Verlie Feeney
The open shelving trend is all the rage right now, but that doesn’t mean everyone should do it in their kitchen. If you like the industrial look, then you’ll want to embrace an open shelves design as a part of your kitchen storage solution.
You could have some cabinets and some open shelves for the best of both worlds, and it would look natural in an industrial design theme. Then buy black pipes and use them to build your support brackets for the wood plank. These help your kitchen to feel bright by reflecting light, and they are also easy to take care of because you can simply wipe them down. You’ll also find that stainless steel shelving is the most sanitary option because it’s non-porous.
Commercial-grade metal is also thicker and stronger, making it less likely to scratch or dent. A floating shelf is one that looks like it’s hung on the wall without any visual way of supporting it. The modern trend is to replace the cabinets with floating kitchen shelves. Be careful if you decide to rip out all of your cabinets and replace them with floating shelves.
The first dilemma is that there’s nothing protecting your flatware or other kitchen items from the grease and other food particles that can get into the air while cooking. For a craftsman, rustic, or farmhouse kitchen, you could choose a wood bracket.
Luxury or elegant kitchens could have brackets that are gold with lots of intricate designs built into them. Your lower cabinets will have a countertop placed on top of them, which creates the work surface in your kitchen.
Look for ways to use modern innovations to create more storage out of the typical dead space in the kitchen cabinet set up. The most common spaces in the corners are hard to reach, dark, and often become either unused or the place where kitchen appliances go to die. If you have high ceilings, then you have plenty of space for shelves over the counters that are not against the wall. You can then use the space to display decor or attractive cooking tools like copper pots.
You could have corner shelves that are triangular shaped and fit into a dead space that isn’t currently used. If you live in a rented home, your landlord may not want you making holes in the walls. To keep your kitchen feeling open, look for a shelving unit that doesn’t have sides or doors. It also makes it the perfect spot for displaying some of your favorite kitchen decor.
This doesn’t mean you have to completely give up on open kitchen shelves. You could incorporate a single open shelf or a couple of shelves into your kitchen design.
If neither of these ideas work, consider adding an open shelf mounted to your upper cabinets’ underside. This lets you have several storage solutions for specific items, like a spice rack, glassware, mugs, or cookbooks. For others, it’s a shallow space that opens wide with full-sized closet doors. For the luckiest of homeowners, the pantry is a walk-in space with maximum kitchen storage.
Look for a storage system that fits the space, work for your organizational style, and can hold the things you need. The only thing that you want to look out for is possible injury hazards such as splinters, sharp edges, or pieces of old metal hardware that could accidentally cut someone.
You may have one long shelf that runs your kitchen’s entire length or several independent shorter shelves. To maximize your storage space, your shelves need to match the items you need to store on them. Another option is to create a series of narrow shelves that each store a wine bottle on its side.
