We are seeing a growing interest from clients expressing an  interest in using Open Shelving in their new kitchens we design for them. They are sharing pictures from Pinterest.com and Houzz.com to help  stimulate our conversations together. While not for everyone, this modern take on functional kitchen shelving certainly seems to have a renewed appeal. If you’re looking to take the plunge on open shelving in your kitchen, here’s a list of pros and cons to consider before calling the kitchen cabinetry designer.

Open Kitchen Shelving Units Has its Advantages

• Gives The Impression of more Space – We have been doing more open kitchen designs for clients by removing formal dining rooms, open windows into the family room and devoting more real estate to the kitchen area for many years now. It stands to reason that by removing the top kitchen cabinets along a wall or two and replacing that space with high quality wood shelving offers the perception that there is more room in the kitchen.

• Easy Access to China & Glassware – Your nicer china and wine glasses are now on display with the open shelving look. That certainly make it much easier for you and guests to help you set the table for dinner are pour their own glass of wine. If you like to show off the quality products you own, this trend is great for you. You may need to upgrade the china and wine glasses though if the original service ware has not been well maintained. Other kitchen accessories that often make it to the shelving are containers for sugar, tea, pitchers and flower vases. 
• Motivation to Minimize – Open shelving might give you the needed motivation to scale down on the extra dishes, accessories, cookware and glassware and figure out what you really need.
• More Cost Effective – Most of our clients that have expressed an interest in open shelving in their kitchens ended up going with a blend of both open and closed kitchen cabinetry. There were many useful kitchen items that they did not want out on display but were not willing to do without. But just by switching to less cabinet space, we were able to save on both cabinet making costs and installation costs.

Custom Kitchen Cabinets Design Has its Advantages 

• Shows Your Mess – Enclosed cabinets hide a lot more than people like to admit! Not everyone raising a family and juggling a full-time job has time to keep everything sparkling clean all the time. That can be a job in itself. And then when you do have some friends over for a little entertaining, they get to see all the dust that may have collected…embarrassing? Plus, if your favorite cookware and casserole dished are used as they are intended, they are impossible to keep in pristine shape. 
• The Breakage Factor – While tucking your things securely away in a cabinet seems quite stable, you may cringe when putting up fragile dishes and glassware on shelves…especially if you live is a zone of the country that see some rough weather. A closed cabinet door helps you to breath more easily when dealing with fragile glassware and tall glass pitchers.
• Exposure to Cooking Particles – I cook for my family a few times per week and even though we eat health conscious meals, the olive oil, vegetable oil and other cooking particulates make their way into the air that surround the stove top. Our refrigerator, dishwasher and other appliances also produce their own form of residue that ends up falling on the items we have exposed on kitchen shelves. That is just going to happen more with open shelving. So the kitchen designs with open shelving we employ today takes that in mind when laying out our designs. 

Kitchen Remodeling Ideas That Blends Both