Open shelves for kitchens have been the focus of interior designers’ attention for decades: many love floating kitchen shelves dearly, while others avoid them. Despite ups and downs in their popularity, kitchen wall shelves represent one of the coolest elements of the interior. Are shelves suitable for all kitchens? How to use them properly to meet your individual requirements? As you’ve probably guessed, open shelving is in the limelight of today’s article.
Floating Shelves in a Kitchen: Evergreen Trend or Cast-Off?
In fact, shelves in kitchen have never been out of trend. Before shelves were associated with kitchens in farmhouse style but now they’re successfully used to complement interiors accomplished in minimalist, high-tech, or shaker styles.
Whether you create the interior from a sketch or think of kitchen remodeling, floating shelves act as a supplementary design element that might enlarge space visually, keep easy access to some items, or highlight a collection of rustic plates.
Open shelves integrate perfectly with classic cabinets or replace some of them. Custom-made open shelving can be incorporated into any kitchen, increasing functionality and adding personality. Yet still, shelves aren’t liked by everyone as they have a couple of drawbacks you should be ready for.
Floating Shelves: Pros and Cons
Are you really into house chores or prefer design solutions with minimum maintenance? You need to answer this question before the decision to add open shelves to the interior. Why? Because before you opt for installing open shelving, you’d better know all the benefits and downsides of installing floating kitchen shelves.
Pros:
- Help in creating more open space and let the kitchen look airy.
- A variety of designs and materials that fit into almost any interior. Whether you wish to display magnificent dishware or arrange a place for your favorite indoor plants, you have multiple options for shelves themselves and placement variants. Heavy-duty or narrow, wooden or metal — shelves help to create an elegant and visually appealing environment with authentic vibes.
- Inexpensive. Unless you consider gold-plated silver shelves, most materials won’t cost you a fortune. Open shelves are quite inexpensive compared to classic cabinets; moreover, they can transform ther kitchen into a sleek yet unique and welcoming space at much lower costs.
- Can be used in areas where closed cabinets won’t work. Awkward corners, space underneath cabinets, or between cabinets — a custom-designed shelf will refresh the space adding elegance and an authentic feel.
- Can serve as a display for your collection of decorative glassware, cookbooks, candles, or beloved indoor plants.
Cons:
- Require regular cleaning as they collect dust. Well, you’ll have to remove dust weekly or even more often and clean displayed items regularly to ensure the kitchen looks clean and organized.
- Limited storage capabilities compared to classic cabinets. You’d better keep this aspect in mind if you plan to replace cabinets with shelves during a kitchen renovation.
- Aren’t suitable for storing heavy items. Typically, a kitchen hanging shelf is perfect for some lightweight décor or displaying several plates/antique cups you are proud of. However, its mount attachments (anchors) aren’t meant for heavy loads.
- Don’t look attractive when cluttered. Well, this might be a solid reason to stay organized; otherwise, overloaded shelves will look untidy and messy.
Tip: If you wish to demonstrate your cookbook or handmade clay pot collections but you’re worried about dust accumulation, glass-front cabinets might be an option: you can still demonstrate your possessions but they are protected from dust by glass doors.
Floating Shelves in Kitchen: Placement Options
The best thing about floating kitchen shelves is that shelves can be of almost any size. You can fill in an empty corner and use it for candles or antiques. An open shelf over the countertop can be used for a spice set. What size is the best for shelves in kitchen? Actually, the decision is up to you. Generally, 10-12” shelves can fit most glassware or décor.
The choice of length and height for shelves depends on your goal: if functionality is the priority, shelves can give easy access to daily used mugs and plates; if you’re more into décor, use them as an exhibition booth.
You can find ready-to-use shelves with hooks in the lower part or install hooks into wooden shelves to hang mugs, kitchen utensils, or dry herbs (lavender, rosemary, etc.)
Remember that the fewer objects you place on shelves, the tidier and more organized the entire space looks.
Recent years are marked with nature-focused design trends and an environment-friendly approach: natural color palettes and natural materials are in high demand. Hence, if you consider remodeling and lean toward the idea of wood-color laminate or natural stone/tile flooring, a wooden shelf for kitchen will blend in ideally.If you still have doubts, contact Groysman Construction: headquartered in San Diego, we provide a free estimation of your project and ensure top-grade quality performance. List through our portfolio of kitchen renovation projects for inspiration – we can turn your ‘dream kitchen’ into reality.
