Saturday, November 17, 2012

open shelving vs. traditional kitchen cabinets

I dislike overhead cabinets very much. So I enlisted Jay's help today to remove some very crooked and claustrophobic cabinets above our counter and stove and replace them with some old IKEA shelves we had dragged out here with us from our previous house.

And I present you with yet another before and after.


Not exactly tidy right now but definitely more open feeling. And less crooked. I might even be able to sneak a pretty lamp up on that top shelf because we have a handy outlet right there and some well-placed holes in the shelves from their previous installation.

What say you?

"Blargh, you made things more cluttered!" or "Yay, I'm a freak and love open shelving like you!"

7 comments:

  1. Mark likes cabinets, but I'm a fan of open shelving. Scary problems (like mouse nests or ten year old cans) are far less prone to crop up if you can attend to your wares with a glance every day. Looks great!

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    1. Exactly! I like being able to see everything -- stirs my culinary creativity. If only IKEA weren't so far away... ;)

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  2. I think it's great. There's much more air in the room this way.

    I dislike standard cabinets, in general, not just overhead ones (though those are the worst). When we renovate the kitchen I'm totally converting open bookshelves and antique style buffets/dressers into food and cleaning supply storage

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    1. That's a really good idea! You might like this link that I pinned a while back (modern instead of antique style, but same idea of making the kitchen look like furniture instead of cabinets): http://pinterest.com/pin/115052965450332436/

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  3. Go, Sar! You know how I dislike overhead cabinetry! Ma

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  4. We have a small kitchen, and I was interested in how to make it feel open. I loved the photos of open shelves, but I realized 2 things. First, it looks like you get much less actual storage space, and second, I will NEVER have the matchy matchy stuff to make open shelves look nice. Nor do I have the discipline or organizational ability to keep it up. I need to be able to put my mess behind closed doors. So I knew that wouldn't work for me. But clearly you have an organizational gift and an eye for style, so I'm sure you can pull it off :). Looks great in the photo. Also looks cleaner without all the cupboard contents on the counter ;)

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    1. Actually, the open shelves provide only about 11" less linear space, and I feel that I'm able to utilize the space better because there are no dividers like with traditional cabinets. I don't really have matchy matchy stuff either, but I do try to put out the "prettier" kitchen stuff and keep the uglier items elsewhere. ;)

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