Three Reasons We Chose Open Kitchen Shelving
My open kitchen shelving brought out some opinions on Facebook on Monday. Open shelving is one of those design choices that is controversial. Some people love the idea of seeing everything they need right in front of them, and others want to close the door (and the mess) behind it. Today, I’m sharing the three reasons we chose to incorporate open shelves in our kitchen.
1. To Give the Appearance of a Bigger Kitchen
Our small kitchen was, once upon a time, even smaller. At just 8×10, two people couldn’t even stand in there at the same time without causing confusion.
Initially, the idea to take the doors off our cabinets to create “open shelving” was borne of the idea that it might make our very tiny kitchen feel much bigger. The cabinets were in great shape, and taking them down to create open shelving seemed to make poor financial sense. Removing the doors gave us the look we wanted for absolutely nothing!
And we loved the results! Eliminating the boxy (and very visually unattractive) original pine cabinet doors made the room feel much larger.
Since that initial decision, we added in a dishwasher to the kitchen and pushed out the protruding piece of cabinet to gain a few more feet. Even though we held onto the doors in case we ever decided to put them back on, I truly can’t ever see us doing that. Our small kitchen is still small, but the openness up top removes that feeling of being completely boxed into the space.
2. To Create More Space to Display Vintage Pretties
My husband and I both love old stuff. And we love collecting old stuff.
But there are limits to what we can store in our 1300-ish square foot house.
We realized if we opened up our kitchen cabinets, we could display more of the things we love and collect that relate to kitchen life.
We’ve got handmade pottery, vintage dishware, glassware, and bowls, and old cookbooks displayed on our shelves right now. It brings us such joy to see the things we’ve collected. And best of all, both of us, most likely, can tell you where we were when we found our treasures.
These are the things that make our home, and especially our kitchen, so unique!
3. Because We Wanted To
I don’t feel like I can overstate this enough: Your home is your home. You should feel free to decorate in a way that sparks joy! In the end, we pulled off those cabinet doors because we wanted to. Because it was a risk-free way to give something new a try.
And here we are four years later still loving all of the effects of opening up our cabinets. It was a risk borne of curiosity, and it paid off.
That’s not to say we haven’t undertaken other risks with disastrous results, like the time I made us completely rearrange my studio only to cry because I hated it so much …. and promptly change it back. But that’s a story for another day.
That’s the beauty of home. It’s the place we’re most free to let our creativity and personal style run wild.
Creating a home is an intensely personal experience. I initially started this blog to document the decisions we made in renovating and decorating our little cottage. It may not always resonate with everyone, but at a minimum, I hope it inspires you to do what brings you joy in your own home.
We sure love what we’ve created here.
