Open shelving in kitchen

[DawnM]

We have an area of our kitchen with open shelving.   The 70" desk, which is off to the side of the kitchen (not in the cooking area), has an open shelf area above it.   It drives me crazy!   No doors at all.

I want to store my things I don't use that often in there.   Party platters, pitchers, that sort of thing.    But they dont' all look pretty and I really just want that area to be utilitarian and not decorative.

We will be tearing that cabinet out within 2 years as we will redo that area of the kitchen, but right now it is fairly low on the list of priorities.

I am going to check with Habitat this week, but so far I have not found any cabinet doors that will fit, look ok in there, and can tide us over.

I really don't like the look of curtains to hide things in the kitchen, but what other options do I have?

We do not have time to make anything right now, so that isn't going to happen.   

Any ideas?   I have been scouring Pinterest and I can only find curtains and DIY doors.   And any open shelving decoration ideas are decorative and not utilitarian.   

 

 

[DawnM]

oh, and we priced doors at the box stores and it is going to be around $400, which seems ridiculous for something we will toss in a couple of years, so we aren't going that route.

[HomeAgain]

Have you considered something like a Roman shade?  Not quite a curtain, there's a cleaner look to it.  My other option would be to build simple frames in the right size, staple a piece of fabric to the inside on the back, and hang them as doors.

 

I hate open shelving, too.  We have one set in the kitchen and I use baskets to contain everything.  But it's a smaller area than what you seem to be working with.

[DawnM]

10 minutes ago, HomeAgain said:

Have you considered something like a Roman shade?  Not quite a curtain, there's a cleaner look to it.  My other option would be to build simple frames in the right size, staple a piece of fabric to the inside on the back, and hang them as doors.

 

I hate open shelving, too.  We have one set in the kitchen and I use baskets to contain everything.  But it's a smaller area than what you seem to be working with.

I was trying not to build anything.   Shades.....I will take a look.   Thanks for the suggestion.

Baskets might be an option as well.  I will see what I can find.

[busymama7]

6 hours ago, DawnM said:

I was trying not to build anything.   Shades.....I will take a look.   Thanks for the suggestion.

Baskets might be an option as well.  I will see what I can find.

What about the bins designed for cube shelves? They are pretty big and could hold a lot. And hide it. 

[SKL]

I was going to suggest bins or decorative document boxes.  I have some from Michaels that I use for random papers.  I also have plain white ones that I got from office max.

[DawnM]

34 minutes ago, busymama7 said:

What about the bins designed for cube shelves? They are pretty big and could hold a lot. And hide it. 

our shelves are pretty set, and are fairly narrow, so I don't think those will work. I have a few cubes and they don't fit.

30 minutes ago, SKL said:

I was going to suggest bins or decorative document boxes.  I have some from Michaels that I use for random papers.  I also have plain white ones that I got from office max.

Yeah, I have some from Target that might work.   

The other thing I thought of today is that I may just move all the stuff from the cabinet with the glass (mostly pretty fiesta ware that is more of the serving dish stuff) and then put the film on the glass to hide what is already in there.

I am also getting a China Cabinet, found a free one today that should match our current nice Ethan Allen set fairly well.   I will use that for some things as well, which will help with the clutter.

Sure wish I didn't have to go to work tomorrow.  I would like to keep tackling the garage and the kitchen areas now taht I am somewhat motivated.

[Carol in Cal.]

You probably won't like this idea, but I have a friend who wanted to redo her kitchen cabinets and while she was saving up to do this, she hung dishtowels over the front of each one.  These dishtowels were from all the places she had ever travelled to, and so they were a real conversation piece.  They looked unconventional but attractive.

Another thing you might consider is putting the prettiest stuff in front.  You could even prop up a decorative platter in front of a stack of less attractive ones.

My own inclination would be to use totes from 31 gifts.  That would have the advantage that it would be easier to take a tote down with, say, 3 pitchers in it, and carry it where I needed to use them, and then stash it back in place--having carrying handles is really nice.

[DawnM]

20 minutes ago, Carol in Cal. said:

You probably won't like this idea, but I have a friend who wanted to redo her kitchen cabinets and while she was saving up to do this, she hung dishtowels over the front of each one.  These dishtowels were from all the places she had ever travelled to, and so they were a real conversation piece.  They looked unconventional but attractive.

Another thing you might consider is putting the prettiest stuff in front.  You could even prop up a decorative platter in front of a stack of less attractive ones.

My own inclination would be to use totes from 31 gifts.  That would have the advantage that it would be easier to take a tote down with, say, 3 pitchers in it, and carry it where I needed to use them, and then stash it back in place--having carrying handles is really nice.

