Should You Choose Open Shelving in a Kitchen Design?

Kitchen renovation and design can be intimidating—and exciting! Open shelving is a big trend, which you already know if you’ve been searching for dream kitchen ideas. Should you go for it?

As an experienced home remodeling company in Chicago, we have quite a few luxury kitchen designs under our belt that take full advantage of floating shelves.

Keep reading our top 5 reasons to choose open kitchen shelves! Plus, real-world inspiration from our own design portfolio.

#1 Get a Bright & Airy Feel

If you’re stuck with a small or windowless kitchen, incorporating open shelving instantly creates a lighter, bigger, and airy-feeling space. It’s because the simple lines of a wall shelf take up less visual space than wall-to-wall kitchen cabinets.

#2 Be Functional & Stylish

Open shelves are a two for one—they’re both functional and easy on the eyes. With a well-designed kitchen using open shelves, you can easily increase your storage options, and transform your kitchen into the most stylish corner of your home. Functional serving bowls and vintage cookbooks can easily live alongside a cheery house plant!

#3 Open Shelving as a Showcase

Handmade ceramics or your beautiful matching dishware don’t deserve to be hidden behind secretive cabinet doors, right? Floating shelves are a perfect place to display and enjoy your dishware on an everyday basis. The result? A kitchen design with layers of personality and character.

#4 Have an Organized Kitchen

With items in full view, keeping a kitchen organized becomes a breeze. Every item you have, whether it’s a mug or your Bodum coffee maker, has a place and home where it lives when not in use. For those who cook a lot at home, you’ll find that this ease of organization makes for an even more pleasurable kitchen to cook in!

#5 A Gracious Kitchen for Guests

Have you ever been a house guest on the hunt for a coffee mug, and literally opened every cabinet before finding one in the very last one? And you haven’t even had coffee yet? Don’t worry, we’ve all been there.

Open shelving makes it so, SO much easier for guests to find what they need, and feel more comfortable in your kitchen and home.

Looking for even more kitchen design advice? Click through these!

• 10 Open Shelving Ideas for Your Kitchen
• Pros and Cons of the Top 5 Kitchen Layouts 
• 6 Kitchen Design Updates That Will Add Maximum Value to Your Home

Inspired yet? Feel free to share this article and portfolio, and give us call or submit a design inquiry if you’re interested in starting your own home remodel with us today!