I have some decorative open shelves in my kitchen, at the end of the peninsula and over another bit of counter. While very charming, they get very dusty. Two of them are above my eye level and ooh, as bad as the top of the fridge. Three are below the countertop, and while I use some of the items on there, I have to wash out the soup bowls before filling them.

Is your house so dusty because of construction projects?

I was totally dead-set against the idea of open shelves due to potential dust and grime until we decided to add some as a temporary test to see how well they work. The reason why we did it is that the wall cabinets crowded a window and I wanted to see if it looked better without them but we still needed some food storage. We put up shelves only about 5" deep, just the right size for mason jars with various foods. I LOVE them. Once every few weeks I do a quick wipe along the inch or so in front of the jars to remove dust so that isn't a big deal. The food in the jars are used often enough where the jars themselves haven't gotten dusty or grimy. I like a clean house but dislike cleaning so, if I found them more work, I wouldn't plan on keeping them.

I now think that open shelves are fine in most kitchens with one major caveat: the items stored on them should be items used regularly or you will have to continually clean the items on them before using them. But if your house is unusually dusty on a regular basis, maybe they wouldn't work for you at all?

Funky, or if one has cats!

I love them for certain things. We have 10" wide ones to the right of our hood to hold are most commonly used oils and spices. We wanted to avoid cabs on both sides to keep it more open but needed storage. Ours aren't the prettiest but so convenient. We also had a weird archway door into our front closet that we closed with plywood on the back, put shelves in, and turned it into between the studs type storage. It holds lots of mason jars for nearly all of our dry goods. I wouldn't store dishes on them because i would just have to rewash everything and this drought doesn't seem likely to end!

Maybe an air purifier would help with the dustiness. Too bad someone doesn't make a clutter purifier. I'd like one of those for my house.

We're just dusty because we're near the ocean and do keep our windows open during the day. I had to make shoulder guards for my clothes because my suit shoulders were getting destroy by dust even though they're inside a walk in closet. Vacuuming your suits before wearing them is not a fun chore.

@funky I think we're just lucky and not due to construction because the workers only started coming back today. I've been cleaning for two weeks while I grouted and seal in my spare time.

@laughable we do have a whole house air purifier. I should try running it more often.

I'm going to attemp ONE open shelf in the laundry room. I figure I can always ninja swipe/clean whenever I use the sink in there.

You didn't mention if you have pets. For certain, if you have pets, you will find stray pet hairs in cups or bowls stored on open shelving. For us pet people, this may be just a "shrug so what, give it a rinse". Others, like your guests, may not be happy to see that.

From the tone of your OP, it sounds like you are stressing about it when it isn't even installed yet. That's a red flag to me that you won't like open shelving.

I love my open shelving and my plate rack. I wipe the lower shelves about once a week as I'm putting away the glasses and dishes I store on them. I normally wipe down my drawers and cabinets about once a week as well. The upper shelf is mostly used for decorative items and things like my tagine pot which I don't use often. I only dust this one every couple of months.

I don't find the shelves to be overly dusty and they are always orderly. My family is not the neat type, but for some reason they are putting the things that belong on the shelving away properly.

I like that they act as art on the walls of my all white kitchen which I think adds interest to the area and makes it feel warm and welcoming.

I would never go back to having cabinets on the walls.

Dust can also be a factor of where you live. The house I grew up in was on a large property on a gravel road. Even though the distance between road and house was greater than most city lots, the dust came in drifts. My mother had a mug rack on the wall (it was the 70s, after all...) and she was always warning us to rinse or wipe mugs before using.

Since we just built The Cabbage (cabin/cottage), I'm still planting the gardens and lawn, and this past summer was very dry, thus lots of bare dirt. We also have a long, gravel driveway, so we had dust galore before the rain came (now we have mud galore, lol). Everything, even that which is in the cupboards, gets dusty, but I like my open storage so I just plan on a little extra cleaning.

This is a case of knowing yourself and planning accordingly. If dust and extra work bugs you, it doesn't matter how stylish it is -- don't do it.

I live in Utah and i don't know if it's the super low humidity or what but every home I've lived in here gets so dusty so quickly. I really thought hard about open shelving where my range wall ends into the sink/window wall but I knew it would be a pain to dust up there in the corner. There will be a shelf over the window for my collection of Villeroy + Boch Design Naïf plates, though.