Open Shelving in Our Kitchen

 

One thing I initially loved about our kitchen was the pretty cabinets.  But, I’ve been thinking of ways to give our kitchen a little update without spending much money—and without a big commitment (i.e., any permanent changes like painting, ripping things down, etc.)  I’ve always admired the look of open shelving in kitchens, but have never thought they were for me. 

Then, one day while the babies were sleeping and everyone was occupied, I got a wild hair and decided to take a couple of cabinet doors down and “play.”  (This seemed like more fun than laundry at the time.)  This is how it turned out:

 

 

 

 

Here’s where we started.  Nice cabinets, but a lot of them.  (And, a little peek of our new island light—I’ll show you later.)

 

 

 

 

The easy part was grabbing a screwdriver and taking the doors off. 

 

 

 

 

The hard part was dealing with all of the stuff that had accumulated behind those doors:

 

 

 

 

I pulled everything out, threw several things away and put anything that wasn’t white, glass or pretty in other cabinets or drawers.  Since this cabinet is within an arm’s reach of the dishwasher and sink, I also wanted these shelves to house what we really use most:

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, I didn’t get completely done with my little project before my husband walked in from work and had this reaction:

 

 

 

He knows better than to worry.  It always works out—and if it doesn’t, I know how to use the screwdriver to reattach the doors.  (I’m living with this look for a while first before doing this.)

 

You can see in the picture above that I was experimenting with a sample of grass cloth wallpaper that I thought about using for the backs.  But, it just didn’t have enough contrast against my cabinets.  So, I went with my tried and true charcoal, Urbane Bronze by Sherwin Williams (same that we used on the back of our office bookshelves). 

 

 

 

 

Painting the back of the cabinets gave it a more finished look and I love how the white pops against it:

 

 

 

 

Overall, I like the change.  My husband says that it’s unfortunate he’ll no longer be able to unload the dishwasher because he won’t be able to figure out where everything “goes” now. . . .

 

 

I’m actually surprised at how well this change is functioning in our kitchen. 

 

Do you have open shelving in your kitchen?  Would you?