Open shelving in kitchen - space between shelves

[Newhousecrying]

Out kitchen is very small with limited storage. There’s a 120cm section of wall and we’ve got some shelves that are 119cm length so perfect size and cheaper than getting cabinets that wouldn’t match anyway.

now need to decide distance between shelves. We have four and I wanted to use all four but worried they’ll be too short and not very useful. But I want to maximise space as we have so little storage. Haven’t properly decided what would live up there. Imagine it would be the toaster (which we would bring down when required) and food, so like a larder shelves.

the options are

1. 20cm, 29cm, 29cm, 20cm
2. 33.5cm, 33.5cm, 33.5cm

I thought the 20 would be good for mugs and teas and coffees, but not sure is 29cm as the ‘main shelves’ would be too small.

opinions welcomes :)

Are you using racking? I would use fixtures that allow you to move the shelves as it is hard to predict what you will keep there. What is the tallest item you will store?

What’s racking? The shelves above the countertop with big L brackets that we’d drill into brick so no easy to move.

I thought the shelves are 119cm. Are you talking about the height gap?

Yes, so how much to separate shelves vertically

It depends what you are keeping on them. If you want storage jars for example you would need to be certain they would fit. I think I would go for the three evenly spaced ones to allow for taller items to be stored.

I would go with option 2.

You can get some corner things that go in cupboards so you can stack more in a cupboard. May e you could get a few of those too. They mean you can stack more into a cupboard.

I've done open shelves in my kitchen.

I got the items I wanted to store eg olive oil bottles/stacks of bowls etc and measured them, then made the gaps wide enough to fit the items I wanted to store.

I don't think keeping the spacing equal matters too much if your items are all different.

I ended up with 4 shelves (2 sets either end of my kitchen) with the top shelf purely for decorative bits or things I hard ever used as it's a bit too high for me to reach with a stool.

I mean I have 8 shelves in total.

Metal strips into which you attach the brackets - with multiple holes so you can reposition the shelves as you wish.
An example here: www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Twin-Slot-Upright-White-1219mm/p/210182

Racking is probably the wrong word! Anyway, I would use this sort of thing then you can move the shelves up and down as you wish.

I would try to keep nicer looking things on the shelves personally. Things like mugs, crockery, serving bowls are good. Recipe books. Dry food if you have nice looking storage.

See what you have in this category and measure it? (Or the stack of bowls, plates)

I wouldn’t want a toaster up on the shelf as it won’t look great with the loose cable and plug hanging around. I also wouldn’t put olive oil simply because I would end up with it falling off and smashing at some point!

What about 29, 29, 20, 20?
I think it would look a bit odd switching twice.

But I echo measuring what you are likely to put up there, and adding a bit on before drilling into the wall.

Are the shelves deep enough for toasters etc?

I have done something similar, why the options for spacing?... is it something to do with the walls?

Anyway, I would take a shelf and lay it out on the counter, put all the things you use the most on that shelf (most accessible on the lower shelf), measure up the highest item, add a couple of cm of height to make it easier to put things in and out, consider changing the ways some things are stored if they are too tall... then do it for the next shelf and the next.

Consider using the space under the bottom shelf for some kind of hanging rail.
Or just consider what you could put on that space full stop.

Draw pictures. Measure everything. Taking time to plan makes a big difference.

Thanks everyone. I was trying to worK out the best way to fit all four shelves and have them be functional but the idea of getting everything out that we’d want to store on them and measuring them is good idea. We’ll do that and see what we get.

@minipie we don’t have a lot of countertop space so it can’t live on the countertops. I’m going to put it on a tray so the wire sits in the tray and when we need it, we bring the whole tray down.

@ChristmasCakeAndStilton the shelves are 30cm deep so should be enough for our toaster.

Mine look lovely, and it makes my kitchen look much larger.

I do have very carefully curated things on there (including my collection of olive oils, I'm not clumsy so they manage to survive up there)
Plus I have ADHD so it I can see it, I'll use it - so lots of pretty vintage glass jars means I actually eat the lovely food I buy, like nuts and seeds etc all look fab on the shelves.
I have all the ugly food in my pantry!

Thinking of open shelves- isn’t dusting a pain? And doesn’t it get sticky with oil, although we don’t do deep frying?

Use the slotted uprights system the OP linked to upthread.

Job done!

Yes.

I have some Spur

Some people consider them inelegant

Because of leverage, the top of the column must be above the top shelf by a foot or more, I recommend just below ceiling level, and this is the most vital and strongest screw needed. Unless the top one fails, the other screws do little more than prevent wobbling. The top shelf should be lightly loaded e.g. with boxes of cornflakes or spare toilet rolls.

If you think of an ordinary "L" bracket, compare it to a claw hammer pulling a screw or nail out of a wall. The handle of the hammer is equivalent to the horizontal arm of the "L"

We have four and I wanted to use all four
Are you limiting yourself to four? If it's just a bit of wood that you paint then you could have some extra shelves and paint all to match.

The slotted upright system looks handy. We’ve been given 4 wall shelves with brackets so I was hoping to use those to bit spend any money on an already crappy kitchen.

@senua not sure what you mean. We have four shelves. DP thinks just using 3 would work better.

not sure what you mean. We have four shelves. DP thinks just using 3 would work better.
I was saying that you could have more than four. Shelves for tinned goods, for example, would only need 12cm.
I think that you may be putting cart before horse: you have some shelves and want to know the best way to use them. As opposed to: I want the most efficient design for my very small kitchen, will these shelves (that I happen to have) help in that?

Ah that makes sense. Thanks. we definitely need to work out what’s going on the shelf first.