The shelves aren't tall enough to put dishes upright.   Everything is just out and visible.   These shelves are narrower than a regular cabinet as I believe they were meant to be more like bookshelves.    They are on the wall above the built in desk.

I don't think dish towels would work, I would need about 12 of them and they wouldn't hang right with the sizes needed, but that sounds like an interesting idea.

 

[Pam in CT]

Under the circumstances I think I'd look for square or rectangle rope/hemp baskets. I dunno what your shelf depth/colors are, but there are many variations of these.

 

[katilac]

I hate open shelves in the kitchen - well, in my kitchen. I've seen open shelves that look amazing or at least attractive, but lovely open shelves are definitely aspirational for me vs reality. 

Still, if I didn't have bins and boxes that would work, I'd probably just wait it out. I might test my luck at the thrift store every now and again, but buying nice bins to fit a space that isn't long for this world would make me twitch. Those buggers are expensive. 

 

[Laura Corin]

I hate open shelves because everything (that's not used constantly) gets greasy.  I would only ever put things on open shelves that could go into the dishwasher or were used daily.

In your situation, I would flip and put your most-used things there - your daily crockery, for example.  Which would look functional and purposeful.

[KungFuPanda]

Big baskets?

[DawnM]

3 hours ago, Laura Corin said:

I hate open shelves because everything (that's not used constantly) gets greasy.  I would only ever put things on open shelves that could go into the dishwasher or were used daily.

In your situation, I would flip and put your most-used things there - your daily crockery, for example.  Which would look functional and purposeful.

Well, the other issue is that it is not in a handy area of the kitchen.   Think long kitchen area where one area is the eat in area.   The eat in area has a table and chairs, but on one wall is the desk with open shelving on top.   On the other wall is the sliding glass door to go outside.   The other wall is the door to the laundry room and the stairs to go up to the bonus room and the door to the garage.

So, it is a bit out of the kitchen and requires going around the peninsula area and walk into the other area to get, so things I need to grab and put away daily won't really work there.

[DawnM]

After standing in my kitchen for way too long this weekend and thinking, I think for now I will just use the shelves as decorative.   This weekend I got a China Cabinet.   I plan to put the serving pieces in there as well as my mom's dishes, placemats, and table decor.

That will free up cupboard space and we will just make do until we fix it.   I just don't want to put $$ into it if we are planning to rip it out.

I thought of fabric and a little curtain rod, but I don't care for that look.

However, I have been looking at decorated cabinets where they wallpaper the back panel.   This might be a perfect opportunity to play around with that and learn how to do it.

[Pam in CT]

with this additional information...

[Pam in CT]

57 minutes ago, DawnM said:

Well, the other issue is that it is not in a handy area of the kitchen.   Think long kitchen area where one area is the eat in area.   The eat in area has a table and chairs, but on one wall is the desk with open shelving on top.   On the other wall is the sliding glass door to go outside.   The other wall is the door to the laundry room and the stairs to go up to the bonus room and the door to the garage.

So, it is a bit out of the kitchen and requires going around the peninsula area and walk into the other area to get, so things I need to grab and put away daily won't really work there.

YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY BOOKS

[Laura Corin]

3 hours ago, DawnM said:

Well, the other issue is that it is not in a handy area of the kitchen.   Think long kitchen area where one area is the eat in area.   The eat in area has a table and chairs, but on one wall is the desk with open shelving on top.   On the other wall is the sliding glass door to go outside.   The other wall is the door to the laundry room and the stairs to go up to the bonus room and the door to the garage.

So, it is a bit out of the kitchen and requires going around the peninsula area and walk into the other area to get, so things I need to grab and put away daily won't really work there.

I don't know how you organise eating, but we would keep plates, glasses and bowls on the shelves, near the table.  Serving dishes would be in the cooking area.

[DawnM]

27 minutes ago, Laura Corin said:

I don't know how you organise eating, but we would keep plates, glasses and bowls on the shelves, near the table.  Serving dishes would be in the cooking area.

We don't use our serving dishes unless we have company for the most part.   We serve ourseves at the stove and then go sit down, still in the pots.   Then we put the leftovers in containers.

Putting them away would be a pain.   Right now, they go from the dishwasher directly to the cupboard above it and no walking back and forth around things.

But I will play around a bit and if I hate the set up, I will switch it around.

 

Thanks

[DawnM]

3 hours ago, Pam in CT said:

YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY BOOKS

True, although we have 12 feet of bookshelves on the office wall for books.