When it comes to kitchen home décor, there is something for everyone. But yes, everything is not meant for everyone. Take, for example, open and floating shelves. Open kitchen shelves have become popular for displaying beautiful dishes and accessories, keeping the daily use items within easy reach, or letting a stunning backsplash tile shine through. But, not everyone is in favor of open shelves, especially in the kitchen. Those who are against open shelves say it gets dirty fast. So, what should you choose? Here, we have come up with the best and worst qualities of open shelves, which should be considered before choosing any kitchen home décor.
Popular Kitchen Home Décor Ideas
Open shelves in the kitchen look trendy- Open shelves in the kitchen do not seem to go out of fashion anytime soon. They are one of the popular kitchen home décor ideas. Taking out the best kitchen cabinets is a popular design trend, as it makes the area feel more expansive and open. It can even add a unique style by displaying your collection of beautiful dishes. Open shelves are the best option to display chinaware in a kitchen.
Open shelves can be a mess- Do you want to keep your kitchen to be always clean? Of course, everybody wants that but with open shelves, things are going to be messy. Very few are extremely clean and these shelves require an organized approach to stacking and storing dishes. If the utensils and items do not match with each other, your open shelves will look bad. The main objective is to improve the room’s design, instead of detracting from it. Make sure you throw away the sippy cups of your kids, random teacups, and dishes with different colors and structures as these can ruin your kitchen home décor.
With open shelves, you can save a lot of money- Fewer materials and simple installation make open shelves or floating shelves an affordable option for storing things if you want to give your kitchen a new look. Open shelving can save you money, compared to standard upper cabinets. If you are handy, putting open shelves can be An affordable DIY home improvement project.
House owners can save nearly $1,000 by installing shelves and by not buying cabinets from a retailer. Here, a white backsplash will help you highlight your kitchen shelves and the plain tile is generally affordable also.
With open shelves, you might have to do more dishes- When it comes to cleaning your kitchen shelves, it can be a nightmare for many. The heat coming from appliances while cooking causes dust and dirt in the air which gets stuck in the exposed surfaces, including your dishware, glasses, and actual shelves. This means you possibly will be washing your glassware, bowls, and plates much often than if you had closed kitchen cabinets for your storage.
One can go halfway with open shelves in the kitchen- There is good news for those who are confused whether they should go with open shelves for storing dishes. You can always install half-open shelves along with half cabinets. This will let you get on board with the upcoming trend of open shelves and keep the mess at bay. Put those mismatched pots, dishes, and pans in the cabinets, and feature all your special decorative kitchen items on the open shelves.
Pump up space in between your open shelves and cabinets with a shiplap or a tile backsplash. Or you can even install a bookcase nearby which will act as an extra storage space too.
Open shelves can give a cheap look to your kitchen- Installation for this kind of shelves needs sturdy anchoring and high-quality materials. You don’t want your open shelves to fall or bend, or they will give a cheap look to your kitchen. However, the main things that can make this storage area look cheap are the items that you display on the shelves. If it feels as if you have kept everything on the shelves, it gives a tacky look to your kitchen. You can use this chance to downsize and streamline your kitchen inventory as well as pantry items.
Throw away things that are broken, never used, or outdated, and purchase new dishes that match your kitchen home décor. You can even choose different shades if they are a part of a single color scheme, but make sure you group things properly or it will ruin the entire look of your kitchen.
Open shelves have less storage space- Have you ever thought what is the purpose of a kitchen? It is a place to store and make food and other items required to serve or eat food. Cabinetry is a tool used to store those items that we need on a daily purpose. As we spend a lot of time in the kitchen, of course, we want it to look attractive too, but functioning should always be a major priority!
If you consider the average cabinet that is of the size 42” tall and comes with 3 shelves which are nearly 12” deep each, you may assume that replacing the cabinet with small sizes of open or floating shelves would be an equal trade for the storage area, but unfortunately, your assumption would be mistaken.
In an enclosed cabinet, you can stack and store your dishes tightly and safely because of the sides and front acting as extra support to keep things from falling from the shelf.
A standard kitchen measuring 24” wide x 12” will have 2 square feet of storage area on each shelf. With an equal size floating shelf, to avoid items falling you will conservatively require to have the items back from every side and the front by at least 1 inch. This lessens the square footage of the storage area available on the floating shelves by at least 1/6th as compared to the cabinets.
This would be an average of losing half of the whole shelf worth of storage for every cabinet that you replace with open shelves. On a large scale, if an average kitchen has 6 upper cabinets, you would lose storage worth a whole cabinet! Most people go for kitchen remodeling to improve their storage capacity. Losing a whole cabinet’s worth of storage is the first mark against open shelves.
Open shelves get dirt fast- Remember, we said, a kitchen is a place to prepare and store food and other items required to serve or eat that food. By keeping that in mind, it seems logical that keeping the kitchen clean is very essential. To keep the bowls, plates, cups, and other items in the best condition, it is better to keep them in a closed space where they are fully protected.
Consider this: dust in our home is 70-80% dead skin cells. Opens helves expose everything on them, which means whatever is floating in the air can travel to your dishes and settle on them.
Just imagine the cooking you do, you must have noticed when the oil heats up, the oil droplets rise into the air and it ends up everywhere in the kitchen. Even if you have a chimney, grease particles are sticky and particles get attached to all the surfaces they come in contact with. That includes items kept on your open shelves too.
Shelves with doors offer an extra layer of protection for all your kitchen items. They can help in preventing grease, dust, insects, and germs from getting on your cups, plates, or bowls. When you think about it, open shelves are yet another surface that must be cleaned often, and thinking realistically, who wants to clean one more thing?
Conclusion
If you prefer open shelves, then you can have it for a wet bar, in your bedroom, to decorate your living room, and anywhere in your home, but not in your kitchen. While designing your kitchen, focus on maximizing the functional storage, cover the messes so that your kitchen looks organized.
Try these kitchen home décor ideas and let us know in our comment section how was it? Are you satisfied with the new look of your kitchen?