much better than cupboards!

It does look nice and is more fashionable but I think it is not a trend to follow if you are a keen cook. I always think of them as show kitchens. Good design should be practical above all and as others have said, they will be grease magnets. They are either used for decorative objects that aren’t used ( clutter) or items will need a wash before use.

@Stayingin2020 you're very tidy and your accessories all fit together nicely! I would have loved a similar look but I'm just not tidy enough!
When I bought this house it had no wall cupboards and no open shelves, only two large paintings on the walls..it did look lovely but there wasn't enough storage space for our needs.

I have to say that this was part of a kitchen up cycle! We used the same cabinets etc but just changed the layout and I have left the old top cupboards in the garage in case I regret it...but so far so good 😊

Note that I am a short person who couldn't see what I had in my too cabinets hence the open shelving. Appreciate they may not be to everyone's cup of tea, I can live with a bit of clutter and I like the open look...

I like my crockery drawers. All my plates go in them separated out. So much better than shelves. The open racks are ok in some kitchens but mostly farmhouse style ones. Smart handleless ones really don’t suit open racks and you still need pan drawers.